Holy crap I actually did it! I gave my two weeks’ notice at my comfortable corporate finance job and am stepping into my new career as a full time author. Barring any massive writers block, that should mean two or even three new books a year, and not just one when I had to punch the clock in the office.

I’m not sure who is really going to care about the why of my decision, but I think putting it all down will be healthy for meat least.

The Job:
To be honest, I feel a bit guilty at being so unhappy while working for a good company (Wells Fargo), with good people (mostly), and earning a good salary, bonus, benefits, etc. The thing is, I’ve worked in corporate finance since I graduated college in 1998; 18+ years to spare you the mental math.

At first there was lots to learn, then promotions to achieve , but now in middle management there is just corporate politics. One department pissing all over the next to gain standing; seriously, its like watching a really bad German porno. Then there are good people being let go and their workloads pushed onto the survivors. Rinse, repeat.

There was no big event that led to my decision, rather it was like the old story of the frog and a pot. If you turn up the temperature a little at a time, the frog won’t notice until he is good and cooked. Color me green then, because I was cooking there at the end; for sure.

The accident:
We started the year in the worst possible way with my 12 year old daughter fracturing her pelvis in 4 places. Odd as it might sound, walking the dog while wearing roller skates is indeed a BAD combination. Long story short, she was flung into the street as a construction vehicle came by and rolled over her midsection. Yes it was every bit as horrifying as you can imagine. Worst day of my life to that point, with the day my father died six years earlier as a close second. Per the X-rays, had the tire been an inch higher she would never have walked again.

By the grace of everything good in the world, following three surgeries, 4 months spent immobile in bed, 2 months in a wheelchair, and several months of physical therapy, she is good as new. I’m not even exaggerating there. Just last weekend, 8 months after the accident, she placed third in her age group in a kids triathlon and she is doing some insane feats of balance and strength in her martial arts classes. Amazing! You and I would have just learned to walk different after that kind of trauma.

The other accident:
I didn’t think anything could match the day of my daughter’s accident until I got home from work on June 3rd where two officers awaited my arrival to inform me that my mother had been killed in a car accident while traveling to visit family in North Dakota. No body’s fault, pretty much just fate kicking me right in the ding-ding for a laugh I suppose.

Two months spent with funeral arrangements, insurance companies, estate lawyers, probate courts, and clearing out my childhood home to sell to the highest bidder was…nope…still can’t find the right words. It was at least 20 hours of work per week along with all the emotions, on top of the proverbial German porn flick that was my day job, to get through that particular stretch of my personal hell. I can’t – not – recommend the experience enough. It all left me burned out beyond all recognition.

Financial Security:
Stepping away from a nice, steady paycheck takes either a great big set of balls or some solid financial security. Now I will take chances in my life, but not with my family’s well being, so it was financial security for me. Since 2003 I have owned and operated single family houses as rental properties. The first book I ever wrote was about that whole experience, but it was god-awful and I will never inflict that work upon the world

Over the years my wife and I got up to 13 properties and have held onto that bucking bronco of a business over the years until the loans on them started to get paid off. While not a massive fortune, my mother’s estate pushed us over the finish line of paying off the houses to the point that my paycheck is no longer needed. Income from the books will be extra icing on the cake.

That is really it. I’ve retired to follow my passion into a second career that has taken me some seven years to develop. Bring on the challenge, I am ready and eager.