Welcome to our second interview at wfh office! Today, we’re featuring Jane from Cash Fasting and you can also find her on Twitter with the handle @cashfasting.

This interview series on wfh office is all about highlighting the folks out there that are working hard from the comfort of their own homes and on their terms. So let’s get started and dive into the minds of the brilliant people who are making this happen.

1. Are you a full-time or part-time wfh employee? Are you self-employed or do you work for a company? If you can, tell us a bit about what you do and what you love about it.

I am a part-time WFH worker with a full-time job at a large company. By day, I crunch numbers. By night and on weekends, I blog at cash-fasting.com and also work on my brand new side gig. This side gig quite randomly fell into my lap a few months ago; an organization’s webmaster abruptly quit and they urgently needed someone to fill in. I had a familial connection with someone in the organization who referred me as someone to step in on an interim basis; apparently, my analytics job and blogging/social media experience were enough for them.

What do I love about it? It’s work that’s completely different from my day job, and the pay ain’t too bad, either.

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2. What is it about working from home that was so attractive to you?

I live in NYC, where the average commute is worse than any US city. The concept of being able to earn money from my couch has been an appealing idea as long as I’ve been working. I’m also an introvert and a homebody; I like being at home and controlling my own hours.

3. If you aren’t full-time, have you considered making this your primary gig? Why or why not?

Even if I get a two-year contract at the end of this six-month interim period, I don’t think I’d be able to take that step to making the gig full-time. I make a six-figure salary at my day job, and it’s really, really hard to give that up. I have aggressive savings goals I’d like to hit that involve significant investment and retirement contributions. Until I can at least somewhat offset that, I’m not ready to take the full leap into a WFH lifestyle.

4. What are the pros and cons, at least for you, with a work from home job?

To-date, I’ve only worked jobs in very structured settings.

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This WFH gig is like dipping my toe into an environment that I’m not used to; it’s allowing me to adjust to something completely different (but in small chunks). I also love that I can just work. With lots of coworkers in my day job, a good chunk of the work day can be blocked off with meetings. At home on my side gig, I can just sit and work. I love the feeling of efficiency it gives me.

The biggest downside is that sometimes, I’m just too lazy. It’s so easy to push back on my own deadlines if no one is holding me accountable. Yes, I’m accountable to my client, but the physical presence of co-workers in my day job keeps me on track; at home, I’ve had to learn how to manage my own time (it’s a work in progress).

5.  What’s your work from home office like? Tell us about it. Do you have any tips for anyone who wants to put together their own?

I live in a 400 sq ft apartment, so the key to my working area is a clean space. My boyfriend (who I live with) works on the side gig with me. When there’s work for both of us to do, we’ll work together on the couch. We have this awesome West Elm coffee table where you can lift the top up (storage benefits). When I have it lifted, it becomes more desk-like, which helps me feel like I’m actually in a work environment.

When my boyfriend is not working on the side gig with me, he’s listening to music or working on coding projects. I’m easily distracted by music (plus he talks to himself when he’s doing complex problems). In that scenario, I’ll go into the bedroom with a pair of noise-canceling headphones and work from there. I rarely work more than an hour or two at a time, so I can survive not having a dedicated area for my work for now. If I invest more hours in the future, I would definitely need a physical space (a desk, at least) to work.

6. Do you have any productivity tips for anyone who’s new to the game?

Find a way to organize yourself from Day 1, even if what you’re doing is small in scope. My side gig work uses a completely separate email address and is organized into multiple folders so if I take on new clients in the future, I’ll be ready. I keep things organized offline, too. The first thing I did during the initial contract process was grab an empty notebook from my shelf. I love looking back on it to see how much has happened in the first few months. Notes from the initial scope of work, first few stakeholder calls, and even rough sketches of website elements are all in there. I even have passwords jotted down on the back of the notebook for reference if I ever need it.

If you need more than notebooks and electronic folders, don’t be afraid to get more advanced. A small filing cabinet or paper organizer goes a long way in helping you sort what’s done, not done, or “DUE THIS WEEK” (as I end up referring to most things). An organized life is a productive one. The key thing that helped me was keeping everything separate, so I didn’t feel like I was working on my side gig constantly.

7. How has working from home impacted and/or changed your life?

It’s opened a lot of opportunities. I don’t think my side gig has much of a long-term impact, but it comes with a travel budget, which I’ll get to use in Wyoming this summer and Cancun this winter.

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I get to meet people that I would never have encountered in my normal day job, and overall, it’s a great gig, as I don’t need to put a huge amount of time into it.

8. If you could go back and do it all over again, would you do anything differently?

At the moment, I’m only three months into the experience. Sure, I’d tweak the way I did some initial communication and parts of my contract, but overall, I’m happy. Ask me again three months from now, hah.

9. Do you have any advice for anyone who wants to start freelancing or working from home?

As I wrote in a recent post, the freelancing lifestyle isn’t for everyone. You have to know that it’s absolutely something you want for yourself. Start small. Don’t quit your day job immediately unless you already have something lined up. Have a backup plan in case you decide that the lifestyle isn’t for you.

If you know freelancing/WFH is for you, then dive in! There are a ton of resources out there to answer your FAQs (like this site), and plenty of support groups where you can talk about challenges with others going through the same things. Have a clear plan in terms of how the work you do will cover your expenses.

10. What do you hope to accomplish from this career or side-gig? What’s driving you? And is it the same force that’s driving you now the one that convinced you to take the leap?

The biggest draw for me was having additional income. I want my income sources to be diversified, and a side gig is a first step for me. My initial goal for this specific side gig was to bump my FIRE (financial independence, retire early) fund. Since starting this side gig, though, I’ve incurred some huge medical expenses, and now this side gig is helping me to cash flow those bills, for which I’m super grateful. In a way I didn’t expect, having another income stream became a different kind of emergency fund; one that gives me peace of mind more than a static 5K in a savings account. In the future, I want to create other revenue streams to eventually cover all my basic living expenses, so that I don’t have to panic if I lose my day job. That’s my driving force now. It’ll take me a while to get there, but my side gig has been a great starting experience to motivate me to continue.

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