This is the story of why I cashed out my 401K during the recession.
## The year was 2008 and the recession was making my company go downhill fast. My 401K plan had lost more than $2,000 and the vice president had just walked out.
Work that used to take me eight hours to complete, I was getting done in four. Our customers were disappearing and I felt like I was on the Titanic. The feeling of powerlessness was everywhere. I decided something drastic was necessary but I was not sure what to do. I knew if I stayed at my job I would most likely be laid off. Quitting seemed like suicide in such a volatile time. After thinking about the possibilities for about two weeks, I decided that I would begin to search for a new job.
I went to a restaurant to interview for a designer position and the entire place was filled with applicants. It was a humiliating experience. The next day I answered an ad for a cashier position at Trader Joe’s. Six hundred people showed up and I was told to leave. After these two experiences I gave up. I knew there was something bigger going on with the economy. There were few jobs in Southern California in 2008 and I decided not to waste any more time applying for jobs I wouldn’t get. I opted to take a completely different and riskier route.
# I decided to cash out my 401k and it was the best decision to make at the time.
## I decided I would spend my time learning things I never had time for when I was employed. I had always wanted to learn how to compose music on my computer. I also wanted to learn how to make a YouTube channel. I wanted to paint my car and become a street performer. There were tons of things I wanted to do, so I decided to learn and do as much as I could until my money ran out. I wasn’t even sure how long that would be. I had about $8,000 in my 401K and very few monthly expenses.
One of the first things I did was cover my walls with giant pieces of butcher paper. Then I wrote down my desired goals on the sheets of paper. I had tons of goals and things I wanted to do. Once I finished the goals on one piece of paper, I’d write down an entire column of new ideas on a new sheet of paper. Once I achieved my goals, I’d cross them off. This method allowed me to constantly be aware of both what I still wanted to accomplish and what I had already done. Once I filled up an entire wall, I’d start the process again. I got an enormous amount of goals achieved this way.
Through this process, I became keenly aware of my creative thoughts and inner world. I began having artistic visions and I experienced life in a magical fashion. I met amazing people with great ease and was delighted to learn new things. I was excited to be alive.
One of my experiments involved creating a persona called the Patron Saint of Postcards:
https://youtu.be/XOahu5XwuQA
The creation of this came to me in a vision. People are always misunderstanding the word vision. For me, having a vision means an idea emerges from the deep well of my imagination and presents itself to my conscious mind. Dreams are unconscious visions. The reason I could nurture and grow these visions is I didn’t have to be at a job every day. I would never had these visions come to life if I had been working a 9-5 job.
The Patron Saint of Postcards experiment was like performance art and busking mixed together. I had a costume built and I created about 100 handmade postcards, which I carried in a bright green custom-made apron. I would then sell or give away my postcards to people I randomly met. The main reasons I did this were to experiment with human behavior, create side income and share my postcard art with the public directly. I recorded a lot of material from this experiment and you can see it on my YouTube channel, Stellabelle, in a folder named, Patron Saint of Postcards.
This experiment also created a new type of commerce. The price of the postcard would depend on the type of interaction I had with each person. If a person was genuinely interested and excited about my postcards, they would get them for free. Conversely, if a person asked what the price was and just seemed interested in purchasing them, they paid $4 per postcard. This experiment proved very successful in creating thought-provoking exchanges.
# The best reaction I ever received was from a 12-year-old boy at a festival in Carlsbad, California. I walked by this boy then he stopped in front of me. He waved his hands in front of his face quickly, looked up at me in disbelief and said, “Are you real?” I just shook my head and said, “No.”
I could tell he was convinced he was seeing something from his imagination. Through this experimental phase I learned most people are not accustomed to seeing costumes which people make up from their own creativity. The vast majority of costumes we are exposed to are copies of Hollywood characters or historical personas. I’ve been creating my own characters and costumes since childhood so it feels just like a normal part of life.
While I was experiencing life as the Patron Saint of Postcards and living out my creative fantasies, my life began to morph into a dynamic artistic adventure. I started meeting fascinating people and being accepted into elite groups of artists. I met great artists like Alex Chiu and Neil Mclean, who greatly influenced my direction. Alex Chiu at the time was a prolific comic artist. His art possesses a psychedelic feel coupled with a unique sense of humor:
(Alex Chiu's art)
I met Neil Mclean through a mutual friend, when he worked as a music video and stop motion animation film director. His music videos included work for Saything, Ladytron, The Coral, Pop Levi and others. His current project is Dungeon, an amazing and intricate sci-fi stop motion animated film.
(video still from Dungeon)
After seeing the preview for Dungeon, I wrote to Neil and told him how much I loved his work:
https://vimeo.com/24930122
Here’s my email to Neil:
“Your Dungeon preview was remarkable and made me splatter giggles all over Caldwell’s antique store. I think the giggles are still there, in faint forms, quivering in between dusty books, or something like that. I especially liked the names of the characters and your voice which sounded utterly ridiculous. The other things I liked are too numerous to list, so let’s just say that you definitely have a fan, and I would pay sums of money to see it on the big screen. Are you going to show it locally when you finish it?”
After he received my email, he asked if I would be available to play a role in Dungeon. Here is my response to him:
“Of course I would stand in for Kate!!!! Are you insane????? I would cut off my own toenail, double-bake it, add bits of my own crispy-fried hair, put it into a cocktail glass and use my pet squirrel’s moustache as a decorative umbrella and drink it in one gulp to be part of DUNGEON!!!!”
# Here I am in a Dungeon video:
https://vimeo.com/56603739
Having been given the opportunity to work with Neil on Dungeon was one of the highest points in my life. I learned the world will open up once you reveal what you truly love and admire. For most of my life I had remained secretive about what I admired and truly loved. I wanted to protect my vulnerable feelings of admiration. This experience taught me that people, no matter how famous or brilliant, still have the same basic human needs the rest of us do. We all need feedback and validation that our work is having a positive effect on others.
## I experienced my happiest moments in the company of these creators. They reinforced the idea that imagination is the most important aspect of being alive. This notion was something I believed in, but before I met them, I did not know many who believed like me.
### I ended up in the San Diego CityBeat newspaper several times for my antics as the Patron Saint of Postcards. I met one of the CityBeat writers one night while I was showing my postcards to several people at a bar. This writer was instantly intrigued by my odd persona and life stories and he completed an interview with me on the spot. I felt like I was on the verge of getting famous. But it didn’t exactly happen.
There was one big flaw in my plan: I didn’t create a big enough income flow from my artistic activities. Making between $12 and $20 per day as The Patron Saint of Postcards didn’t exactly cut it. This lack of foresight caused me to go broke. At this point in my life, however, I was not ready to launch any big financial master plan. I had no idea about income generation. I was in the beginning stages of exploring my passions, meeting inspiring people and having adventures.
## The main outcomes of cashing out my 401K were the following:
I was asked to do acting in Neil Mclean’s stop motion animated film Dungeon.
I learned how to compose music on my computer.
I learned how to make YouTube videos.
I got in fantastic physical condition.
I lived out some creative fantasies including creating the persona, The Patron Saint of Postcards.
I learned how to act on creative impulses without judging myself.
I created a short film, called Slab of Salvation, about a visionary artist named Leonard Knight.
I met inspiring people who changed my life forever: a Hollywood voice artist, a music video director, a toothpaste inventor, the owner of a psychedelic gift shop, a retired general manager of a car dealership who now calls himself Dolphin Boy, a self-help guru, a cartoonist, a street performer, a glass blower, a charismatic writer, an 87-year-old ex-alcoholic former millionaire salsa dancer.
The recession taught me to look within myself for answers. It taught me not depend on a company for all my needs. It taught me the world is in a constant state of change and I have to constantly change with it or perish. The days of being a lazy cubicle worker are finished. Looking back, I’m glad I had the nerve to cash out my 401K and live out my dreams, even if it only lasted eight months. The lessons I learned from this period will last forever. It was the most valuable plunge I’ve ever taken in my life. It also created the foundation for many of my future creative endeavors.
## Cashing out a 401K is not recommended for people who are risk averse. In fact, this idea is not very practical in many ways. Before you do it, you have to figure out how much money you require to live on each month. And a smarter plan would be to create an income stream before you live off your retirement funds. But I do recommend cashing out a 401K for those who are sick of being corporate slaves and those who do not know what their passions are. Just make sure you have a support system in place before you jump off the cliff.
# EXERCISES
If you work at a job, what are some things you don’t have time to do?
Name one thing you would love to do if you had unlimited time and resources.
If you had an unlimited supply of courage, what would you attempt?
Who do you admire?
Do you have dreams of what you would like to try?
Take Action: Send an email or letter to someone you truly admire.