This part of my life probably deserves an entire book, but for now I will try to sum it up here…

As you may know from the “About” page, I hailed from Moldova, a small Eastern European country, at the age of eleven, and one of the first things I did in this prosperous country was to have brain surgery. All is well that ends well. I went on to conquer school and my social life as a foreigner with half my hair missing. My hardest subject to get through was always English, so naturally, the deep yearning to become a writer developed. 

I didn’t have the chops or the know-how or anyone in the biz or the parents who could support my dreams. Instead, I got a bachelor’s in psychology, got married and annulled it within two months, and then met a man who promised to fulfill my writing dreams. Following his plan, instead of my own, three years later, at twenty-four, I was a hundred grand in debt. I was forced to enter the world of day jobs instead of pursuing a career I truly wanted. That was my introduction into adulthood. 

Unlike, MMM who had the foresight to start saving and investing in his early twenties and retire at thirty, I only got out of debt at thirty. I spent most of my twenties getting the real education in life. I primarily learned the financial things to be avoided – starting businesses by using credit cards and then not paying them off, selling fake things and then gambling away a forty-percent interest loan to try to pay back people, all the while not working. The most important financial lesson that I’ve learned during this time was – STAY AWAY FROM LOVERS WHO WILL SUCK YOU DRY! 

After finally seeing that most of the above “great” financial ideas were not mine, I left the money-sapping relationship, got a job as a substitute teacher, and lived off $200 a month until I paid off all my debts. 

How did I manage to live off on such a small amount? 

I moved back home, I only ate the meals my mother made, except for the few occasions I went out with friends. I also started dating a musician-slash-waiter who knew all the right people (servers, bussers, doormen, bartenders) in all the right places (restaurants, bars, music events, house parties with BYOB). I got to live a full and exciting life in my twenties while spending barely anything. That was my first introduction to frugal living. (And no, that wasn’t the reason I dated him. Just a lucky coincidence).

Meanwhile, I continued writing screenplays, novels, and blogs; all of which didn’t pay. In my thirties, I became a singer-songwriter, and that didn’t pay either. Subbing was the only thing that paid, which allowed me to keep my work schedule flexible while paying off my debts and eventually start saving. It was enough to sustain my uber-frugal and creative life for fourteen years. I thought I could milk that all the way to retirement. Then COVID happened. Like for many people, it turned everything upside down. 

What was I doing with my life?

Writing and music could have taken another decade to pay something, if at all, and the subbing salary would always fall a bit too short. I wasn’t getting any younger, and if I wasn’t sharing rent, bills, and food with my husband, I wouldn’t be able to afford to live in Los Angeles on my own. Living in a tiny, dilapidated apartment with mold, a decade-old carpet our landlord wouldn’t change, and mice in the walls, and then working shoulder-to-shoulder in the telecommuting world of 2020 began to infuse cold, hard reality into our situation. After a little health scare, we moved to a much nicer and safer apartment and neighborhood of South Pasadena, which increased our rent and expenses, but also coincided with an increase in income.

With a much-needed upgrade came much-needed higher paying jobs. Thankfully, my husband got hired full time at a county job and I got a full time gig online, still as a substitute teacher. I knew that the cushy at-home job would come to an end sooner than I liked. At the time, my husband reassured me that he would be able to take care of us indefinitely. As much as I appreciated my husband’s generous sense of reassurance, my parents’ words of wisdom to “take care of yourself so that you could stand on your own” in case something ever happened shook me to the core. Well, something happened.

After living and working under the same roof and room for a year, my marriage began to experience its first bouts of trouble. Spending too much time together was not necessarily the reason for the troubles, but it didn’t help. I felt a strong need to stand on my own so that I could at least have a choice whether to stay or go. And I wasn’t going to be able to do that on a sub salary. 

At the end of 2020, I decided to try the intern teaching program that LAUSD was offering. I liked two things about it: the program was free, and I could work at the same time as receiving my credential. There was no way I was going to get myself into debt ever again. A free program was a winning proposition. In return, I would owe LAUSD 5 years of my life. Granted, I was not keen on owing anybody anything. So, the only way I could fathom trying this handcuffing solution to my life problem was by giving myself an out at every turn, as I describe in my 10-year-plan post. 

I’m also a big believer in things going your way if it’s meant to be. To my big surprise, the direction I chose was meant to be because I passed all the necessary tests from the first try, I got the assignment I wanted at a school I wanted, and I finished the program in three years instead of the projected four. 

While at school, I came across the FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) enthusiasts, as I wrote about before. The math showed me that between my frugal living and higher salary, I could reach FI (Financial Independence) much sooner than I anticipated. My goal is to make work choice somewhere between 45 and 50 years old. The range is dependent more on my personal life than the market or the math. The math tells me I can be free at 45. However, being raised cautious, and now being single, prolonging work could be a welcome relief. The RE (early retirement) part in FIRE is a choice that I will gladly would love to have the option to make.  

Of course, there is a lot more to the story than I just shared here, but I think this is a good start. Keep reading the blog to find out more… 

Feel free to share in comments: What’s your life story? Are you pursuing FIRE?