Permanent Low Paying Job or Temporary High Paying Job

Deciding to take a low paying permanent job or a high(er) paying temporary contract job can be a tough decision. I had to make this decision back in January.

I was homeless living in my car since October 2018. Since graduating from law school in December 2015, I never had a permanent job. I only had contract jobs here and there that would end abruptly. I mostly worked ediscovery Document Review (Doc Review) projects. These projects would be from a few days to three months with huge gaps in between projects. So that’s how I became homeless.

Fast forward to September 2019 (approximately last year). I started working in Amazon Warehouse. I made $15/hour. It lasted for about 2 months. Whew child. I could not hang. It was physically tough. I got fired. So I didn’t make it very far.

While working at Amazon I had a job interview at TD Bank as a Collection Specialist. The pay was $16/hr. But she bumped it up to $17/hr. Whoo hoo! (No not really). My start date was January 2020. But with all the paperwork and background checks, etc. it was moved to February 2020. So from the time I got fired at Amazon October 2020, I had a long wait before starting at TD Bank. I remember thinking,

Damn I can’t wait til I’m no longer homeless.

January 2020, I was emailed about a Document Review project for 3 months. It paid $23/hr. I applied and was accepted to the project. I was out in a matter of days without…