On Paying Myself First
Published by Laya under Re:Definition of Self on September 10, 2008In my travels around the wilds of the Internets (the blogosphere in particular), I was linked to an article on the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer’s of America, Inc. site called “50 Strategies for Making Yourself Work“. I skimmed the list - thinking in particular about strategies for me to get through NaNo successfully - and one of the suggestions jumped out at me:
Pay yourself an hourly wage for time worked, and don’t allow yourself leisure activities (movies, dinner out, etc.) unless you can pay for it with this writing money.
Why didn’t I think of that? And then I remembered: Oh yeah. I *did* think of that. Except, I was going to pay myself a dollar every time I did something on my to-do list. There were only two problems with that strategy: 1) I’m terrible at to-do lists (making or keeping them), and 2) I’ve got champagne tastes. $1 is barely enough to get me to do something I want to do, let alone something I am actively avoiding. My procrastination-fu is legendary.
The article got me thinking again (always a dangerous thing, that). First, I need to pay myself more. $8 per hour sounds about right - enough to motivate me but not enough to break my budget if I get extra productive. Second, the “don’t allow yourself leisure activities” part is key. Except, for me it’s not about leisure activities (especially things like plays and concerts :P). It’s about media - books, DVD’s, video games, movies at the theater, and dear God, the music!! If I keep buying music at the rate I’ve been going, Amazon’s MP3 Store is going to have my first-born, iTunes my 2nd, and Sound Garden my 3rd. So, instead of just buying album after album only to discover only halfway to my next check that I’m just about broke, I will have to work for every $1 I spend on any form of media, from now on. And I won’t pay myself just to write, but to do anything I tend to be passive aggressive about: cleaning, doing laundry, organizing my stuff, doing my taxes.
And of course, I have a question for those of you out there: do you know any good prepaid credit/debit cards? I don’t want to open another bank account if I can help it, and I don’t want to leave it to just estimating how much of my total money I’ve “earned”…”Oops! I just spent three times as much as I paid myself in one trip to Barnes and Noble. Silly me! I guess I’ll just have to catch up!” Yeah, no. That way lies disaster. Any suggestions?
Hello there, this is a pretty good idea.
There is a prepaid credit card called Green Dot. I believe they can be signed up for at grocery stores, my cousin did one a few years ago, and now Mom is thinking of making one for my brother. Its convenient, and I think you can check your balance online as well as by phone.
Here is the site: https://www.greendotonline.com/contents/login.aspx
I hope that helps.
Your just full of projects aren’t you =)
Later dudette.
Coo, thanks! And I AM the project, lol!
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