Heavy Sigh
After a long discussion and an evaluation of my finances I made a really tough decision yesterday.
Because my employment outlook is uncertain and bleak and this vacation was going to basically eat up my entire short term savings I cancelled the Greece trip.
I was able to recover my frequent flyer miles (140,000) and use my travel insurance to cover the cancellation fees on the sailboat trip. I am "out" the boat trip costs but I'm feeling strongly this is the right move.
J gets a lot of credit for asking tough questions, but being adamant that any decision I made was about my financial situation and not about him or his desire for me to be home. I talked it over with my trusted advisor Becky who is equally passionate about travel and about practical financial decisions and she helped me calm the swirling thoughts.
Its not easy to decide not to go, and it is a dissapointment but the idea of spending my savings right now just feels wrong. We were also told yesterday that the new company will tell us what our compensation packages are going to be by the end of the week. Everything is on the table for adjustment....vacation time, seniority, insurance, salary. Its true that my being here will have no influence on that whatsoever but if the package is meager I've protected myself in the short term. If the package is adequate but I'm only employed for a short period I've got some cushion. If the promote me to CEO I'll buy the country of Greece and go in the future.
I'm still going to take the next week off because I need time to decompress. I'll be in town and will likely be doing house stuff. I'm considering putting my condo on the market. If its going to take six to nine months to sell it may be time to get started. Its just an idea at this point. And, with that kind of a timeline there's time to adjust the path if my life plan goes awry.
I'm not really sure I want to share my entire thought process with the work people but I need to tell them something. I will be coming back to work earlier than planned and the will likely notice. I'm tempted to leave my out of office message at the three week mark so people will seek out answers vs save their needs for me.
I'm sad, but also have some relief that I'm doing the smart thing. (Being an adult is a bitch sometimes.)
I'll be mostly on cell phone the next week and a half. Feel free to call.
- TP
3 comments:
This sucks for us raccoons. It looks like this financial crisis is going to start hitting us where we live . . . well, where we want to live.
Have fun not in Greece and I guess we'll have fun *not* nesting all throughout your condo.
Humans suck.
I think your decision is wise. Not only because you've thwarted the nefarious plans of Peter's raccoon friend, but also because you are probably right not to want to spend your nest egg right now. Although I am confident that my new bank, JP Morgan Chase, will quickly realize how indispensable you are, it's good for you to be prepared just in case they're idiots.
And Greece isn't going anywhere.
Hey, sorry about your trip. Sucks to have to act responsibly sometimes. We're tightening our belts in my home too. :( You can make fun elsewhere, I'm sure.
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