I appreciate you opening the floor like this. Good for you! It's so hard to talk about and yet so hard to *not* talk about.
I am completely creatively bent. I'm a freelance visual artist, freelance photographer, and freelance writer. I have a master's degree in Art History that I only use for my Substack and other odd-writing jobs, though I'd love to use it in a career somehow. I currently work in communications, part-time, and cobble together art and writing jobs to pay for it all. Finances are tight, but I'm not in debt. I feel I'm at a crossroads of sorts – I would love to make enough money to live comfortably and save for the future, but I don't want to "sell my soul" to uncreative – or meaningless – work. It's really tricky to discern what my next steps should be.
I can totally relate to all of this. I will say that I have worked in mindless jobs and sometimes they have been good for my creativity- because I am not using that creative part of my brain. But then you have to find the balance in order to have energy for those creative things as well. The dilemma. Sigh.
I love this topic and I agree with you that too many people don't think we should be supported as other occupations should. I scramble to make enough money. While I do have SOME assets, cash flow from month to month is iffy. I frequently run into clients who don't want to spend a normal amount for quality work. I'm doing OK at the moment but that's because my brain is a ping-pong ball jumping from project to project. When I was working for one client full time, forget it - I didn't even have disposable income like I do now.
Ugh as a freelance writer it is so tough to deal with clients that don't value your work. I am currently feeling undervalued in my program, too. I just don't understand how writing is so undervalued and how companies that have ample money are willing to spend on frivolous things but then want to cut corners when it comes to something as important as writing.
I LOVE talking about money. But often people feel uncomfortable talking about numbers. I was in a lot of debt after college and one thing I would always do is throw money at the debt ... when I had it. But it never seemed to put a dent in it. So I would have no savings and still be in debt. The biggest breakthrough for me was setting up a system of consistency. I have my accounts set up so every pay check 10% (I had to calculate exactly how much that was) would come out of my paycheck ON PAYDAY and go straight to the savings and then you pretend like it doesn’t exist. But then it just grows and it grows fast than you think-- especially if you have a high yield savings account which usually earns 2-3% interest versus the national average of .1% in traditional savings. Then for the debt I do the same thing. I pay the minimum plus 10% of my income and slowly but surely it goes down. If you put $$ on the credit card then make sure you are at least paying off what you spent that month to break “even”. Slow and steady has been more achievable for me, and has allowed financial peace of mind. The other thing you could consider is consolidating your debt with a bank for a low interest loan. Most credit cards have 15-20% interest or more. But a bank is more like 5%. This helps your credit without killing you on interest. Hopes this helps and I hope to have more $$ Congo’s in the future.
This is awesome, Alex. I have actually started doing this— I have a set amount of each (measly) paycheck sent straight to i-bonds, which I actually can't touch for five years (well I can touch them after a year but am penalized). It's great because I totally forget about it. I wish I'd known to do this when I had a higher paying job! For me, I had to spend so much money on the move and on medical expenses I am in a hole debt-wise, but I can see a way out. I just have to stop buying things I don't need, which can be really hard!
Hey a little goes a long way! So much of my money troubles come from a mental mindset. If I see it in my bank account I’m like hey— fair game. But if it’s squirreled away working hard for me I some how manage with less. Medical bills can be so tough! I was in the emergency room this year and that was definitely a surprise. But sometimes If I have something major I’ll double my savings contribution and half of it is for me and half is for whatever terrible bill I have to tackle. That way it’s not sitting in my checking and getting used up on whatever useless crap I think I need. I honestly think I might even get my direct deposit set up to go to my savings and then auto deposit my allowance to the checking instead. That’s gotta work right???
Oct 26, 2022·edited Oct 27, 2022Liked by River Selby (they/them)
Hi Jan,
I need to talk about this money. I really in big trouble and this money thing has got me headache for decade. I's relying on prof. teaching job, then that job was lost (part of the history in the place where I live) - I barely survived the blow, then shifted to do other things, many tedious, unimportant minimum pay jobs, that didn't earn anything, and I spent above my means for ages.
I couldn't make any change, as there are some limitations. Believe that this fate could only be brighter if I can have the chance to pursue higher academic studies, but I come back to these limitations - vicious cycle.
I hate myself so much because I couldn't solve this money matter. The bottleneck is I don't earn enough to cover the expense, while the expense has been cut to the very basic. If this should go any lower, this life is not respectable.
I appreciate you opening the floor like this. Good for you! It's so hard to talk about and yet so hard to *not* talk about.
I am completely creatively bent. I'm a freelance visual artist, freelance photographer, and freelance writer. I have a master's degree in Art History that I only use for my Substack and other odd-writing jobs, though I'd love to use it in a career somehow. I currently work in communications, part-time, and cobble together art and writing jobs to pay for it all. Finances are tight, but I'm not in debt. I feel I'm at a crossroads of sorts – I would love to make enough money to live comfortably and save for the future, but I don't want to "sell my soul" to uncreative – or meaningless – work. It's really tricky to discern what my next steps should be.
I can totally relate to all of this. I will say that I have worked in mindless jobs and sometimes they have been good for my creativity- because I am not using that creative part of my brain. But then you have to find the balance in order to have energy for those creative things as well. The dilemma. Sigh.
I love this topic and I agree with you that too many people don't think we should be supported as other occupations should. I scramble to make enough money. While I do have SOME assets, cash flow from month to month is iffy. I frequently run into clients who don't want to spend a normal amount for quality work. I'm doing OK at the moment but that's because my brain is a ping-pong ball jumping from project to project. When I was working for one client full time, forget it - I didn't even have disposable income like I do now.
Ugh as a freelance writer it is so tough to deal with clients that don't value your work. I am currently feeling undervalued in my program, too. I just don't understand how writing is so undervalued and how companies that have ample money are willing to spend on frivolous things but then want to cut corners when it comes to something as important as writing.
I LOVE talking about money. But often people feel uncomfortable talking about numbers. I was in a lot of debt after college and one thing I would always do is throw money at the debt ... when I had it. But it never seemed to put a dent in it. So I would have no savings and still be in debt. The biggest breakthrough for me was setting up a system of consistency. I have my accounts set up so every pay check 10% (I had to calculate exactly how much that was) would come out of my paycheck ON PAYDAY and go straight to the savings and then you pretend like it doesn’t exist. But then it just grows and it grows fast than you think-- especially if you have a high yield savings account which usually earns 2-3% interest versus the national average of .1% in traditional savings. Then for the debt I do the same thing. I pay the minimum plus 10% of my income and slowly but surely it goes down. If you put $$ on the credit card then make sure you are at least paying off what you spent that month to break “even”. Slow and steady has been more achievable for me, and has allowed financial peace of mind. The other thing you could consider is consolidating your debt with a bank for a low interest loan. Most credit cards have 15-20% interest or more. But a bank is more like 5%. This helps your credit without killing you on interest. Hopes this helps and I hope to have more $$ Congo’s in the future.
This is awesome, Alex. I have actually started doing this— I have a set amount of each (measly) paycheck sent straight to i-bonds, which I actually can't touch for five years (well I can touch them after a year but am penalized). It's great because I totally forget about it. I wish I'd known to do this when I had a higher paying job! For me, I had to spend so much money on the move and on medical expenses I am in a hole debt-wise, but I can see a way out. I just have to stop buying things I don't need, which can be really hard!
Hey a little goes a long way! So much of my money troubles come from a mental mindset. If I see it in my bank account I’m like hey— fair game. But if it’s squirreled away working hard for me I some how manage with less. Medical bills can be so tough! I was in the emergency room this year and that was definitely a surprise. But sometimes If I have something major I’ll double my savings contribution and half of it is for me and half is for whatever terrible bill I have to tackle. That way it’s not sitting in my checking and getting used up on whatever useless crap I think I need. I honestly think I might even get my direct deposit set up to go to my savings and then auto deposit my allowance to the checking instead. That’s gotta work right???
Hi Jan,
I need to talk about this money. I really in big trouble and this money thing has got me headache for decade. I's relying on prof. teaching job, then that job was lost (part of the history in the place where I live) - I barely survived the blow, then shifted to do other things, many tedious, unimportant minimum pay jobs, that didn't earn anything, and I spent above my means for ages.
I couldn't make any change, as there are some limitations. Believe that this fate could only be brighter if I can have the chance to pursue higher academic studies, but I come back to these limitations - vicious cycle.
I honestly know very few people that don't spend above their means. It's something I am really working on, and something I'll write more about here.
Hi Jan,
I hate myself so much because I couldn't solve this money matter. The bottleneck is I don't earn enough to cover the expense, while the expense has been cut to the very basic. If this should go any lower, this life is not respectable.