Conquering the Fear!

From Jenna:

So far, the biggest challenge I've encountered is waking up and conquering the fear. It actually right now is even bigger than the challenge of paying the bills, because for now, we're still ok on that. But the uncertainty in the future - the desperation to make this work - that's the hardest thing so far. And being a new mom, I have a very scattered brain to begin with, and very little time to devote to thinking clearly or working without interruption to make significant headway on anything. The days seem to merge into one another and yet I look down at my son, lying on my lap as I type right now and realize that these moments with him are the best paychecks of all.

I reflect on all the times in my life so far where I felt more scared than ever, where things felt more desperate than ever, where the world was ending once again. And then I remember the sunrise that always follows where the clouds break and you can't believe it, but just before you emerges a way, a light, peace that you couldn't have predicted.

If someone asks me what my biggest crutch is, it's an easy answer - the amount that I worry. It's taken me from so many moments and that angers me, but yet it continues to occur. I want to teach my son to live without fear and I know the best way I can is to be the example.

So as I sit here and hold my breath, I am going to remember to reach for the oxygen mask that is hope, faith. It sounds so cliché, but really, is there anything else? There's so much in this life that is bigger than we are, bigger than all of us together. In the empty moments, in the moments just before the breath taking miracles occur, these things exist when we allow them to be, when we give them life.

I gave life to my son, and this in turn gave life to my heart. Now I must learn and teach us both how to nourish the unseen; knowing and believing with all my heart that these are the moments before the miracles.

Cutting the Budget!

From Jenna:

The first thing my husband and I did when we decided that I would be a stay at home / work from home mom was to seriously cut our budget. We ended up saving $500 off our monthly expenses. Here's some ideas that helped us do this:

• Refinancing our mortgage
  
• Increasing the deductible on homeowners and car insurance
  
• Start doing our own "dry cleaning"
  
• Decrease the amount of my personal money coming to me each month since I wouldn't have to be buying lunches out, etc.
  
• Less commute means less gas money!
  
• Removed "extras" from our cell phone package
  
• Cut down on entertainment money
  

Before we made this decision, I had been convinced that we were at our minimal household budget. There are always creative ways to continue to cut the budget though and I'm committed to finding new ones. The best way to do this is just to be really honest about what's important to you and budget only around those priorities. Everything else is trivial.

What this did essentially was to buy me more time. The less I was responsible for bringing into the household, the more time I could spend "out of work" and figuring out how to work from home instead.

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step".

Join us in our journey as we become work from home moms

Hi! We're Christina and Jenna and we're on a mission to be Stay at Home / Work from Home Moms! After a decade in the corporate workforce, we've officially retired and have set down the path to financial freedom! Refusing to be hindered and caged anymore by "the man", we have committed only to working for ourselves and allowing our families to share in the profits - not some strangers.

We should mention that we didn't have a plan prior to making this jump, and we don't have a parachute, but what we do have is determination to not fall.

Our motivation is simple. In the working world, the odds are not in your favor. It's like playing at the casino - one way or another, the house always wins. Often your loss is years, moments, days, and money that you just will never ever make up for. We're not willing to make that sacrifice anymore for a false sense of "security".

And no, we're not in denial. We have bills to pay, mortgages to make and children to support. There's never been a more important time to make ends meet. And there's also never been better motivation.

Our goal here is to honestly document all of our research, our motivation, and every step of our journey as to what works and what doesn't, for all of you out there trying to do the same.

The phrase "it's not personal, it's business" is about to die. It's all personal because this is your life. Our children, our husbands, our many blessings will now have the attention they deserve as we finally let go of the chains and start living the life we want. A new perspective is emerging and we are running towards it full speed!

Read on to see how it starts...