It took a while to get back on my feet after the last redundancy, but I managed to get some contract IT work to cover the bills and although it wasn't great pay and barely covered rent and travel, I added another couple of hundred to the pot, bringing the total to £25,463.40. Not great, but it's something at least. It felt like I was in survival mode the whole of last year.
I did try my hand at starting a business on the side, but really struggled to find anyone who wanted to work with me (and I can't afford to pay anyone). I don't know that many techie people where I am, and those that I do know are already very busy working for someone else. So that quickly fell apart. I'd love to run my own company one day, as there are so many things I want to build that I need extra hands to help with. But until I manage to raise a lot more funds from PAYE work, it seems that I'm destined to work for other people and focus on investing as best I can.
Which is fine, I guess. I'm back to full time work now, albeit still not on brilliant money. I can never seem to get past minimum-ish wage for long, despite having all the skills that employers apparently love and being a happy workaholic. But it has forced me to learn how to stretch every single penny as far as it will go. If I ever did manage to get a well paid job, I'm not sure I would know how to spend all that extra money!
