Money and life.

I make no secret of my financial situation. I publicly talk about being poor on my blog, because really.....who gives a shit? If I have something to get off my chest about my financial situation, so be it. Before I go into this blog post, I want to touch on the idea that money isn't everything. Ok, sure, money isn't everything, and money can't buy happiness in the Tibetan philosopher sense. But the fact of the matter is that a lack of money suddenly can make money the only thing that's important in life. After all, the bills don't stop just because you don't have the income.

Believe me.

Now, with that said, I'm 30 years old with about $40 to my name. Sure, I own my own part time business, I have a car, and a pretty nice roof over my head. On those levels, I can't complain. Things could definitely be worse. But I had to bum $5 off of a colleague today in order to have enough gas to get back to Marion, and I barely made it in time to visit the local scrap yard, which paid me $13 for the scrap metal I'd collected. This $13 will go toward putting more gas in my tank so that I can go out and try to better my situation.

This blog post isn't intended to be me bitching about how bad my situation is. I live in one of the poorest cities in the state of Ohio, which in turn makes my cost of living stupid low and allows me to live in a much nicer dwelling than I could afford in Columbus. So there are some things that are definitely working in my favor, especially when you consider the poverty rate of my community. We're a bunch of poor sons of bitches, yet I've been able to maintain a roof over my head and have yet to have a utility disconnected! (Three weeks of Ramen Noodles 3 times a day helped that happen).

This blog post is instead a declaration that I'm not going to be in the same boat when I'm 35 if I can help it! After Sarah left, I was living paycheck to paycheck, but not really doing it as responsibly as I could have. The income from my job in Dublin was just enough to keep me afloat with some quality of living, though not much. When that job went away, and I had absolutely no money coming in for 3 weeks (thank you unemployment checks), that really set me back even further than I already was. The companies I owed my (lack of) money to were less than understanding of my situation. I had to borrow money from a much loved uncle in order to pay my rent last month. I'm left here looking around at my financial situation, and looking at myself asking why in the hell I'm in this situation?!

Well, the fact of the matter is that I am. And believe me, when money is a huge issue in your life it becomes everything to you. Getting back on my feet financially is the single most important goal I have in my life now. And now that my old job has me returning to their ranks in 10 days, I know that if I adhere to some strict rules and do all I can to maximize my bottom line, I'll be ok once again. In fact, with luck, I'll be in better shape than I was before I lost the job in the first place!

Step one. Pay myself first. Period.

Minimum of 10% of ALL income goes into a savings account. Be it income from the studio, music sales, music performances, day job payroll, scrap yard salvage.......whatever it is. If I take just my prior income alone of $430-week and put 10% in a savings account, then after a month, I've got $172 saved. Even if all I can do is $172 each month, after 12 months, I've now got $2064 saved back for another job loss, or emergency situation. And while I have a lot of bills that need to be paid right now, and owe a lot of money, this rule cannot be deviated from unless it is a dire circumstance. After all, I don't want to find myself jobless again in 6 months with nothing in the bank to help sustain me til I find another job. Last time was a nightmare!

Step 2. Diversify.

Find multiple income streams, and use this to help not only increase my bottom line, but also to help build my savings. Let's take my $430-week day job and include extra income from selling scrap metal to the local recycling plant, as well as any money earned from the studio, and any money earned from music sales and performances, and now we've got a much healthier financial picture. The day job is easy enough, I show up and work 40 hours each week and they pay me. The scrap metal selling should also be easy enough, as I have colleagues who are doing electrical work and have promised me their leftover scraps. I've been getting this weekly from them and have been making nearly $80-$100 each week from that alone (depending on how much they have for me to salvage). That could equal up to $400 in a month, which is almost like getting an entire extra paycheck from my day job! Then we have the studio's earnings, which ok it's still spotty and not quite self sustaining yet. I'm taking steps to make that a reality. During this period of unemployment, the studio's income has had to all be applied to the "regular income" category. Once the full time paychecks start picking back up, studio income can go back into the category of "extra income"! Let's face it, right now, anything extra will help! And if I add into that picture any money I earn from the sale or performance of my music, that's just icing on the cake!

I'm still working on figuring out other ways to get a healthier financial situation for myself and get out of debt, and maybe I'll talk about those when those ideas come up. But one thing is certain. If I stick to my guns and am very strict about my money (for the first time in my life), I should be able to finally have a much healthier financial picture than I did before. And believe me, not having to worry about money makes for a much better quality of life.

Wish me luck.