Let's Talk About Money.
Many artists avoid talking about money. Conversations about art paychecks happen in hushed tones, behind closed doors.
Why is that?
For one thing, it’s fucking awkward. Success varies wildly, and there’s a lot of anxiety and jealousy amongst young artists. It’s hard not to be jealous, right - if your friend is earning six figures and traveling the world, and you are working at Starbucks, that hurts.
Artists often hold back when talking about how they make money. It’s a reputation thing. If an aspiring full-time artist has to work a day job to the pay rent, they don't want to admit it - after all, it "looks bad!"
People are pushed to pretend they are more successful than they really are. They view perceived success as an important part of getting better gigs.
Other Common Myths
There are a few other insidious myths that deflate artist motivation:
(1) All full-time artists are from rich families / have it easy
(2) The “successful” artists I look up to have it made. They don’t struggle.
Neither of these are true. Some artists come from wealthy families, but the vast majority do not. This is more of an excuse, like “the reason I didn’t succeed is I wasn’t rich like those other assholes”
The other idea - that successful artists have it easy - is fiction. Life is hard. As an artist, you generally freelance or run your own business. That’s a crazy task since most artists are not business minded. It’s always gonna be tough.
Here’s The Plan
I’m going to publicly document my own finances as a full-time creator.
We’re all trying out different ways to live life, be happy, and earn a living. As a single human being with one life to live, you can’t try that many things. For example, if you work at a new job every year for ten years, that’s only ten experiments.
Ideally, we could test out hundreds of different lives before deciding what we want to do. The next best thing is to look at other people as additional data points.
By putting all my info in the open - showing exactly how much I earn, where I get it, and how it evolves over time - I hope it will help other people get ideas.
About Me
I’m currently a 26 year old dude living in Connecticut, USA. I previously lived in New York City, Boston, Raleigh (North Carolina), and a few other spots. I've also toured a decent amount up and down the eastern coast of the USA. Towards the end of 2016 I quit my day job to go full freelance as a musician and writer.
My freelance income started at $150 per week in January 2017 and has increased to $300 per week or so as of June 2017. My next income goal is to reach $500 per week by October. My "stretch" goal is to get there by July.
I am $20,000 in debt, and my short-term life goals are:
- Get my debt payments under control (I’m behind on one right now)
- Move away from Connecticut
- Pay off all of my debts in full.
Longer term, my "personal achievement" (i.e. selfish stuff) bucket list has exactly two things on it:
- Achieve a net worth of $1,000,000 USD, which means I can live off the interest at $40k per year with total freedom of how I spend my time, and
- Sell out at least one nation-wide tour for my own music at 100+ cap venues.
What’s Next
In the next post, I'll explain more of my thought process behind my short and long term goals. I'll also break down my exact financial status in terms of what my $20,000 of debt looks like & where my income is coming from.
Down the line, I will offer weekly (or perhaps every other week) updates. Along the way, I'll offer advice and stories from my own experience in the wild jungle of the freelance life.
This blog series will start out as a once-a-week series every Monday at around noon, EST time. Please let me know what you think in the comments! If you tell me what is valuable for you, I'll try to talk more about that stuff.
Thanks for reading :-)
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Join the mailing list: https://mattsokol.us
p.s.: all images in this post, other than my face, are from pixabay.com
really nice post :) good luck with your further goals ;)
Nice Article.. Inspiring Content!!
Thanks for sharing!! upvoted and followed:)
I'm sure you will pay off all your debts...just stick to your passion and everything will start falling in place...up voted...looking forward for more creative content from your side.
Thanks for being so optimistic :-D
Interesting read Matt, great plans and course of action you have taken
I wish you luck and look forward to your posts, so I will follow you 👍
Ah gmuxx thanks so much for checking it out. I appreciate the follow and will take a look at your posts too :-)
Thank you
Major kudos to you Matt. And it's great that you're breaking this down for other aspiring artists/creators too. School never teaches us about the financial obstacles of being creative...
Thanks so much! You are SO right, the school system here in USA is woefully inadequate.
Writing down your goals and sharing them is a good start. Best of luck with them!
You said your plan is to get to $1 Million net worth and live off the interest (4% or $40,000). Have you by chance read Robert Kiyosaki's Rich Dad Poor Dad? If not, I highly recommend it. I think it will help you get on a good path toward your goals. Although, it will make you look at money/investments a different way.
Thank you! Rich Dad Poor Dad has been on my list forever, actually. this seems like a good time to give it a try.
I'm ordering it on Audible now - will let you know what I think after I read it
Being jealous and deflated are very common reactions of most of us when we are facing these situations (including me sometimes). I'm very glad to see a guy willing to share his experience here. Inspiring content!
thanks! these are pretty common emotions, I think most artists grapple with them to some extent
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As a musician based in Europe, I am intrigued about the differences in freelancing in the USA. Keep it up, man :)
thanks mikisolus :-)
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hey bro, not stalking ya (well kinda am i guess),
i almost read my own story there, we are on a very similar quest, at opposite ends of the world.
i noticed you have posted about ujo n other music platforms, hope to chat about that soon because my first posts here related to that stuff too
good luck with everything
Awesome idea Matt! been thinking about this a lot recently and the potential of being a creative freelancer. looking forward to seeing where this goes!