Links to Make You Think- Last Day of Work Edition

Today is my last day of work before being laid off.  When the announcement was first made about getting laid off it came as no surprise to me as I have seen the storm clouds building on the horizon for quite some time, but for some it seems as though they were taken completely off-guard. 

I have seen a mix of emotions the past week which I had not seen during the previous layoffs.  There are people who seem lost as they felt they would be able to devote their entire working lives to this company, only to be cast out in the cold with no plans of what comes next.  There are others who are confused and don’t understand why this is happening to them.  Some people are angry at management for being less than forthcoming about our future.  Still others, like myself, feel as though this could be an opening door to further opportunities.

I end my employment with a shred of disappointment, wishing I’d been able to hold on just a few weeks longer in order to become vested in my retirement account, but overall thankful for the opportunity to set out on a new journey in a new direction.  I am free to start fresh and reinvent myself.  I feel as though I am about to embark on an entirely different phase in my life.  It is my rebirth in many ways.

Here are some articles from around the web which I expect to be of interest to my readers:

I love sarcasm nearly as much as I dislike smoking.  The Weakonomist wrote a great article titled “Cigarette Smokers Rejoice: You Don’t Burden Society With Healthcare Costs”.  I hope you enjoy the sarcasm as much as I did.

Many of my articles on Hundred Goals talk about saving, planning, frugality, values and goals.  One thing I don’t talk about much is spending.  BripBlap has an article titled “Why I Spend” which makes a good connection between earning money and spending it responsibly in order to live a full live.

To compliment the article at BripBlap I want to include an article from kclau about “Learning to be Happy with Less“.  We don’t always need to buy Stuff in order to have full and enjoyable lives.  We should value what we have instead of worrying about what we don’t.

To those who have been affected by layoffs, remember the words of Eleanor Roosevelt:

“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift.”