Where I’ve Been for the Past Two Years…

Oh, hey! It’s been a minute.

I logged into the back end of the website for Financial Flamingo earlier this week and was totally shocked. I’m not sure what I expected, but it wasn’t 3,911 unreviewed comments (that were mostly spam) and six notices to run various updates. Once I had waded through all of that, I took some time to look through old articles I’d written and think about the good old days of Financial Flamingo…

I’ve had an itch lately that I needed to come back to Financial Flamingo and just take a look. If not to get started back up, but just to remember where I had taken it. It was such a passion project and I was sad when I had to step away.

After taking a good look though… I decided it was a good time to pick Financial Flamingo back up. I’m not sure what that’s going to look like yet, but I figured a good place to start is sharing what’s happened over the past two years I’ve been away. A lot has changed and I think that is part of the reason why coming back is a good idea at this point in my life.

WHY I STOPPED WRITING FOR FINANCIAL FLAMINGO

I quickly want to mention why I stopped working on Financial Flamingo in the first place. I think the last blog post I published went up in August of 2020. Obviously, with the pandemic, that year was hard for a lot of people. I started to feel too much pressure to keep up with my day job and everything I was trying to do with Financial Flamingo.

I also felt a lot of pressure around my budget. I felt like I could never make a mistake or a slip-up because I was sharing my choices with everyone. It all became too much on top of my very demanding corporate job, so I just decided to take a break from Financial Flamingo… which ended up lasting until the time I publish this post, sometime in February of 2023.

I’ve come a long way and changed a lot of my mindsets since then, which I’ll talk about as I continue to share now that I’m back. Long story short, I burned myself out at work and with my business.

OH, HOW LIFE HAS CHANGED

So, what has changed since August of 2020?

Well, a lot has stayed the same. My boyfriend and I are still together (going on 11 years this year!) and we are still living in the same place in the same house. We still spend most of our time enjoying taking care of our animals, spending time outdoors, and generally living a quiet life.

 But some things have changed…

The biggest change, and best decision I’ve ever made for myself in my life, is that in April of 2021, I quit my job in public accounting.

The long hours and expectation to constantly be doing more, more, more finally got to me and I knew I wanted out. I started interviewing for jobs in March of 2021, but I actually ended up giving my notice and leaving in April – before I had another job lined up.

I ended up doing a second interview and accepting an offer on a job the week before I had my official last day at my old company. I’ve never regretted the decision, and I’m still with the same company almost two years later now!

Getting out of public accounting and into the healthcare industry has been the best choice I could’ve made. I actually do love what I do and never dread going to work. I’ve actually been promoted in the time I’ve been at my new company and have a clear career trajectory that I am excited about. And best of all, I leave work at work and don’t work 60-hour weeks.

This is why I think now is a great time to pick back up with Financial Flamingo – I have the time and a clear head outside of work. And I have financial goals I want to share while I work toward them.

WHAT WILL THE FUTURE OF FINANCIAL FLAMINGO LOOK LIKE?

I honestly don’t have a concrete answer to this question at this point. I know that I’ll be writing content regularly (though I haven’t set a schedule yet) and will be restarting my email newsletter. I will likely not be posting much on my YouTube channel – I’m not trying to burn myself out again. It will take me some time to plan content, as well as go through and update all my scheduled emails to make them relevant again.

My printable store is active again and I will be updating and revamping the items I have for sale out there. If you’re reading this article after March or April of 2023, then all of this is probably done and you won’t even notice that I was gone (hopefully!).

I am really looking forward to diving back into Financial Flamingo. It was always a project that let me be creative with my writing and work on things that truly helped other women improve their lives. I want to get back into that mindset again and feel like I am holding myself accountable to my goals while making a difference to others.

I hope you’ll join me on this new version of Financial Flamingo – new and improved!