I had a hysterical working mom experience this week. Others might have found it horribly offensive, but I’m the type to crack up at even the slightly amusing and this went well beyond slightly… The biggest little man in my life brought home some library books from school yesterday. He’s in kindergarten this year with weekly trips to the school library. Like we do every
Earlier this summer, the (U.S.) government passed a law that requires you to opt-in before banks can charge you an overdraft fee. By opting-in, you agree that banks can process transactions that are over your account balance and you agree to pay the associated overdraft fee. You can also opt-out, which means banks won’t process transactions that exceed your balance and therefore your account won’t
There is a huge focus on full-time freelance careers with conversations often centering on how quickly a writer (or designer or coder) can run away from work and stay at home being creative all day long. Understandable, but I don’t think it needs to be a universal message. Writing full-time is not for everyone, and it’s certainly not for me. Freelancing Full-Time There is no
Let’s pretend for a second that I’ve heard tales of a child who was home-schooled for years and just joined a high school last year. So long as we’re pretending, we should also pretend that his mother is trying to “help” him graduate at 16 so a very close, practically inseparable, friend of mine now has a 13-year-old freshman. It’s a good thing y’all are
Throughout the time I’ve been freelancing, I’ve worked with several different clients. I’ve encountered all types of payment situations. While some clients have sent payments on time without a hassle, not all clients payments have been ideal. As you work with clients, you’ll notice their payment habits fall into one of several categories. “The check’s in the mail.” This is the client who claims they’ve
The modern woman is supposed to have it all! I have it all, for the most part anyway, and I can tell you that the joy and satisfaction that is supposed to be encompassing my very being right now is nonexistent. Having it “all” is a bunch of bullshit. Do I hate my life? Nope. I like it. But I fully realize that my life
When you’re a freelancer, your money comes in spurts. You might get $500 this week, $200 next week, and $1,500 the week after that. Some money comes by check, others direct deposit, and others through PayPal or maybe even wire transfer. And you have to keep up with all of it. Managing a freelance income is hard enough. If you’re spending money as it comes
I read a comment on a financial blog written by a woman who resented her situation in life. She hated being the primary breadwinner and having almost sole responsibility of her child. She hated that her husband (who she didn’t actually hate, by the way) couldn’t seem to get it together and didn’t have the ability to support her while she stayed home. She had
At 22 years old, I was making $55K per year and I was the envy of all my friends. But I was still broke and I couldn’t figure out why. For months, I was unhappy about my job partly because I wasn’t enjoying the money I was making. Then, it dawned on me – the money’s going somewhere, I just had to figure out where
A few days ago I considered cussing out anyone who would listen, grabbing some beers and sliding down my boy’s plastic slide to enjoy the temporary benefits of being totally irresponsible and free. Of course this was not really an option – I don’t have beer in the house and the plastic slide wouldn’t hold my weight. However, I did do something about being overwhelmed
When you make the switch from full-time employee to full-time freelance writer, your health insurance options will change dramatically. If your spouse is still employed, you may be able to enjoy their group health benefits. Otherwise, you’ll be seeking an outside source for health coverage. There are more options than you may believe. I can’t cover all of them extensively in a single post, so
My husband worked at home exclusively for more than five years. During this time he kept the kids a fair amount while I taught, but it never ceased to amaze me how much he wanted to hide the kids from his business associates. In his mind and perhaps the minds of others, it was only a “real” job if he could fool everyone into thinking
It’s almost time to start another year! Parents and teachers know exactly what I’m talking about. They live in my universe where January is simply part of winter break and the REAL year starts in mid-August or early September when kids go back to school. In this family, I always go back to school and I’ll have one heading off to kindergarten *stifle sob* and
I don’t talk about finances much here other than issues revolving around rates and making money. That’s an area where I know my stuff, but I leave the rest to our resident financial experts. Today though I want to talk about money — my money — with a personal look at how freelance success has, and hasn’t, changed how I spend. Some Background One thing
Back in April, I promised to tell you about retirement options available for freelance writers. I’m three months late, but better late than never right? I have to admit, thinking about retirement savings is not the most interesting topic. In fact, it can be boring. But I’ll do boring if it means I get to spend my 50+ years enjoying the world’s beaches. Let me
Yesterday I got a searing headache. Headaches aren’t usual for me and this one had a cause that was very easily identifiable and I should have known better. It wasn’t lack of water or lack of sleep (for once.) The IRS hasn’t called lately and the scale isn’t too horrifying for the week. The cause of this particular headache was my children. The worst part?
If the idea of an all-nighter fills you with excitement and gritty determination to see it through to morning with coffee, sugar and a big welcoming bed the moment the project is finally complete – you’re not a parent. Or at least you’re not the parent looking forward the 6 A.M. wake up call every morning of the week, every week of the year you’ve
In our last installment, we established that all mothers tend to judge each other from time to time. Okay, you’re right – you don’t, but the rest of us at least recognize that the thoughts cross our minds from time to time. I think I might be worse than most because I deal with the product of poor home lives more than most adults (I
Being a freelance writer and working from home are great. There are some obvious cost savings. For example, you won’t have to pay the cost of commuting to and from work, so you’ll save money on gas. Your clothing expenses might also go down since you don’t have to buy the more expensive business casual or professional clothes for to wear to work. As you
It’s not a secret that moms have to work hard to not openly judge other moms. You see a parent disciplining a child in a way that you’re not comfortable with and immediately you’re thinking about that technique and what sort of mother would do such a thing and how you would never in your lifetime even consider….etc…. Judging is insanely easy to do, and
I’ve decided to open a third checking account. Right now, I have two accounts – one business account that holds my income until I’m ready to “pay” myself and another that receives my monthly paychecks. The second is a personal account that I use for paying bills and other various spending. While most of my bills are paid by the 5th of the month, I
For some it’s a dream, for others a necessity, but it can be tricky to find an ideal situation for work-at-home moms and they don’t usually mind. There isn’t much about parenting that’s ideal, after all. For the record, Carol Brady had the ideal set-up. I keep waiting for my Alice to come to cook, clean and offer sage bits of wisdom while I do
Ultimately, the question of whether you’re ready to make freelance writing your full-time job comes down to whether you consistently make enough money to pay all your bills each month. But just how much money do you need to make to quit your job and freelance full-time? I don’t know the exact number, but I can tell you how to figure it out. You need
It’s secret time! It’s been my experience that we all have a few dirty little secrets stashed away, and working from behind a computer screen lets us get away with a few harmless fibs every now and then – not that I would lie. I really do still look like that picture I posted from ten years ago…before two c-section deliveries…really, I’m still that hot!
Every office needs a coffee table. Whether it’s to hold meetings with clients around, spread out potential magazines for querying on or to simply have somewhere to rest your feet during your mid-morning break, a coffee table has a variety of uses. Unlike my previous two posts (how to build a desk and a bookcase), I haven’t actually made this coffee table myself. I drew
Freelance writer vacations are important, but for many freelancers vacation days are non-existent. If you do manage to take a vacation, you’ll probably be stuck working early mornings and late nights because you can’t afford to abandon your work completely. There are still bills that need to be paid. At my last corporate job, allowed us to buy an extra week of vacation. Payroll simply deducted
My fellow WAHM, have you ever noticed just how ridiculous certain aspects of our life can be? I, for one, rode around today with my youngest’s chocolate pudding cup in the front of my truck next to a plastic container full of worms my oldest determinedly collected yesterday. But this pales in comparison to the other pieces of my WAHM life that just slap me
The lack of employer-sponsored retirement plans is another drawback of freelancing and self-employment. But just because you don’t have a corporation matching your 401K contributions doesn’t mean you should forgo retirement savings all together. Sure, freelance writing is flexible, but do you really want to continue doing it for the rest of your life? Can you do it for the rest of your life? During
I’m fully convinced that the most hilarious, deep-seated irony of the universe revolves around freedom of choice. Think of those teenage years when you struggled, fought, threatened, snuck out and wore horrible clothing to express yourself and gain true independence from the overbearing monsters we call parents. For most of us, now that we have free will, we live with gusto. We stay out all
In last month’s post, I explained how to build an L-shaped desk based on a project I carried out several years ago. The reason I built my own desk, apart from the fact that I needed a separate writing space was that I was in the same boat as a lot of new freelancers and money wasn’t as flush as it could have been. Not