*Please note, there may be affiliate links in this post. If you click or make purchases with those links I may receive a teeny, tiny amount of compensation.*
Earlier this week I mentioned that I was celebrating my one year anniversary of self-employment. I will be honest and say that I absolutely love being self-employed. I love the freedom to find fun and intellectually challenging projects, the freedom of movement during the day, and the ability to manage my health and wellness more proactively. I also love that I am able to spend more time with people and deepen my connection with the ones I love.
Yesterday I shared a phenomenal podcast episode that I recorded with Tess Vigeland author of the book LEAP! Where she shares her journey to LEAPING! from her job as a well known journalist as lead anchor on Money Wise a show on NPR. At one point we talk about the downside of venturing out on your own (money, risk, and the unknown) and I thought that today was a good day to share something that has been on my mind and I’m a bit bemused by the irony.
For many years I had decent income but horrendous money habits. I spent mindlessly, I used credit cards, I shopped for groceries like a sport, and I traveled like a Rock Star. When you add all of those pieces together you get the following: debt, depression, over eating, and no friends.
Things changed drastically in 2015 and at first I couldn’t put my finger on it. I couldn’t figure it out because I’d never experienced this problem before and I was baffled. Then, I figured it out. I had a new problem and I couldn’t believe it.
Good Financial Habits
Not enough income. Now please note, I did not say “perfect” that would be a complete lie. But compared to what I was dealing with financially in 2012 when I started my blog my money management habits are INSANE!
How Life Has Changed Financially
- Mindless Shopping-Doesn’t happen anymore. In fact, my goal is to pay nothing for clothes in 2016. I am using my ThredUp online thrift store affiliate credits to freshen up my wardrobe. In fact, here’s $20 bucks (affiliate link) for first time shoppers to use towards a nice Holiday gift. Spend responsibly. I did a 1 year No Shopping Challenge and obliterated my shopping habit. I went from spending around $4000 a year on clothes to around $500-$700 this year (after not shopping the year before which actually means in the past 2 years I spent basically nothing on clothes).
- No More Grocery Sport-I just made up that phrase but shopping for groceries was a fun and pleasurable past-time for me. I love cooking food, eating food, looking at food, cooking for friends, and going to farmer’s markets. I’ve been known to walk through foreign grocery stores for so long that sales associates will ask me if I’m ok. I don’t eat fast food and I’ve been know to splash out on epic meals. Yep, I got fat with this food habit too. Learning how to manage: my emotions, my almost daily grocery shopping, and taping into cooking creatively has helped me save thousands of dollars on food expenses. I now buy groceries once a week and also rock the iBotta grocery app (affiliate link) to earn savings on grocery items. I meal plan work hard to eat what I already have. Getting a handle on this one habit alone has freed up so much time…and I discovered what my spending triggers were: loneliness, boredom, and disorganization.
- Switched to Cash-I switched to an all cash budget last Spring. I use only the cash that I have for everything. This is pretty epic. In fact, when I showed my favorite bank teller my cash wallet hack she told me that she wasn’t used to seeing someone so young using a cash budget. I am months in and I love it. I’ve even traveled to other cities using cash only. Being self-employed and half-a@@ed working this year (am being honest) it’s amazing that I stuck to it. It’s now a way of life and I like that when I’ve purchased something-it’s done. The transaction is over.
I feel really proud of the financial strides that I’ve made over the past 3 years. Now, I just want to take care of the remaining financial issues that have lingered for so long but have a new problem.
Not Enough (Consistent) Income
If you’re focused and very strategic in approaching your freelancing career you will more than likely grow your income as you get used to the process. Last month (or was it this month?) I mentioned that I didn’t work hard enough this year and I was speaking the truth.
I should say that my income has steadily gone up after the…ahem…summer dip, and Fall slide LOL.
The problem is that as a self-employed person I have to make sure that I’m consistently working on projects and opportunities to grow my income and keep the money flowing in consistently. Once I do that I will be able to take care of the following:
- Grow my retirement savings
- Eliminate debt
- Grow my emergency fund
- Help others
Changing the Trend
Again, it’s not hard to do this but it takes: focus, focus, and consistency to get the results that I’m looking for. Here are the following tasks that I’ve undertaken to grow my income.
- Really worked on my niche-I am focused on the following “verticals”
- Self-Employment/Entrepreneurship
- Frugal Living
- Relationships (family/friends/dating)
- Debt Freedom
- Holistic Money-I’ll write a post about this soon.
- Self-Improvement
- Growing Your Money via savings/investing/real estate
You will notice that the affiliate programs that I partner with will be directly connected to these specific verticals. I really worked on my niche because of a podcast that I listened to by the amazing Amanda Abella and an Ebook that I just purchased about growing my blog’s page views. I figured it was a sign-so I listened to the advise and worked on my niche. I think that this will also help me grow my passive income which is a huge part of my “end game” as full-time freelancing isn’t what I’m shooting for in the long-run.
- Pitching strategically-I have figured out who I should be approaching for projects. I won’t be working with small businesses anymore…unless they have the money to pay for the value I provide. After a year of hearing this from: Stephanie, LaTisha, Cat, Sandy, and more-I hear you!
- No more free-Sandy from Yes I Am Cheap has coined this phrase. Every once and awhile I’ve done small free projects. I don’t need to help organizations get free exposure. That’s time that I should be using on my business. I can’t eat free and I have enough time under my belt as a freelancer that I’m no longer needing those “training” opportunities. I am very glad that I did them-everyone does free work in the beginning to get their name out and that’s ok!
- Low Paying Gigs-I am no longer able to take low paying gigs as they don’t pay enough and they take time away from my higher paying gigs. Before this would have been scary but I can’t eat on low paying gigs and I can’t take care of my day to day expenses on them either. I loved my low paying gigs because I learned so much. Again, I learned tons because of those clients now it’s time to push myself and work for more.
I will say that I knew of the risks before I started working for myself. I’m an adult and I have a lot of commonsense. But, there is a difference between inherent commonsense and learning how to implement a new lifestyle from scratch. I feel pretty proud of what I’ve done so far and I’m unapologetically going to be working my BUTT off in 2016. The irony of good financial habits and not enough income hasn’t been lost on me. It’s time to turn that around-I believe that there is an infinite amount of wealth in the world. I’m looking forward to tapping into mine.
Show Me The Money!
Latest posts by Michelle (see all)
- How Work Policies Against Black Women Birthed a Love of the Soft Life - 20 March, 2024
- How Taylor Swift’s IP Victory Could Change the Business of Music - 28 February, 2024
- Why Don’t More Personal Finance Content Creators Talk About Policy - 16 January, 2024
You’re not lying when you say that focus is everything. It truly is. Since I’ve been able to focus and eliminate distractions I’ve been able to get ahead with a few of my blog related projects.
I was really distracted this Fall so it was hard for me to focus. You can believe I’m a heck of a lot more focused now because I am tired of not achieving achievable goals that would happen if I worked harder. At the end of day I know that hard work is everything so that’s what has to happen.
This was my life for a long time and I think I may have to credit my broke years for forcing me to adopt good financial habits. I didn’t really grow my income until the last year and it’s through all the strategies you outlined above. Big wins!
I’m glad that I’m on the right track! I do NOT like having this issue. The pain is real-and it’s pretty freaking motivating. Broke isn’t sexy. It’s just kind of sad LOL!
This was me the last 7 years. Before freelancing I was gainfully employed but had bad habits. Not disastrous ones, because I had good job. But with freelancing of course I got REALLY tight with the budget. If had done that all along things would have been SO different.
Well, hindsight is 20/20-I can’t change what’s already done, all I can do is look at what didn’t work and move from there. Not enough income coming in doesn’t work for me, so some things are changing ASAP!!
Wel during the shopping ban year you understood a lot of things about your shopping habits, plus used creativity on meal planning, clothes and I’m sure you will do a good job also in 2016!God bless you!
Giulia, thanks so much for the continued support and kind words. There are moments when you either give up or get crazy focused. I’m happy to say that I’m in the crazy focused camp. I need and want to experience the feeling that comes from succeeding at something that I thought I couldn’t do…and do it well.
Nice Michelle that you don’t pay anything for your wardrobe. Thats really a good strategy. Thanks for sharing how you do it.
I really don’t need anything anymore but if I want something I use my referral income to purchase it.