Saving Ink

The (2009-2019) blog of Anna Spysz, a recovering journalist, freelancing philomath and published half-author out to take over the world. I am a (digital) nomad, not a farmer. Start here or skip to the good stuff. Frequent topics: freelancing | journalism new media | sleep

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Freelancing, by the Numbers: 2018

Or, thus endeth my freelance journey, being a writer (for now), and this blog.

2017 was a hard year: I moved back to the U.S. after a far more comfortable life abroad and spent much of the year coming to terms with my diminished income and the ever-declining political situation.

I’m happy to say that 2018 was much, much better.

After a long freelance career as a writer, translator, online coursework maker, tech journalist, photographer, and general multi-hat wearer, I added yet another skill to that list: software developer. I also stopped being a freelancer.

In the winter and spring of 2018, I attended a full-time, full-stack coding bootcamp; it ended up being the best investment of my career. After graduation, I took a month off to finish some more app projects, polish my resume, go to Mexico (because por que no?), and begin the job hunt. In June, I somehow landed an internship at an amazing startup. In July, that internship turned into a full-time job, and I’ve been happily there ever since.

As someone used to being my own boss and setting my own schedule (not to mention living a nomadic lifestyle), working full-time in one place has certainly been an adjustment, but given the amazing team I work on and how much I get to learn every single day, in addition to all the hats I get to wear at work, it’s one I’m actually quite happy with.

As 2018 was no longer a year of freelancing, I feel the need to finish out this series, and with it, this blog (more on that at the very end). But because I still love charts, I’ll throw some in for my own entertainment.

So, on to the charts!

A little background: every year since I became a freelancer in 2011, I’ve summarized my earnings and expenses in order to keep myself accountable, see where my money was going, and try to do better the next year. Here are 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015-2016, and 2017.

Here come the charts!

Here is the breakdown of my income in 2018, by category:

Well, it’s pretty telling where my focus was this year: coding. Considering I was living off my savings for the first part of the year (that’s the “Other” category) and had no other income, that one’s a no-brainer. It’s also been many years since my book came out, so royalties are not surprisingly slumping.

Chances are, that’s what my income will look like for the next few years.

Here are my total expenses for 2018, by category:

So it turns out that when you actually start making money, the government really wants some of it. I am a little surprised that taxes ended up being a larger share of my spending than rent or groceries, but I guess those pothole-filled roads aren’t going to pay for themselves.

I imagine this will change somewhat when we buy a house, but probably not too much. I’m also proud of myself for managing to build up my savings and investment accounts once I did get a job, as they had been sadly neglected or depleted in the previous year and a half.

Also, my cat costs half as much as my groceries. I hope you appreciate that, Scamp.

Takeaway: Portland is still expensive as hell, but a career change made it possible for me to stay here.

My main workspace for 2018.

Goals for 2019 and beyond

I’m happy to say, I met all of my goals from the previous year (minus the bonus goal of visiting two new countries, as I was only able to add Mexico to the list). Canada awaits for 2019!

My goals for 2019 are pretty big, comparatively, and may take until 2020 to reach - and that’s ok:

continue growing as a developer: take advantage of being employed by an awesome startup full of talented engineers that I get to learn from every day

buy a house: yup, homeownership is a step I’m finally ready for - let’s hope the Portland housing market cooperates

keep traveling: travel has been a priority throughout my entire life, and while I’m diverting all of my extra money towards saving for a house right now, I still need to set aside some for much-needed adventures or I’ll go crazy

bonus: visit a new country (Canada, you’re like right there!)

Farewell, Saving Ink

And with this post, I close this blog for good. While it’s existed for a decade, to be honest I haven’t given it the attention it deserves since around 2015. 

Saving Ink was the blog of my 20s: all about travel, writing and freelancing. Now that I’m firmly in my 30s, I have a new home for my (far more occasional) writing, and most of my time is being devoted to getting better at my new career.

Thank you for reading.

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Freelancing, by the Numbers: 2017

Or, the year I stopped worrying and learned to stay put... mostly.

In 2017, I moved back to the U.S. after 11 years abroad (great timing, I know), and I had to deal with the realities of moving to a city that’s four times as expensive as the one I had been living in, while continuing to try to make it as a freelancer. TL;DR: It’s hard. Being poor again sucks.

A little background: every year since I became a freelancer in 2011 (OK, sometimes every two), I’ve summarized my earnings and expenses in order to keep myself accountable, see where my money was going, and try to do better the next year. (Here are 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015-2016.) This year was less about doing better, and more about not starving to death in one of the most expensive cities in America. In fact, that was my only goal for 2017 last year: to not go completely broke. On that end, I managed to succeed... barely.

Here come the charts!

Here is my breakdown of my income in 2017, by category:

Wow - 86% writing (92% if you count book royalties as well). Since my goal has generally been to earn half my income from writing, that’s not bad at all. However, a caveat: “Writing” this year was a very broad category. It included planning, researching, writing, and recording online coursework based on a book on entrepreneurship I had published the previous year. It also included producing a new version of said book. All in all, as the hours below will show, I spent only about half that time actually writing, though it was all time well spent learning new skills (guess who can now add screencasting to their resume?).

Here are my total expenses for 2017, by category:

So here are some obvious takeaways: cost of living in Portland is a lot higher than cost of living in Krakow (or anywhere in Poland). Whereas last year rent and utilities made up 15% of my budget, and groceries were 6%, this year rent and utilities made up 20% and groceries 11%. Then there’s the fact that I paid four to five times as much for phone and internet for far worse service than I had had in Poland. And, even though we were too broke to really go out and mostly ate at home, eating and drinking out in Portland is so expensive that those categories still made up 5 and 7 percent of my budget, respectively.

True to my prediction, I also traveled a lot less in 2017 (4% of my budget on vacation compared to 13% last year), making 2017 the first year in ages when I didn’t visit a new country (huge sad face on that one). I also invested a lot less (4% vs. 15% last year) and burned through my savings rather than saving anything. Really, the only upside about life in Portland is my health care expenses were cut down to 0% (thanks, Obamacare!), though now having to have a car for the first time in 12 years and having to pay for gas and insurance more than made up for that.

All in all: Portland is expensive as hell. Thus, I need a career change.

Here are my hours worked:

Not too shabby on this end. Since I was earning and spending in dollars this year, I managed to raise my per hour average rate by about $12 compared to Poland, though since my expenses quadrupled that didn’t make much of a difference. I did work more hours total, though this was largely concentrated in a six-month period over the spring, summer, and fall when I was working on the online coursework and book projects. Most of winter was spent looking for work, panicking, applying to bootcamps/scholarships, and, if I have to be completely honest, playing Assassin’s Creed Origins. 2018 will be drastically different on that end.

Goals for 2018

My only goals from last year were to not go completely broke (success, I suppose, as I broke even on my savings) and to earn some money coding. The latter went nowhere in 2017, but is at the forefront of 2018, as I will be starting a three-month, full-stack developer bootcamp next week. So here are the goals for 2018:

become employable as a developer: this will allow me to earn a real salary, gain new skills, and eventually return to freelancing or launch a startup as a developer.

earn at least $60k: sadly, this is the minimum wage I need to afford to live in Portland while also investing in my Roth IRA, building my savings back up, and saving to buy property in 2019.

visit at least one new country: as I’m already planning a trip to Mexico in April, this should be doable, even on a budget.

bonus: visit two new countries (Canada, I’m looking at you)

Conclusions

The hardest part of the past year was going from a comfortable lifestyle where I was firmly middle-class for the first time in my life to being poor again, having an empty house I could barely afford to furnish, and in general feeling like a fresh college graduate again rather than a mid-30s professional.

The second-hardest part was staying put in Portland through a grey, dreary and cold winter (notice the SAD lamp below). While I did take one trip to London and Poland last summer, I mostly stayed in rainy Portland. Since even coffee is expensive here, I spent most of the year working in one place: our sweet home office:

In fact, most of the year was about learning to work in one place, from trading in my super-portable but low-performing MacBook Air for a MacBook Pro, to building this office and outfitting it with everything we could need to be productive (minus a cat-proof door...).

I know 2017 sucked for most people. Between the politics and the poverty, it was the worst for me in a long time. While I can’t fix the politics (yet), my focus in 2018 will be on earning a much better living, whatever it takes.

Good riddance, 2017, I’m so over you. Bring on 2018 and all of its challenges and changes!

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A Tale of Two Years of Freelancing...ish

I like spreadsheets and charts. And graphs. And just about anything that can visually convey complex data - such as where my money goes each month or year.

That's why I began keeping track of my earning and spending in spreadsheets to the penny (or grosz in Poland) when I started freelancing in 2011, and I started publishing charts and graphs based on these spreadsheets in a series I called, "Freelancing, by the Numbers".

I did this in 2011, in 2012, in 2013, and in 2014. And I really, really meant to do it in 2015... and then 2016 came around, and still, nothing.

Granted, my blogging in general has dropped off since 2014. Part of that is an uptick of writing work that I've actually enjoyed, part of it is a loss of passion I'm still working on getting back, and part of it is that like many writers, I go through phases. Lately, my writing switch has been set to "off" (even though other creative sliders, like music or coding, have been more "on"). Like so:

Anyway, this isn't supposed to be an excuse for why I haven't done this in two years. So without further ado, a much-belated "Freelancing, by the Numbers: 2015 and 2016".

2015

2015 was, without comparison, the highest income year of my professional life, and I'm proud to say that well over a quarter of that income went into my investment and savings accounts. It was also the best I’ve done on the goal I set for myself in 2011: to make more than 50% of my income from writing. Here's what it looked like:

As for expenses...

Oh hey, I spent (slightly) more on groceries than booze. Good for me!

And finally, my hours worked:

Here were my goals from 2014:

work smarter - increase average hourly wage while keeping total hours worked about the same or less - DONE! My hourly wage nearly doubled while I spent about 400 fewer hours working

reduce food- and booze-related expenses by at least 1% - NOPE. Groceries and eating out stayed the same, but booze went down 1%

visit at least one new place on vacation - DONE! Greece, Saxony, and New Orleans for my first Mardi Gras

save or invest at least 25% of total income - DONE!

continue to earn 50% or more income from writing - DONE!

All in all, not too shabby. And I know I was far more satisfied with my work/life balance than I had been in 2014, when I was working full-time, especially once I returned to solely freelancing in October of that year.

2016

Compared to 2015, I earned a lot less in 2016 - on paper. But thanks to an amazing book contract from the end of 2015, I was able to mostly live off one contract for the year, and managed to even travel around Southeast Asia for two months. Then, I spent the summer turning down work and using that time to learn JavaScript. Which brings me to a major goal for 2017 - start getting paid to code. But more on that later; here’s what my 2016 income looked like:

Yes, writing dropped to under 50%, but considering I was mostly living off the previous year’s writing contract and royalties from the book I wrote in 2013 and just doing some additional translation work on the side, I’m OK with those numbers.

Here’s the money out:

Despite not having a regular income, I still invested a decent amount, though I did start to burn through my savings towards the end of the year (and will be doing that now for a while).

Oh yeah, and living in Thailand and Vietnam for a few months is a great way to drop your grocery and rent expenses! 

Here are my hours:

Considering I worked about two hours each weekday and still averaged the highest hourly wage I’ve ever had, 2016 was a success. I doubt I can keep that up in 2017, since really it was about three months of working 12-hour days and three months of not really working at all followed by six months of working some while moving to a different continent... If 2017 is to have a theme, it’ll be stability - at least relative stability for me, as that’s something I’ve lacked for the better part of the last decade.

Conclusions

The last two years were ones of travel and transition. Late last year, I closed the company I had started at the end of 2014, and realized I'd rather code than translate. And then I moved from my home of 11 years into the great unknown of the U.S. during a Trump presidency (yeah, that might not have been a smart move upon reflection, but the tickets were booked well before the election results were in). But thanks to the last two years, my visited countries map now looks like this:

Oh, and the places I worked from looked like this:

I expect 2017 will be drastically different than the past five years I've done this. After so much travel, I'll be settling down, making a home base, and seeing what staying put feels like. I'll also be using that time to learn the skills I need to launch my own products and hopefully build a company or two - something that often does require staying put.

My goals for 2017 are humble: don’t go broke in a place that’s four times as expensive as what I’m used to, and find some paying work coding. If I manage to pull that off, I’ll count 2017 as a success.

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About Me

“Hello, my name is Anna Spysz, I’m 33 years old, and I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up.”

“Hello Anna.”

“Now Anna, what seems to be the problem?”

“Well, I’m really good at, but not great at, a lot of things, and I’m interested in everything.”

“Everything, really?”

“Yeah, pretty much. There’s nothing* I wouldn’t want to learn more about.”

“Well, let’s do the $1 million test. Do you know what that is?”

“No.”

“I ask you what would you do if you had a million dollars – or in general, if you never had to worry about money and could do anything you wanted for a living – and your answer is supposed to be your dream job. OK?”

“OK.”

“So Anna, if you had a million dollars, what would you do with your life?”

“I would learn and travel. I would go back to college, I’d go to several colleges, and get dozens of degrees, in all sorts of subjects, while traveling to every corner of the world and learning from the people I met along the way. I’d just keep taking classes, not for credit, not for research, but just to learn. I’d have hundreds of majors and take classes in philosophy and physics and biology and literature and every language and… Well, everything.”

“…”

“So does that mean I should be a professional student? Would someone pay me to do that?”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“Did I mention that I have impeccable grammar?”

*Except for birdwatching. I still don’t understand the appeal of that.

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In class, it was my 40-year-old professor openly sharing the fact that he had never flown on a plane… so you’re telling me in four decades of life you never had a desire to venture out more than driving distance? Aren’t you embarrassed? No, no one ever is. This is why you never meet anyone from The South, they’re all still here.

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/an-open-letter-to-the-south-my-southern-baptist-pharmacy-school-and-a-job-recruiter

This singlehandedly reminded me of why I will never permanently live here (in The South) again. I’ve written about this before, but it’s that lack of intellectual curiosity that is a mainstay of this part of the country (and, from afar, the country in general) that makes me feel like I truly don’t belong here, and makes me eager to leave when I spend more than a few weeks here at a time.

Get me out of here already, please! (One more week, just one more week)

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ZEN PENCILS » 174. MARGARET E. KNIGHT: It is only following out nature

This quote and cartoon resonate in a simultaneously painful and inspirational way. Let me post it here first: 

“It is only following out nature. As a child, I never cared for things that girls usually do; dolls never possessed any charms for me. I couldn't see the sense of cuddling bits of porcelain with senseless faces. My friends were horrified. I was called a tomboy, but that made little impression on me. I sighed sometimes, because I was not like other girls, but wisely concluded that I couldn't help it, and sought further consolation from my tools. I'm not surprised at what I’ve done. I'm only sorry I couldn't have had as good a chance as a boy, and have been put to my trade regularly.”

I was that little girl too (well, minus the wrestling).

Over the years, I've spent far too many hours wondering how my life would have been different had I been born a little boy, as my whole childhood was spent trying to do the things little boys are supposed to do, and often being denied those. Example: since I was 7 or 8, I desperately wanted to enroll in a karate class (this had absolutely nothing to do with the Karate Kid films being released around that time, I swear...). I wasn’t allowed, because “martial arts are not for girls”, so I settled for playing softball and learning piano. It wasn’t until I was in my late 20s when I started learning (and loving) kung fu, but even that these days is more of a workout than any attempt at reaching a competitive level. Could I have been a karate champion if I had started as a kid? We’ll never know.

As I got older, I was torn between science and the arts, but only really encouraged in the latter. I used to be good at math. I still love physics, and a part of me will always wonder if I would have been an astrophysicist in a different life, where I was encouraged to pursue that passion. Not that I regret becoming a writer (god knows, it would be a lot tougher to freelance a lab-based career), but that passion feels squandered as it never really saw the light of day past a few astronomy courses in college. Computer science is another passion I’ve had since childhood, and at least that has a chance at being realized down the line, though a lot later than it should have been.

This is one of the reasons I love technology and the world of startups so much. Because these days, when a little girl wants to learn to build robots or software, all she needs is a computer and access to the Internet rather than formal classes where she might be discouraged. Yes, the proportion of women in STEM fields is still dismal, but at least it’s being discussed, which means there are people out there working to change that proportion. As more and more women become successful in technology, these old-fashioned notions of what is and isn’t appropriate for little girls or boys to like will hopefully start to fade.

Here’s hoping the next little Anna is encouraged to karate kick her way through life.

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Freelancing (kind of), by the Numbers: 2014

Before I renew this yearly tradition (which has been going on for a while - see 2011, 2012, 2013), I have to start with a disclaimer: I was not strictly a freelancer this year. While I didn't go to an office every day (and spent most of the winter in the U.S., well away from the Krakow-based office I did work in), I did work for someone else and not just myself for the first time since 2010.

I know, I know: I said I'd never go back to working for someone else again. Well, I had a few reasons:

The work is awesome and the people I work with are great (I get to tell the world about Polish startups, which I think is pretty cool);

The company I work for helped me start my own company in Poland, something I've been needing and wanting to do for ages, and which will expand my freelance options;

I need money.

In fact, 2014 had one overlapping theme: make money. It was the first year of my adult life I was supporting more people than just myself and the cat, so while my partner was working on launching his freelance career so we can both live this lifestyle in the near future, I was hustling my ass off. That means I earned more than I ever have, though it also means I worked a lot more, on average, than I'd like to.

In addition to my full-time job, which had me going to an office three days a week, I was translating and proofreading in most of my spare time, and occasionally earning some real money taking pictures.

The pay-off? My writing and side projects suffered. As in, they were pretty much non-existent. The book ideas floating in my head for the past year have stayed right where they are. I published a measly handful of blog posts, mostly on my Medium, and barely touched my private journal. My goal of learning Swift and making an app this year has barely progressed past the 4th lesson on Udemy. I've spent a lot of this year burnt out, stressed, depressed and playing GTA in my PJs. A lot more than I should have.

Less talk, more charts

Ok, here’s a breakdown of my income in 2014, by category:

And here are my total expenses for 2014, by category:

The good:

I finally hit my #1 goal since I begin this crazy experiment: earn more than 50% of my income from writing!

21% of my income went straight to my savings or investment accounts

Student loan and credit card expenses were 0! That's right, I'm paid up, bitches!

The bad:

Rent is still taking up a significant part of my income, though less than last year

No royalties from my book yet. Apparently that will change in 2015, but we'll see.

I worked far too much, and my hourly wage went down (see below)

Goals

These were my goals from last year:

work smarter - increase average hourly wage while keeping total hours worked about the same

reduce food- and booze-related expenses by at least 1%

increase vacation-related expenses

earn 50% or more income from writing

How'd I do?

Unfortunately, my hourly wage went down (from 64 to 45 PLN, or about $12.50), as the total number of hours went up significantly (from 770 to 1680, or an average of 4.6 hours per day). That's to be expected from a steady paycheck, but that's not where I want to be in the future.

Because I was often buying for two, my food and booze-related expenses went up - 7% from 6% for booze (ouch!), 6% from 5% for eating out, and 8% from 4% for groceries (double ouch!). At least we cooked most meals at home, though.

Vacation expenses went down for some reason, probably because all of our flights were booked with miles (thanks, travel hacking!). Considering that in addition to traveling some around Poland and Texas, I went to Paris, Barcelona, Sicily and London this year, I'm fairly happy with that part of it.

Since I didn't hit most in 2014, these are my goals in 2015:

work smarter - increase average hourly wage while keeping total hours worked about the same or less

reduce food- and booze-related expenses by at least 1%

visit at least one new place on vacation

save or invest at least 25% of total income

continue to earn 50% or more income from writing

Lessons learned

Don't get me wrong, 2014 had some great moments, but overall other than earning a lot more money than the previous year, it felt like I didn't accomplish all that much.

I want 2015 to be different, though I know that at least for the first few months, my priority will still be earning money. Once our incomes level out, I want to shift gears, spend a lot more time on side projects that could earn passive income, and above all, work less and travel more.

Good riddance, 2014. Here's to a better year in 2015!

TL;DR: I earned the most money I've ever earned in 2014, and I was the least happy I've been in a long time. 2015 needs to be better.

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On a Call to Action

2014 was about talk—here’s hoping 2015 is about action

We did a lot of talking in 2014, but that’s a good thing. Because the things we talked about had been left unsaid for far, far too long.

Sexism in tech.

Sexism in the gaming industry.

Sexism in science.

Sexism on the streets.

Rapes going ignored for decades.

Rape victims being further victimized.

Rape in our universities.

Rape culture promoters.

Police violence against minorities.

Police getting away with violence against minorities.

Police militarization in general.

The dangers of being a black man in America.

The benefits of being a white collar criminal in America.

The terrible rates of incarceration of everyone except white collar criminals.

The terrible rulings that give more rights to corporations than citizens.

Our general culture of ignorance.

And yes, even ethics in video game journalism

(And journalism in general)

We talked a lot — A LOT — about these things. Some of us tried to fix them, but it was a bit too early. We had to get the words out first.

But now that we have, let’s make 2015 a year of action.

Let’s work on fixing all of the things we talked about, because now that we acknowledge that they exist, it’s going to be a lot harder to sweep them under the rug and enjoy the New Year’s fireworks. Let’s find the connections between these issues, because they're there, and the people fighting to fix them have a lot more in common than they realize.

Talk is easy. Retweets are even easier. Taking action is hard, but it’s the only way to actually fix the problems we keep talking about.

(X-posted from my Medium)

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But the 8-hour workday is too profitable for big business, not because of the amount of work people get done in eight hours (the average office worker gets less than three hours of actual work done in 8 hours) but because it makes for such a purchase-happy public. Keeping free time scarce means people pay a lot more for convenience, gratification, and any other relief they can buy. It keeps them watching television, and its commercials. It keeps them unambitious outside of work.

Your Lifestyle Has Already Been Designed (The Real Reason For The Forty-Hour Workweek) | True Activist I've written about this before in here in too many posts to link to, but I can't stress how much I agree with this statement (and the entire article). Working eight hours a day, every day is insanity. I'm glad more and more people are starting to realize that.

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On How I lost My Passion

Keep talking about how passionate you are about your startup. I'll be on the couch, playing GTA in my PJs.

It seems Medium has become my new, er, medium for posting. At least for now, and I guess especially on topics related to tech and mental health.

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Unfortunately, the troubles with the U.S. education system are much deeper than distribution of funding or curriculum weaknesses, although these are both a byproduct of the cultural issue that Asimov observes. The troubles lie in the cult of ignorance and anti-intellectualism that has been a long-standing part of American society and which has become increasingly evident and powerful in recent years through the propagandizing and proselytizing of groups like the Tea Party and the religious right.

America's Cult of Ignorance Is No Match for Asia's Cult of Intelligence | John W. Traphagan I've long said that while I may gripe about the traffic or the heat or the necessity to have a car to live just about anywhere, the main reason I never want to live in America again is its anti-intellectual culture. This attitude is the opposite of what I've experienced in Poland, or anywhere else I've traveled and may potentially end up. This hatred of knowledge seems uniquely American (at least in this century), and is the very antithesis of my raison d'etre. While it doesn't exist everywhere in the country, and there are obviously pockets of society that value knowledge and innovation above all (I'm looking at you, San Fran), the anti-intellectual influence is expansive enough to influence policy and impact and hinder those who don't subscribe to it at all. And worst of all, as the article demonstrates, it's impacting the U.S.'s ability to remain a source of innovation and novel thought. Honestly, I don't think the prevailing attitude in the U.S. will change, at least in my lifetime, and I'd rather watch America's decline from a society that values intellectual pursuits than take on the Sisyphean task of trying to live within it.

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Because the problem is this: when we ignore the existence of awkward girls, of the female nerds, losers, and geeks who are just as befuddled by sex and dating, we further codify the idea of women as sexual objects. The notion that all women can get effortlessly laid, if only they open their legs, reduces the reality of female experience, transforming women from complicated individuals to the vessels for male sexual desire lusted after by Elliot Rodger and his ilk, and further fueling the misogynistic rage that leads men like Rodger to feel justified in their anger and actions.

Confessions of an Awkward Teen Girl | Nerve.com This hits home in a painfully awkward way. I was that odd teen girl whose crushes were never returned, who had far more imaginary boyfriends than real ones, who had no idea how to talk to the opposite sex (and who has only gotten marginally better over the years). Somehow, I never went on a shooting spree, though.

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How I Gave Up New York

It’s easy to forget the big city dream when you’re living your actual dream

I wrote an article on Medium, which is quickly replacing this place as the storage center of my thoughts. Here it is.

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For much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the class-bound societies of Western Europe were dominated by a landed and monied elite that owned much of the land and the wealth. The United States had rich and poor, too, but the wealth was still spread around a bit more widely. In 1910, for example, the one per cent in Europe owned about sixty-five per cent of all wealth; in the United States, the figure was forty-five per cent. In recent decades, the roles have been reversed. The U.S. monied elite has outstripped its counterpart on the other side of the Atlantic, and wealth has become even more concentrated in the United States than it is in Europe. In 2010, the American one per cent owned about a third of all the wealth: the European one per cent owned about a quarter. Citing figures like these, Piketty warns that “the New World may be on the verge of becoming the Old Europe of the twenty-first century’s globalized economy.”

Piketty’s Inequality Story in Six Charts : The New Yorker

It’s funny, but when I state that one of the reasons I prefer living in Europe to the U.S. is because I feel that the “American Dream” is more possible there now, most people (on both sides of the Atlantic) laugh at me. Now I have charts to prove my point!

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Freelancing, by the Numbers: 2013

Well, if this post is any indication, 2014 is off to a procrastination-filled start. That's because in 2012 and 2013, I managed to sum up the previous year within a few days of New Year's fireworks. This year... not so much.

Luckily, at least I'm writing this before taxes are due (which of course I haven't begun either), and perhaps this is a sign of some of the success I've had lately, if ridiculous amount of work = success as many seem to think. I'm starting to debate that theory, however, and am setting a novel goal for 2014: less work. But before reflecting on that, let's have the numbers...

Here’s a breakdown of my total expenses for 2013, by category:

Not surprisingly, my biggest expense was cost of living, i.e. rent + utilities + phone/internet bills took up a third of my expenditures. The only solution to that would be to live someplace even cheaper (southeast Asia, I'm looking at you...). I'm quite proud that over a fifth of my spending went towards my Roth IRA, which is more of an investment in my future (or so I hope) than spending. Otherwise, nothing surprising other than eating out costing me quite a chunk of change, though not as much as booze. Some would say that indicates a problem, but I will argue that the culprit is the increasing costs of craft beers in Poland.

Anyway, here is my income for 2013, by category:

(Notice that sad 0% by book sales, despite my first book ever finally being published this summer. I did, at least, get the second half of my advance this year. Here's hoping for some royalties in 2014...)

So what happened in 2013? Professionally, I had my slowest summer ever, with much of July-September spent blissfully twiddling my thumbs while waiting for the work to come in, and much of November-December attempting to replenish my savings account after having to live off of it for a couple months.

To illustrate, here's a breakdown of earnings by month:

This isn't too surprising, as many of my translation and proofreading clients are from universities, which become dead zones come the summer months. However, when you compare income to expenses, 2013 was definitely a roller coaster:

Lesson learned: always have a savings account with enough it in to cover at least three months of expenses. I'd heard that advice years ago and luckily took it, or this summer would have been much more stressful.

So that's my financials, in a nutshell. I came out with net earnings of about PLN 11,600 (about $3,800), though almost all of that went right into my Roth IRA. Comparing that to 2011 (PLN 188.39 net income) and 2012 (PLN 13,500 net income) I did OK, though another goal for 2014 will be an even greater increase in that number, at least above the 2012 level.

Here's the fun part:

Translation? I averaged about two hours of work per day for a total of 770 hours (roughly, as this doesn't include time spent marketing, billing or making cool excel graphs for blog posts), made enough to support myself and then some, and had a lot more time for the things that actually matter: travel, family and friends.

Short translation: freelancing definitely beats regular employment.

What about goals?

Last year, I listed the following goals:

earn 50% income from writing (or at least higher percentage than from proofreading & translations)

drink a lot less

spend even less on groceries and eating out and reduce all of my expenses to a bare minimum, so that I can spend on the categories that matter: travel, music and my business.

Vague, I know, and I should set better ones this year. Nonetheless, compared to last year I did earn almost half my income from writing (47% compared to 35%), drank a bit less (6% compared to 9%) and spent a total of 9% on eating out and groceries (and only 2% on clothing, yay!), so missions accomplished.

My goals for 2014 are:

work smarter - increase average hourly wage while keeping total hours worked about the same

reduce food- and booze-related expenses by at least 1%

increase vacation-related expenses

earn 50% or more income from writing

To sum up...

As far as personally, I travelled to one new continent and one new country in 2013 (low for me, I know), with the former being South America (and Rio de Janeiro to be specific) and the latter being Israel. The five-day trip to Israel was also the first one I've ever taken since going freelance where I specifically didn't work, and didn't even take my laptop with me. It was refreshing to fully immerse myself in a place and take a proper "vacation", even though it feels like I'd done that for half the summer in Krakow.

In 2014, I want to experiment more with taking actual vacations where I disconnect for longer periods of time. I already took one trip to the desert of West Texas and it was blissfully Internet-free (and the world didn't end while I was offline). I've already planned trips to Paris and Barcelona this spring and hopefully Sicily this fall, so I'll have plenty of chances to enjoy this life I'm working so hard for.

Oh, and of course I'll continue to work wherever I happen to be as well. Just my way of ensuring I keep the "free" in "freelancing"...

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I once asked a talented and fairly famous colleague how he managed to regularly produce such highly regarded 8,000 word features. “Well,” he said, “first, I put it off for two or three weeks. Then I sit down to write. That’s when I get up and go clean the garage. After that, I go upstairs, and then I come back downstairs and complain to my wife for a couple of hours. Finally, but only after a couple more days have passed and I’m really freaking out about missing my deadline, I ultimately sit down and write.”

Why Writers Are the Worst Procrastinators - Megan McArdle - The Atlantic RE: Why I haven't yet written my annual budget post (or anything, for that matter) on here since 2013.

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The point of work should not be just to provide the material goods we need to survive. Since work typically takes the largest part of our time, it should also be an important part of what gives our life meaning. Our economic system works well for those who find meaning in economic competition and the material rewards it brings. To a lesser but still significant extent, our system provides meaningful work in service professions (like health and social work) for those fulfilled by helping people in great need. But for those with humanistic and artistic life interests, our economic system has almost nothing to offer.

The Real Humanities Crisis - NYTimes.com

This article makes an excellent point, and mirrors one of my own major criticisms of the North American economy when compared to (some) European ones, where artists are supported to an extent by the state.

While the writer of the article suggests the creation of fulfilling teaching positions for those in the humanities as a means of subsidizing their real work, this too fails to address the problem of divided interests. Of course, those humanists whose passion is teaching their craft and practicing it on the side should be free to do so, but forcing everyone to teach creates subpar teachers who can't wait to get home and focus on their own work - which in turn suffers from lack of time and attention. The funneling of funds subsidizing sports is an interesting prospect, though I can't see it gaining much popular support in the U.S.

In the end, the issue is this: were the burden to earn a living wage lifted off the back of the artist, musician or writer, at least for a few years, many more would have the freedom needed to perfect their craft and create works that could sustain them financially in the future. Since the private sector has obviously failed so provide this support, it's up to the governmental or non-profit branches to step in.