Designing the Perfect Day Job Begins with Knowing How Much Money You Need
I am working with 4 creatives helping them design the perfect day jobs for themselves. (I have room for two more in my beta program. The info about it is here).
An opportunity to design your perfect day job
I’m doing this work with people to test my theory that a simple path you can follow to create a day job for yourself, actually exists, and I can show you what it is.
Here’s what I’ve learned so far.
Designing your day job starts with knowing how much money you need to live on, and that number is both bigger and smaller than you think.
It’s bigger in that it has to include setting aside regular amounts every month to cover expenses that don’t happen every month, like emergency car or tooth or eyeglass repair. Usually everyone understands emergencies happen and that it’s good to save for them in advance.
Aside from emergencies, you should also be saving for these things
But It’s also important to set aside money for things that you might consider frivolous, but that matter for your long-term sanity--like taking a vacation even if that means saving for an extra tank of gas to drive to a campsite out of town--plus for whatever your definition of self-care is: massage, a professional shave once in a while, paying someone else to wash your car, a new book every month. Spending small but regular amounts of money on caring for yourself staves off feeling deprived. This matters because the normal remedy for deprivation is a spending spree.
Weirdly, the number may also be smaller than you think.
Asking yourself: does this expenditure serve a purpose?
I recently made a list of every subscription, membership dues and website hosting fees that my business pays yearly. It came to $3,000.00. This isn’t a ton of money, but it’s a much bigger number than I would have predicted.
Do I need each of these apps and memberships? Time to find out. I’m going down the list and asking myself “What outcome do I want to achieve with this expenditure?“ and seeing if I’m getting it with each one.
Designing your own perfect day job
Is there a simple path to designing your day job? I hope so. At least I found the first few crucial steps. Not surprisingly, they involve getting clear about money.
If you want to explore designing your own day job with me, (including hand-holding about figuring out your money, if you need that), click here for information.