How Much Income I Generated In January 2017
I stopped working full-time over 4 months ago. There is still some adjustments I am transitioning through, going from a steady paycheck to sporadic work hasn’t been physically hard but a slight blow to my paycheck-ego.
Overall I took home $7,785 in January and worked around 50 hours the entire month. That’s an average hourly wage of $155. It’s ironic that I had to cut back on work in order to earn a higher hourly income.
I posted recent incomes here: December, November, October.
Remedy Medical
The majority of my income in January came from the consulting work I am doing for Remedy Medical. I have been keeping track of the amount of time I have spent working with them – the tally for January is 15 hours.
I had a take-home pay of $3,446 from Remedy, which means I made around $230/hour. This beats the pants off of the $93/hour I was earning at my old full-time Kaiser job.
I enjoy the work with Remedy, I am learning a lot about what it takes to get a well-funded startup off the ground. The app notifies me multiple times throughout the day when patients sign on to ask questions, which is a bit disruptive. However, it’s still manageable.
The owners sat down with me to discuss the potential of working full-time with them in the future. I expressed interest though I have no intention of going back to logging in 40-hour work weeks, the details have yet to be laid out.
There is this aura of freedom when the need for income decreases. I am now in a position where I can ask that my W2 income be converted to a 1099, that I will work whatever hours I choose, that I will accept a full-time contract as long as I get ownership in the business. It’s nice having options.
Just Answer
This has been a great source of income, though not very high, it’s steady. I earned $1,268 from JA for perhaps 6 hours of work. This comes out to a rate of $211/hour.
I enjoy the JA work, but because there are various metrics which I have to achieve, it seems that I have to put in a lot of customer service work for clients who are asking their specific medical questions.
What I enjoy is that I can sign on whenever I want, no interruptions, I answer questions whenever I feel like it and then sign off. Easy.
Kaiser Permanente
Yes, I still work for KP. They just sent me my official per diem contract since I will be switching to that role beginning of February. By deciding to go per diem I gave up on vesting in my pension plan, this is something I am okay with. I always have the option of returning and completing the years needed to vest.
The cost of walking away from my pension
I earned $2,727 of take-home from KP and I put in around 30 hours for the month, that’s a rate of $90/hour. I can’t complain, all I have to do is show up with scrubs, stethoscope and a badge.
I will continue doing work with KP because it’s the only place where I get direct patient contact. Most of the other work I do now is virtual and I don’t want to lose my skills of reassuring patients that they have a URI.
My Expenses
This hasn’t changed a whole lot. The only major change is that I will no longer have healthcare coverage through KP since I am switching over to becoming a per diem. It will cost me around $260/month to pay for this.
Purchasing my own health insurance
My food expenses have gone down drastically, which I didn’t anticipate. But because I am making most of my meals with all this time on my hands, I am able to make healthier foods for far less cost compared to dining out.
Commuting expenses have decreased. I spend less money on taking public transport to work and the occasional car rental for longer distances has completely stopped.