The Business Of Being A Writer: An Intro
Hello there!
It’s been a whirlwind of a month, and while that is the best word I have to summarize how I’ve felt these past few weeks, it still somehow feels like an understatement of massive proportions. I don’t know about you all, but creativity has felt almost impossible recently. I’m taking as much time as I can carve out to find small joys during the work day, to read through my TBR, to bake and fill my apartment with the scent of cinnamon and clove. It’s hard out there right now, y’all.
I hope you all are taking care of yourself. What are you doing to find your small joys?
How to Business v.1
Honestly, there’s no better time than an extremely uncertain one for taking control of your future.
Here’s the thing. Personal finance is scary and I believe it’s been made that way on purpose. Most financial institutions make things complicated because it suits their business needs and allows them to sell you things. It’s even worse when you’re a creative and a small business owner and the amount of information you have to sift through seems almost insurmountable.
Especially with the world the way it currently is, understanding and owning your personal finance strategy is essential. Essential!! It’s your hard-earned money. Make it work for you.
The way I see it, there are five levels of understanding personal finance as a creative:
Fundamentals
Budgeting
Saving for life
Retirement Planning
Investing
And topics to understand as a creative:
How do I get paid? (literally and figuratively)
Do I need to become a business?
How do taxes work?
What does it really mean to be self-employed?
etc. etc. (this is an evolving thing, there are always new questions as a self-employed creative!)
And I’m going to be covering all of them.
However, I’m also going to be taking time to answer any questions you might have, whether it’s straight from me or from a professional who has the answers. Please send me your questions here! I’ll also take any questions that have to do with publishing or writing in general.
Phew. That’s a lot already for a Monday morning. But I want to leave you with one more thing.
Here’s a post I wrote awhile back on personal finance for Writer’s Block Party. I cover the three “to-dos” that I think are vital for creatives to consider right now, but I want to focus in on the first.
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1. Make sure you have an emergency fund
I like to think about saving by using this simple formula: 20/30/50.
50% of your income should account for your essentials: rent, utilities, groceries. Things you couldn’t live without. 30% is allocated to living your life: books, movies, gifts, eating out. And 20% should ideally be socked away for a rainy day.
As writers and potentially self-employed individuals, it’s even more important to have an emergency fund that can allow you to live your life for 3-6 months. The best way to calculate the number to aim for is to tally up all your average expenses in a month and multiple by 3 or 6, whichever amount of time you’re aiming for.
Supposed I spend $1,000 a month. My emergency fund for 3 months should be $3,000, for 6 months, $6,000. Your number one priority is to get that fund into place. Best way I’ve found is to do auto-transfers from your account into savings. It takes the thought out of saving, making it a no-brainer instead of something you have to constantly think or worry over.
I know this can seem daunting, but having that rainy day fund will ensure that you can write what you want, when you want it. Especially if you’re self-employed.
Reposted from Writer’s Block Party
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If that feels daunting, don’t worry! I’ll be going into more detail into emergency funds/budgeting in a future newsletter and I’ll provide a spreadsheet I use to make all this math a lot easier to wade through. I just wanted to leave you with something to think about—do you have an emergency fund? If not, what are the steps you might need to take to build one?
Until next time,
Swati