Why a “Year of Plenty?”

Today is Tuesday, September 3, 2019. This is Chris, Elaine’s husband.

One week ago, I left a job that I had for eight years, and started a new job as a data analyst at a sustainability consulting firm in Dallas. I did that job for five days, and then – I quit. This morning I walked into work, dropped off my laptop, told my boss that I needed to quit, and walked out. Of course, that’s not the whole story.

I never thought I could be the kind of person that would do something like this. I stayed at a job that wasn’t really my cup of tea for eight whole years, because my family and I are pretty risk averse. So what happened?

The new job that I took felt like it made sense on so many levels. It offered mobility, retirement options, basically free healthcare, the works. It was also one of those “cool” modern offices with beer on tap, standing desks, and you could even bring your dog to work.

Unfortunately, the reality of the job was not at all what we expected. My commute meant I was driving for nearly two and a half hours per day. Because of the culture of the office, I was expected to get in early and leave late, which meant I wasn’t able to see our kids for more than 30 or 45 minutes before they had to get in bed. While I was home, I felt physically incapable of giving my family time or energy.

By Wednesday, I didn’t see how this could possibly be sustainable for us. The values that the new job required of me did not at all align with the values that we have for our family.

And then, something a little bit magic (or maybe just crazy) happened.

Simplicity, Reimagined

On Saturday, Elaine had a client meeting to discuss an upcoming photo shoot. When she came home, she had a payment in her hand that was almost exactly equal to the paycheck that I received for my week at our new job. If we count all of my time away from home, that means I would have to work 120 hours to make what Elaine will make in about 20. Not to mention the fact that for nearly all of that time is spent at home. For the past four years, Elaine has cooked, cleaned, homeschooled, and managed Lane B Photography.

Then, we began to look at our monthly expenses. We realized that if we decide to live more simply, we could live entirely on Elaine’s income alone. It might be up some months, it might be down some months. But our needs can be met with the money we make from Lane B. And we also think that Elaine’s business can be better – that she can grow creatively, and do more and better work – if I help with managing the “business” side of Lane B Photography. While it’s not a guarantee, we think our income from the business can increase, and we can be in an even better financial position.

But ultimately, we came to a simple conclusion: if we simplify our lives, we can be together. It doesn’t mean we won’t have to work and change how we think about our daily lives. It doesn’t mean there won’t be difficulties in the future. By taking this step, we think we’ll have the opportunity to live out some of our core values in a way that we haven’t been able to in the past. What are those values?

1. Time – we value time over money, always. Obviously this is a give and take – we have to work to make money, to live, to eat, etc. But if we can choose our family, we want to choose that first.
2. Simplicity – we value time over things, and over luxury. As I began to make more money over the last few years, we experienced the classic “lifestyle creep” that comes with increasing income. This meant fancier dinners, eating out when we felt like it, and buying basically anything that we wanted. Ultimately, our question became “Am I really working extra so we can buy more things and eat fast food and fancy dinners?”
3. Equality – we value sharing responsibility over traditional gender roles. Working at the new job would have frequently led to the expectation that Elaine would take care of the house and the kids, and I would bring home the money. That’s not how we think about our marriage, and it’s not what I want for our family. We want to see ourselves as equal partners in our relationship, and that includes family and home responsibilities.
4. Rest – we value rest over busy-ness. Taking this step will allow us to slow down, and relish what we really value. We may not be able to spend money on trips or experiences or eating out as often, but we will have the opportunity to be flexible and give each other and the girls the chance to not just be “busy” all the time. We don’t want to be a busy family. Rather, we want to be a healthy, joyful, caring family.

So, this is it. We are taking a leap towards the unknown. Tangibly, our main goals are to simplify our lives by spending a lot less money. While we know Elaine’s business will actually generate more income than this, we have a tangible goal of spending no more than $40,000 in the next 365 days. This includes mortgage, food, bills, and insurance. Those of you who know me and Elaine know we like to take on big challenges. This is the biggest challenge we’ve ever taken on for our family.

We want to use this space to discuss where we’re at on that journey. Sometimes, we’ll share what we’re doing this week. Other times, we’ll share new recipes that we find enjoyable. Sometimes, we’ll be up front and honest about our spending for the month. No matter what, we want to show that we have more than what we need, and we want others to find inspiration from what we’re doing. All of us can have full, satisfying, beautiful lives, and we don’t need to join the rat race to lead a happy and fulfilling life.

We’re calling this our Year of Plenty.