Goals for Aug 30th - Sept 5th, 2010

In the spirit of Weekly Goals, and smaller Daily Goals, this week I want to:

• Finish every article I claim. They are never as bad as I think.
• Write at least 4 articles before each break. Each extra article I'll extend my break by 5 minutes.
• Use a timer while writing and taking breaks.
• Write and submit an article at Constant Content. This is in competition with a friend, and I *will not lose*!
• Earn enough before roll-over to pay the rent, car insurance, and have some gas and food money left over.
• Drink at least 3 bottles of water a day.

I think that looks good. Two are easy, two challenging but ok, and two are a heck of a stretch.

End of Month Update- August 2010

So, of all the things I listed to do this month, I think I managed 1- get a realistic idea for budgetting at my first location.

Everything else? Fail.

I got pretty stuck with the writing- not because it's tough but because I seem to want to think it's difficult. It's really very easy. So I'm going back to my production method from before- voice to text, and hopefully the lack of typing will increase my word count.

Otherwise, depression and multiple attempts at quitting caffeine pretty much killed this month. I'm thinking about maybe doing weekly goals, to match up with one or two monthly goals. "cause, honestly? I write those goals and forget them right now. Months pass fast, but they're still plenty long enough for me to procrastinate through.

And if there's one thing I'm WIN at, it's procrastination.

Working on Working

No post today.

Depression Means Small Paycheck

So, the more depressed I get (and I'm sure this is common) the less I actually do. Either because I have no motivation, or I'm sure anything I do will suck.

I'm pretty sure I've dropped into a rather low low, since I haven't managed to write anything but blog posts for close to a week now. And the blog posts themselves were a near thing. With a normal job, that wouldn't be so bad. the little bit of work would be masked by the huge amount of goofing off most people manage as part of their daily work schedule.

Unfortunately, my income is totally based on how many words I crank out each day. No words means no dollars, and 500 words (more than I've done in *days*) means 2 gallons of gas. I could, in a normal month, maybe swing a couple days without real production, but this month? Not so much.

I try to keep from thinking about the bills while I write- it just stops me, makes me nervous, and slows me down. But it's still important. This month I have to pay car insurance again. I have to start paying one of my student loans. I have to start getting stuff together for my "great escape." And, of course, I have to pay the rent.

None of that is going to happen at a rate of $5 a week.

So today I need to center my brain, find a "happy" place, and get some damned work done.

Stupid brain. I'm tempted to hand it over to the first hungry zombie that wanders by.

Escape is Expensive

I'm starting to plan my escape. It's coming up pretty fast now, and I need to make sure it's still manageable.

I'm sure it seems irresponsible to some people (like my father) or dangerous (to just about everyone else), but really, travelling won't be that much worse, financially, than staying where I am. In some ways it's much, much better.

Just... this starting out bit is going to be expensive. I need to either fix my laptop or replace it with a super cheap netbook. I need a new camera, a small travel bag for my golf clubs (yes, they're coming with me), shoes, clothes, a backpack, insurance, tickets, and shiny new passport...

It's at least $1500 worth of stuff, and I keep seeing new things that would work really well, and be super useful. The worst part is, the things I need- clothes, for the most part, are more expensive when they're designed for women or travel. Women's travel clothes are, therefore, about twice as expensive. Pleh.

So, with all these expenses, how will I manage? I've got to start cutting. I think I know what I want/ need for clothes, and i'll start hunting the thrift stores for the few things I might be able to find- like a scarf, sweater, lightweight black skirt. I'll watch the interweb for sales on the clothing items I need/ want, and reconsider my shoe setup.

Still thinking about the laptop/ netbook thing. Parts to fix the laptop will be at least $200, a cheap netbook with decent battery life and nice low weight can be had for less than $300. Don't know which is better, but I'm sure I'll figure it out.

What did I mean when I said taking off could be better for me financially?

I won't have a car, or the expenses that come with it. I won't have traditional US-style lack of health insurance--travel health insurance covers accidents and whatnot, so if something happens I won't end up thousands of dollars deeper in debt. There may be tax savings, there's less to buy, expenses are (for the most part) lower. So long as I don't take up scuba diving my monthly expenses should be no more than what they are here.

And my work (such as it is) is already online.

Until then, though, I need to keep making my lists, cutting them down, and stretching out the extra bits of cash I can find in my budget. Funny, even with all the "expense" and gear the pre-trip expense is less than first, last, and deposit on an apartment.

Not Much

Won $4 on the lotto, bought a new ticket. I think that's my second largest win ever- best was $7!

I know, I know. In other news, I found another penny a word place to write, dunno how that's going to work. I can at least try it, though, right? This one pays every Saturday. If I get this whole thing really going, I could eventually get paid (a little bit) a couple times a week-

• around the 1st
• around the 6th
• around the 15th
• around the 21st
• and every Saturday

Wowz, that's a lot of paydays. $100 from each of them would be $800. Not bad at all. Bet I could make $100 a week from each of those- that's more like $1200, or enough to pay the rent and one or two of the student loans with money left for food.

What I really need to do, though, is get off my butt and write for Constant Content. $20 for a 300-500 word article is much better than 3 to 5 dollars. 'Specially if I can get one or two done in an hour, or 6 a day. Even selling only 1/3rd of them I'd be making about what I do now, and my wrists would thank me.

Ok, now I'm just blathering.

Student Loan Time

Sort of. 5 years ago, give or take 6 months, I moved to the other end of the earth. I took out student loans (or tried to, anyway) to pay for school. If I'd paid attention, showed up for class or (gasp) actually done the work I'd be graduating with a really cool degree in December.

Instead, I have to start paying back those loans in September and October. I know, because I got the "repayment starts soon" paperwork from them yesterday. I'm not totally clear on the numbers fro one of the loans- it seems bigger than I remember. These things happen, though. I just really don't remember borrowing $33810, or any amount that matches that with the interest added.

So I'm a bit lost with that. Now in October I need to come up with three new payments- $141, $67, and $32. And in September I need to start coming up with $81 each month.

It might be time to hunt down an income contingent repayment plan. 'Cause the day $700 (which is my student loan payment monthly total, I think) is 20% of my monthly income is the day I throw a happy happy joy joy party.

Seriously, though- Don't go into *very nice car* worth of student debt with nothing to show for it. Totally not worth the stress.

Building Something from Nothing- part 7

I haven't worked on my website-dealies in a couple weeks now. More like months, actually. That's not good.

You can't succeed at something if you never do anything. Or so they tell me, anyway. If I don't build the stupid site I'll never make anything off of it. If I don't make money off that one, I'll not be able to expand into another.

It's kind of silly, I guess, to earn money over and over on the same work. Build a decent site once, get everything set up, do the SEO, all that jazz, and (if I picked a good niche) I could eventually make money off of it forever. Well, or until the big G smacks me down.

My wrists are telling me that this not-actively-working thing is a good idea. My brain is seconding. I'm pretty sure my fingers or behind are interested in a vote. What I'm doing for money right now doesn't pay well, and it only pays once. If I can do something that pays equally crap, but over and over again, that's the start of something magic.

Sorry, lots more airy-fairy stuff today, not so much with the hard numbers/ hard work/ results. So to be fair-

Making the writing easier-

Like anyone else who spends more time with their computer keyboard than their SO (or other interesting people) I have bad wrists. My "desk" setup doesn't help. 'Parently sprawling across the bed isn't any better than slumping in a crap office chair. Loafing about on my side puts extra pressure on shoulder joints and spines and whatnot. It also encourages me to wander when I'm writing.

So I'm trying out speech recognition software. Sort of.

In the interests of cheap, I didn't buy anything new, I'm just using the speech recognition that's in Win7. I don't know how it stacks up against other products, I know that it works better than the one I had with XP. It recognizes most of my words and directions. Best of all, it was (sort of) free- it came with the OS.

I like speech recognition because when I *say* the sentences they make more sense. I stick to the topic, don't get lost as quickly, and don't (usually) go off on random parentheticals or just drop a sentence half way through. I can lie (lay?) on my back, eyes closed, and just talk. I can toss the words up in my head, hear them as they come out, and edit on the fly. It's kinda nice.

Problems I have with it, well...

You have to speak clearly- after half an hour or so I lose that ability. You need to remember the commands (another problem for me), and you need to check that it's translating correctly. About 10% of the time it comes up with something that, when reading it back later, really makes me wonder WTF I was writing. Also, I don't think I've managed more than 15 words per minute. If I compose in my head as I write, then type away, I can think for 20 seconds, write for 40, and still ge 30 words down. The talking-thing doesn't work that way. more time is spent going back and fixing things, correcting the computer when it doesn't know what I want, or deleting off what I don't want.

I've read (don't remember where) that eventually the speaking/ writing thing gets faster- the computer learns your speech patterns, you remember all the commands, and it all just works together better. Right now, at a penny a word, I can't really afford to play. My average output with speech to text is 600 words an hour. That's less than minimum wage. Much less, when you consider that I have to pay self-employment tax on it.

On jobs that pay better, I might go back to it. For now, though- before I've built up decent residual income- I need to write faster. Right now, that means typing.

Maybe someday I won't have to write at those rates, and I can get paid over and over for the same words. Today, it's all about efficiency, baby.

Pleh and Double Pleh!

Staying in the US is expensive. Leaving is expensive too. Not as much over the long term, but with the list of things I either want or need to bring with me, it's looking kinda spendy.

Of course, some of it I'd be doing anyway. Things like renewing my passport, hunting down a 1 iron, getting a new camera. A bunch of it, though, is really travel-specific. I need to get a new backpack that's lighter and in better shape than the one I have now. I need a new laptop, or at least a new screen and refurb for the old one. I need sleep sheets, and travel vax, and clothes that are good for golf or touring. I need those golf-able clothes to be at least mostly something I'd normally choose to wear.

All together, including all that stuff up there and transportation to my starting point, I need about $1800 to $2500 worth of stuff. I can cut corners in a couple places, and some stuff I over estimated. Still- I want to be going again by the middle of January. That's not very long.

Oh well, the travel will be about the same cost as staying at home, I'll at least have *some* kind of insurance, and maybe I'll finally smoosh some Spanish into this brain of mine.

One major plus if I begin in Mexico? Spending the same on rent there as I do here will get me at least a studio apartment. No roommates.

What Do You Want to be When You Grow Up?

People ask kids that every day. Maybe not the same kid, but someone, somewhere, asks that. After I got over the fact that I wasn't *really* a princess (which was a bit of a shock, and still hasn't totally worn off) I decided I wanted to be retired.

Now, I get the feeling that not a lot of kids go around saying that. I'd imagine it's mostly adults that want to be retired when they grow up. But from what I saw, work sucked! Mom and Dad would go to work super early, stay there all day, come home exhausted and angry, and have to do it all again the next day. Who wants to do that? In contrast my (retired) grandparents watched TV, went to art classes, joined clubs, and generally had an ok time. Doesn't take a genius to figure out which is the better job.

When people ask what you want to be when you grow up they expect a certain type of answer- doctor, fireman, police officer, video game designer. If you tell them you want to be retired, they look at you funny and tell you retirement comes *after* work. Pretty sure I'm still not buying that. It's one of only three things I've ever wanted to be, though. In fact, it's probably the most attainable. Well, for now.

Being a novelist, after all, requires actually writing a novel- preferably a good one. And animal doctoring? Takes a whole lot more geographic stability (and classroom time) than I can manage right now. I think I proved that one pretty conclusively, at least. So that leaves retirement.

Problem is, I don't want to put it off, and I don't want to work like a dog to fund it. Everything else I've done has really been trying to fit my dream job into some kinda framework that other people thought would be ok. Now I'm trying to work some way of earning money into my dream. I think it works better this way.

Kinda funny, though. Every time I told someone what I wanted to be when I grow up (still hasn't happened) they'd tell me you couldn't do that. I don't remember anyone (before I learned to lie about it) suggesting ways to make it happen. Maybe it's a bit forward thinking of me, or obviously liberal, but you shouldn't have to hate your life for years before you get to chase your *real* dreams.

Heck, without dreams and dreamers we'd still all be living in caves. Un-painted, boring caves. Imagine you're a kid again. You can do or be *anything*. What is the one thing that pulls you hardest? Is there any way you could do it now?

Self-Employment, Life, and Taxes

When you have a job, you just get a check. Taxes come out, but until about February, most people with jobs don't need to think about taxes at all. When you don't have a job? Suddenly the tax thing is a huge scary monster.

When you work for yourself you're responsible for your own taxes. Sounds obvious, but it's trickier than I thought. Take home pay calculators for the traditionally employed are all over the internets. Calculators that can/ will do the math on self employment taxes are rather more difficult to find. To be safe I've been working with 35% overall tax rate- FICA, state, fed, whatever.

Turns out this is (more than a little) high. There's no way in any colored hell I'll make enough to pay that much. This year I'll be lucky if I make enough to pay federal income tax at all. Feels strange to write that, by the way--lucky to pay tax. A more accurate tax rate for me, random web site told me, is 22 to 28 percent, including state, fed, and FICA--if I make $4,000 a month for the rest of the year. Not bad.

Related to the whole tax thing, I have to figure out what my tax home is. I don't think you can be without a tax home, and I don't want to be taxed SC state income tax (7% of everything) while I'm off living in some random country. So I foresee some quality time spent between the IRS website, and their Q&A hotline.

Positive stuff this weekend included reading about someone who wandered past an ~300USD /month studio with all utilities included in the non-tourist part of Playa del Carmen. Ok, the *less* tourist part. With WiFi. That's $70 less a month than I pay now, and without a car my savings would be even better. Mexico and South America sound better every day. I'm dreaming about travelling and paying down my debts, all for about what it's costing me to eke out some miserable un-life here. Sounds good to me, even if it means travelling slower than slow.

Start of Month Update- August 2010

Sorry this was a bit delayed- trying to earn the big bucks take time, I guess- well, at a panny a word it does, anyway.

So goals for August are pretty much all money related. I'm gonna take the relaxing, meditating, exercising stuff off for now, because I don't do them, then I feel bad. So I'm dropping them, but I'm sure they'll be back eventually.

So, goals-

• Make enough to pay the bills this month- including (at least) $100 for dad, and the car insurance which is up at the end of the month.
• Write enough articles at textbroker each day to make $50
• Write and submit at least one perfect, clean article a week to Constant Content * (so 3 or 4 this month)
• No matter what, even if all the available article titles at tb suck, write at least one article
• Start working within 2 hours of waking up- every day.
• Write at least one 300 word article for my travel page a day, starting Saturday.
• Get said website actually up and running with at least 10 pages by the end of the month, with 5 up by the 15th.

And some longer range stuff that I need to work on-

• Passport photos, and renewal
• Price digital cameras to replace the one I killed
• Price netbooks for when I take off again
• Start putting together packing list/ to do list for trip
• Save for that trip
• Get other student loans on either forbarence or income based repayment.
• work on timelines for trip-type departure. Looking at December or January.
• Do more research RE: budgets where I'm looking to start out. Connect with people in those areas, find out realistic prices.
• Work on Spanish.

I think that's enough to keep me busy. Some of this is a bit fantasy at the moment. I'm trying to figure out how much I can pull off. I should be able to travel for about what I live on now, albeit in a rather super-budget-kinda way. I'll have to actually *work* on it now, though. Hopefully the idea of getting back out into the world from my small, sad, rat shack life will be enough to get/ keep me motivated.

* The Constant Content link is an affiliate link. If you click on it and sign up to be a writer there, and actually sell something, I get 5% of the sale price. It comes out of the portion CC takes, and their commision is the same if you use the affiliate link or not. I haven't actually got anything up (as of Aug 6, 2010), so I can't tell you with any real authority that it works, but there are some pretty happy writers there. It's web content, nothing first person (no "I"), no fiction, no poetry. But it pays much better than textbroker, and you can pick what you write.

August 2010 Goal post is Postponed

Need to make the money to pay the rent to live in the house, cook the food, and use the internets.

Back 6th August 2010.

Oh, and I made my July $ goal- by about $0.20. I get paid for it sometime in September, but it's nice to know it's possible.