I thought I had posted the round up from last week. Looks like I just saved the draft. So I really haven’t posted in almost a week. Sorry about that.
As I am sitting here cradling my head (allergies are NOT fun) and thinking about how much I need to get done before I go to work at 4pm to - maybe - make $100, I start wondering if this is worth it. I don’t mind hard work, but at the same time I’m not the pseudo-masochist (not sado, pseudo) that Mr. Grump is, either. I do enjoy being able to relax every now and then. He has to be constantly moving and doing.
I’ve been doing this *on the side* stuff from about 7am-3pm or 4pm every day, then going to work at night from 4-10 or 11. Then on the weekends I work at least Saturday night 4-11 and Sunday from 10am-8pm. So really I’m working about 60 hours a week for not a whole lot of money.
I figured out that if I hit my target, I am getting paid about $0.80 per hour. As depressing of a statistic that sounds, it really isn’t the thing that bothers me the most.
The worst part of it for me - I have no time to paint.
I keep telling myself that this stuff *should* eventually be basically passive income. (Honestly, I still think I’d be spending about 20 hours per week on it, regardless). But to get to that place, it looks like I’ll be doing this 80 hours and working at the restaurant for another year or so. Wouldn’t be a bad thing - if I had time to paint.
This is exacerbated by the fact that I’ve recently done some pretty kick-ass paintings. I really think I’m starting to finally “get” it. And my teacher and close artist friends have told me they think I should be able to get into a gallery - and that much closer to my dream - pretty soon. So theoretically I should be pouring all of my energy into art. I feel like something’s gotta give. The happiest two weeks of my life since I quit my job were when I got to paint for 3-4 hours for two weeks and make some of those paintings. This is not an easy path.
In our society today, the word risk has a horrible connotation. Why? People associate risk with irresponsible behavior and high failure rates. In the financial world the term risk simply means uncertainty. If we can predict an event with accuracy on a regular basis, the event is considered low risk. Conversely, if we cannot, it is considered high risk.
Right now in my life I crave a certain amount of security. I would prefer to have a large amount of security. However, security can be just as damaging to your overall financial health as risk can.
If you save too much of your money without growing it, and you have a fear of the “risk” associated with higher yielding accounts or even the market, you may see a decrease in your buying power due to inflation.
True story, I swear, but when I worked with the bank I remember I had a client who distrusted banks and anything financial. Well, instead of putting her money into investments and higher yielding accounts, she put it in a drawer of a table. No joke, one day her house was hit by a tornado. Her money flew throughout the neighborhood, raining down on her joyous neighbors. Well, she thought she was doing something safe and secure, but she wound up losing a good amount of savings in the process.
I feel that If you never take any risk, you will never move forward. These “risks” you take could come in almost any form – asking for a raise, moving to a better neighborhood, starting a new company, investing in the market, selling your home. Because you do not know the outcome of any of these events, they all have inherent risk.
If you never ask for a raise, will your employer likely give you the value that you create?
No.
Why not? Your employer is most likely a smart businessperson. They will pay you the least amount possible to keep you happy and productive.
Nevertheless, if you walk into any of these major decisions lightly, and without thought of the possible various outcomes, the events can be disastrous. For example, take the person who decides to begin flipping homes – with no previous experience, and without considering current market conditions. I think the increase in foreclosures paints the picture of those who went into a speculative market uninformed.
What is the solution? Balance.
In order to move forward, to truly succeed, you have to take risks. Otherwise you wind up burying all of your savings in the yard and perhaps losing its location at worse, and at best, seeing a vast decrease in your buying power. However, you do need some security, some soft landing for the hard times. I really believe a good reserve fund will give you that security, as well as the capital and flexibility to take other financial risks without devastating yourself if the results are not as favorable as you hoped.
