Well it has been a busy couple of days! I have spent time over at the Financial Samurai’s site responding to the comments from my guest post. Folks have been so supportive and they have added some great decision-making ideas as well! I am thrilled that a few people commented that they are using the process to make decisions.
I also have had some responses to the offer I made to do some “decision coaching” this week. I worked with a terrific reader who shared a decision question with me regarding the possibility of leaving employment to spend more time at home with her family. With only a few emails clarifying and broadening her decision question, she was able to make forward progress on her decision! You can read more about the importance of the decision question (Step 1) in Making Smart Decisions – A Short Version of the Process! It felt great to be helpful already!
My two most recent posts have been about a decision I am making this week! In Just Offered an Extended Job Contract – A New Decision Opportunity, I shared my latest life decision and showed you how I broadened the question. Then in The Extended Job Contract – Step 2, Defining Your Goals, I introduced you to means and end goals. I ended that post with a list of my ranked goals from the most to least important. One thing I wanted to point out is that in some decisions many of your goals will be numbers or values. We bought a car last year and used this process and the goals were based on cost, miles per gallon, maintenance costs, etc. Each decision is different, so your goals can look very different too!
We are on to Step 3 in my own decision dilemma now! It’s time to Generate Creative Options. I already have a list of ideas of how to generate the monthly income we need, but I need to remember to include anything I come up with at this point. I also want to talk to others to see if they have ideas I have not considered. Remember to use your resources here and don’t ignore any ideas. Gathering more information about the options you generate is also important in this step. The process will “weed out” ideas that do not meet your goals.
Today, I got more information about the full-time faculty job I was offered. At this point, it is a one-year contract that will likely be followed by a three-year contract. They also shared that there can be some flexibility in scheduling and in the types of courses I will teach (face-to-face, online, hybrid).
The possible options I can think of at this point to generate $3,000/month to address my decision question (and our financial obligations each month) include:
- Full-time Teacher Education faculty position (Me)
- Part-time Online Teaching/Education Consulting (Me)
- Some other type of Employment (Me and/or My Husband)
- No Employment – Use Savings/Investments/Rental Property Income
- Some combination of 2, 3 4, and/or 5
I really haven’t thought of many other options but I will seek out some advice from friends and family before I start considering the results. I can also do research to see what other employment I might consider and review our investments and rental property income reports to make sure my data are accurate.
In my next post, we will work through Step 4 – Creating the Results Table. This is where we “weigh” each option against the goals generated in Step 2.
Thanks so much for reading and if you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments or send me an email through the contact page.
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