Are you willing to do without something now so you can have it (and more) later? You can either pay now or pay later. When you pay now (meaning pay yourself by putting something aside) you are ahead of most creative people. It gives you an edge. Do you want to be able to achieve a dream? Have a feeling of peace and prosperity? Have a huge burden lifted off your shoulders? Or does living paycheck to paycheck or project to project mean living dangerously? Is being one crisis away from disaster stimulating? I find it stressful – how about you?  Maybe what could motivate some of us to save is to look at all the good things that can happen if we set some money aside. It is worth a shot, anyway.

•  Save face.  Having some money saved equals freedom. Freedom to choose what you want and don’t want to do. Freedom from worry (at least about money) and the freedom of doing things you want to do.
• Save your sanity.  There is a lot of less pressure when you have money to fall back on. You’ll feel more secure and you can concentrate on your creativity. You definitely don’t want to be desperate. Money in the bank is a boost to your brain. It’s one less thing you have to worry about, and it’s less of a distraction.
• Save your career. It takes a long time to build a creative career. You will likely have to do a lot of things that don’t pay right away – if ever.  Projects can take forever to get going. You have to budget for these long waiting periods. You need cash flow. It is also smart to have an emergency fund, just in case.
• What about your kids? It can cost tens of thousands to send kids to school.
• Save for a Rainy Day.  There are cycles in the lives of creative professionals. When it rains it pours, followed by a long drought. You must live on LESS than you make, or else you won’t it over the long haul and through the tough times. You know what I mean. Publishers’s don’t care about your rent, so you have to do.
• Save yourself. The expression that ‘you need money to make money’ is true. If you are unable to find someone to produce or publish your work, you can always produce or publish it yourself – if you have some money.

ACTION TIME

If you keep going the way you are, where will you be in ten years? What is the worst possible outcome? Now write a happy ending. Think for a minute about how you want to live when you are older. How much money will you need? Where do you see it coming from?

Then Reasons Why We Won’t Save

1.  When I make more, then I’ll save is our excuse.
2.  We feel like the good times will last forever
3.  You have nothing to save for
4.  You don’t want to give up the good life.
5.  Not to worry. Someone or something will save me.
6.  Some simply don’t believe in saving.
7.  Some of us start to save, but life’s little tragedies keep getting in the way.
8.  The future will take care of itself.
9.  Don’t know how to save
10.  Easy come, easy go

How to Save Yourself

•  Take small steps
•  Make it automatic
•  Maybe you need something to save for
•  Increase earnings or reduce spending
•  Quit a bad habit and use the savings to start a savings
•  Try to save 10 to 40 percent of any big payments you get