Money grows on the tree of persistence.
--Japanese proverb
















Photo by Guwashi999.

30-Day Economic Stability Challenge Wrap Up

It's that time again. While there's always more to say on finances, it's time to wrap this one up. Don't worry, there will be more posts on maintaining workplace serenity no matter the economic conditions.

In case you missed any, here's a recap:

The power of serenity: It's easy to be serene when you're flush with cash. But how do you maintain it when you've got $13 in your bank account. I share how I did it when a check from a client bounced.

Financial mind shifts for successful freelancing: Five new ways of seeing money and business in order to stay solvent no matter the financial tides.

Financial planning 101: Q&A with financial planner Sherrill St. Germain on the most common financial blunders freelancers make.

How I increased my income in nine months: Six steps that caused my income to shoot up.

Collecting what's yours: Guest blogger Kristine Hansen shares how to go about getting your money when a client is behind.

Three ways to increase your income this month: Short term cash can be hard to come by, but here's how to use your writing skills to make some bank now.

Prioritizing cashflow: Guest blogger Julie Sturgeon shares how she made room in her budget to create a cash cushion.

Proving you're worth the money: Two ways to increase income with current clients, and how to show you're worth it.

Creating order with financial plans: Guest blogger Katrina Ramser shows how to prioritize spending, saving and debt repayment.

Budget vs. spending plan: Why I prefer the latter and how it can help you save.

Creating a spending plan: Knowing you should have one and actually sitting down to create one are quite different. Seven easy steps to your first spending plan.

Having your day in (small claims) court: Guest blogger and legal journalist Lorelei Laird shares how she won back payment in small claims court and how you can do it too.

Ways to save: Four ways to add saving into your spending plan, and to keep at it.

Creating a personal savings marketing plan: Convince yourself to save the same way brands convince you to spend.

The great health insurance challenge: Affordable, quality health insurance is a block to financial stability. What works for you?

The case against high-deductible plans: Why low-premium, high-deductible plans may not be the best financial option for you.

Group healthcare love for the lonely freelancer: Seven writers groups that offer health insurance, and whether it might work for you.

More group health love: Three more places to look for group health plans, and one big warning.

Fear not the IRS: Ways to make peace with the IRS at tax time.

Setting up quarterly estimated taxes: A few easy steps to paying tax as you go, and avoiding penalties.

Photo by Refracted Moments.

30-Day Economic Stability Challenge: Creating a personal savings marketing plan

Yesterday, I shared a few ideas of how to save. But I've noticed a resistance to saving in myself. That resistance is, frankly, that I'd rather spend the money on stuff I can have now than just have money laying around.

I don't feel as good viscerally about saving as I do about spending. Even though I know intellectually it's better for me, it's more satisfying to spend. I'm working on changing that perception.

How? I'm creating a personal marketing campaign for myself. The great blog Take Back Your Brain! is all about creating these kind of marketing campaigns, to get yourself to do things that are more satisfying than simply buying whatever they're selling today. Their approach goes something like this:

Fifth Avenue spends millions--maybe even billions--every year to convince you that you need the new iPhone, the new Wii, that new handbag or this new dress. If you saw as many ads for the things that would bring you real happiness and serenity, you might be as likely to do them.

A recent post at TBYB! talked about just this kind of saving personal marketing campain. Here's the way they recommended you pursue it:

• Save the money FOR something. You probably don’t want to save money for its own sake, but because of something else it can secure for you. What is that?
• Find an emotional hook. Why do you want that thing? What is it about it that motivates you? Remind yourself about that.
• Help yourself visualize the outcome. Bombard yourself with images of yourself already having it (ideally with fun, attractive friends…).
• Be relentlessly aggressive. Use multiple modalities and repeat often. Adapt the campaign as you go along.

I can relate to this. Recently I got the surprise gift of $50 unlimited calling on my cell phone. All of a sudden, I was struck by the uncontrollable desire to have a Google phone. Oh, sweet Google phone, I long for your constant internet connectivity, your maps and full keyboard. Right now, I have just a phone phone--no internet, barely any texting, not even bluetooth. But it's, you know, a phone. It works fine. Still, as soon as I got that new plan, I started fantasizing: I could imagine myself with it, how much happier I'd feel, how much more efficient and effective I'd be in my business.

Saving money never gives me that feeling. I am, as a friend likes to say of herself, a seive for money. I can't hold it. There's always something I want more, something way more exciting than just having financial stability.

But now I'm realizing I need it--more than I need a Google phone, an iPhone, or a new pair of boots. The problem is, I can imagine myself with those things. Since I've never been good at saving, I can't imagine myself doing that. So I need to train my brain differently.

The way I'm doing that is by creating a vision board for myself. I know, hippie dippy. I'm not a fan of the Secret--the law of attraction is nothing without a plan and regular action toward that plan--but I find vision boards help retrain my brain the way TBYB! describes. I have two already: One for my life in general and one on how I want to feel about my work. I'm creating a vision board for how I will feel when I have 6 months income in savings.

The primary image I have in my head, which I haven't yet found, is of a thick glass bowl filled with money. To me, it's the antidote to being a seive for money. I love the idea. Holding it, keeping it, seeing the money overflowing. That's an image I can get behind. It makes me feel secure and confident. I imagine how much more sturdy I'll be when I have it. Words like "independence" and "control" come to mind.

I'm cutting those words out of magazines now to put on the board. I'm also looking for images of people enjoying retirement, because I want to save for that, too. I want that feeling of having enough, which often eludes me.

One thing that all of this cutting out old magazines is teaching me is that I read the wrong magazines. It became clear to me early on in the magazine-cutting process that almost none of my magazines were good for this. All my women's magazines, in fact, were all about spending--all about divesting myself of money in exchange for the short lived confidence of looking hip and cute and in the club.

I'm preparing to subscribe to my first financial magazine, because I want to fill my brain with that stuff on a regular basis.

What money magazine do you recommend?

Photo by tao_zhyn.

30-Day Economic Stability Challenge: Three Ways to Increase Your Income This Month

In a pinch?

So often on freelance boards, writers pose the hopeful question: What do you do to bring in more money this month? We aren't talking about raising your income in the long run. Sometimes, you just need money now.

There are a few options, but proceed with caution: These suggestions are not a replacement for a business plan or a marketing plan. You will not last as a freelancer if you try to use these suggestions to keep your business afloat. They are stop-gap measures, and as such take you away from the focus you've created with your plan. As writer Merydith Willoughby replied when I posted this question on LinkedIn:

Writing has to be considered a business: You will have to make your mark in the particular genre you write in, be excellent in your field and work your butt off to make links, contacts, etc. Once you've achieved all that, yes you can achieve your goal. It takes time, hard work, years, stamina and patience and a willingness to always improve what you are doing. Other than that, yep - it's easy.

The other bad news is that there aren't many options that both pay well and pay quickly. Usually you get one or the other. What's that old saying? "I can do it quickly, I can do it well or I can do it cheaply. Choose two." The same usually goes for freelance writing, only instead of choosing between cheap and fast, you're choosing between well-paying and fast.

Having said that, here's what my LinkedIn colleagues had to say:

Option #1: Low-paying but regular clients

In Six Figure Freelancing, one of the things Kelly James-Enger impresses upon new freelancers is that it's important to just get a stream of money coming in. For her, it was writing for hospitals. For me, it was doing movie reviews and advertorial. Sure, they paid terribly and took up a bunch of my time, but I like movies, and they paid a week after I turned in the reviews.

This is what freelancer (and full disclosure: friend) Vanessa Richardson does. "[My way of making money quickly from writing] is writing a lot of blog entries for this AOL website that pays little but at least pays on time."

Finding these can be relatively simple. Low-paying work is available on Craigslist, MediaBistro and elsewhere. The key is to keep it a small part of your income stream and your time commitment so you don't fall into the trap I did: Spending so much time doing low-paying work you don't have time to query higher-paying markets. If you've managed this, I'd love to hear about it.

Option #2: Tutoring

If you're a decent editor and can get your hands on a Chicago Manual of Style or other style guide, you can post signs around local universities, advertising your editing skills for students needing help with their essays. You won't make $1/word rates, probably, but you will make a decent amount to fill the gaps.

Or, go more global with your teaching. Rob Duncan, keynote speaker and self-described "innovation catalyst" suggests you "teach others how to write through college night courses, seminars, the Learning Annex, webinars or paid speaking gigs. Plug your nose, and sell the dream!"

Option #3: Editing Resumes and Cover Letters

The same goes for this idea. Dave Gardner, a writer and editor with 27 years experience has a lot of practice "getting new jobs after others go south." This is one of the ways he does it.

"I've been helping folks with their resumes and cover letters," he says. "The economy makes resumes and cover letters something a lot of folks need. They need them now, they pay quickly, and they appreciate what you've done for them. It just takes a little advertising (a flyer at the local unemployment office and at the temp agencies works well) and networking when out and about."

Option #4: Selling a Story a Minute (Almost)

Outgoing? Like strangers? This idea might be for you--emphasis on might.

"There used to be a guy in Chicago who would set up his manual typewriter on a street corner and write a 2-minute novel about your life," says writer Bob Rosenbaum. "He'd ask you about five questions and then bang out two paragraphs about you with a beginning, middle and end. All for whatever amount you wanted to put into his typewriter case."

What I didn't include
You may have noticed that I didn't include those freelance boards where you compete with other writers to land short-term assignments. That's because I consider them both not writing and not useful to any kind of freelance writing business model. Think about it: It's about stringing keywords together to lure eyes to ads, not writing. And for the pleasure of doing work that isn't fulfilling, you'll get to compete with other freelancers, drive down the price, and usually pay some kind of monthly fee. That's not worth it, and I'm willing to bet you deserve better.

Have other writing-related ways to make quick cash? Share them in the comments.

Photo by zzzack.

30-Day Self-Care Challenge: Day 25

Wow. How quickly a month goes.

Today's Self-Care Action: Say No

My mother is a kind, artistic woman who always made the holidays warm. And she still has a bit of her mother and grandmother's pioneer spirit. Instead of buying fancy and overpriced tree ornaments, we'd visit the local craft store and buy plaster ornaments. We'd sit for hours on the dark brown living room rug as she'd train our little fingers and hands in the fine art of painting the fur on a teddy bear skying down a mountain. One year, my mother sewed stuffed dolls-from-around-the-world ornaments. We'd go, usually the day before Christmas, and buy a Christmas tree and spend the evening decorating it with lights and our homemade ornaments while my dad DJed the Christmas carols on the stereo. It was always clear to me that the holiday was about the people and not the stuff. I was very lucky.

So why am I saying no to my parents' very generous request to have me home of the holidays?

The answer is simple, but not easy: Taking care of myself this year means not overextending myself financially or socially. It's a rough decision, and one I may yet reverse should more assignments come pouring in. But as of now, I've decided the sane and serene course is to keep it simple.

This year, that means:

* Sticking to my spending plan: Part of my business plan and my monthly spending plan is a list of prioritized expenditures. I have them for my business (join professional groups, save for a conference next year, buy a more ergonomic office chair, get disability insurance), but I also have a list for my personal life. That list includes everything from a recent trip to Disneyland to saving to replace the caps on my teeth next year, to a long-planned trip to Palm Springs for my loved one's birthday in January.

But here's the thing: I love my family and I want to see them. So when they asked in August that I come to visit, I looked at my numbers, made some calculations, moved a few things around and thought I could afford it.

I accepted. And then I had to make the agonizing decision to back out. Why? Because those earlier calculations were more about my desire to see my family than my practical ability to afford the trip.

We all do it. We all want to please those we love and spend time with them. But we all know what it feels like when we go to far: We feel crazy, we feel stressed, and suddenly we're picking fights with those very loved ones and preoccupied with how we're going to replace the money we spent for a trip or a present we couldn't afford.

So this year, I'm trying something different. I'm just going to stick to my plan. Save money. Fulfill preexisting commitments. Keep it simple.

How are you making your holidays more manageable?