The Freelancer’s Survival Guide: Money, Part Three Kristine Kathryn Rusch The money topic. As I mentioned two posts ago, it’s difficult for Americans to talk about money. And these last few weeks have borne that out. The moment I mentioned money, the comments slowed, the e-mail stopped, and so did the donations. If it weren’t for the website statistics and Twitter, I would have thought that people had stopped coming to my website. Instead, tweets pointing out the posts have abounded on Twitter (thanks y’all) and the number of unique visitors to my website has gone up dramatically since I started the posts about money. But the silence has been deafening. I’m not sure if that’s because y’all are waiting for me to get through the entire money section before commenting, … Read entire article »

The Freelancer’s Survival Guide: Money, Part Two Kristine Kathryn Rusch I remember the exact moment when I learned how pernicious expenses were. I was nineteen years old, six months married, and exceedingly naïve. My parents, as I mentioned in Money, Part One, never discussed money. Not ever. I had no idea they made house payments. I didn’t know that electricity cost money. I had a vague idea that they paid for groceries because I watched my mom whip out the checkbook every week. But the costs of daily living simply did not exist for me as I grew up. I didn’t live away from home until I got married. By then, I knew intellectually that people paid rent and utilities, but I didn’t understand the implications of that. I … Read entire article »

< The Freelancer’s Survival Guide: Money, Part One Kristine Kathryn Rusch As you could probably tell if you’ve been reading this Guide since I started it, I’ve been putting off this topic. I’ve been putting it off for several reasons. Money is a difficult topic to discuss. Most people don’t want to think about it. Most of us don’t know how to discuss it. Most of us consider financial information private—even more private than our sex lives (and you know how you are, you TMI people, you). And yet money is probably the most important topic of all for freelancers. Because money—the lack of it or, oddly enough, an abundance of it—is the primary reason most freelance businesses fail. I am going to spend at least two more posts on financial issues, … Read entire article »