Lots of artists have lots of debt. But tons of those artists are managing to pay it back, all while living this crazy variable life. I recently put out a call for artist debt stories and got this email that I just had to share. Meet Charlotte. She's a Canadian opera/musical theatre singer based in Toronto. This is her debt story... “It's an unconventional debt repayment story - I paid off all of my debt by taking on more debt - but it's worked out beautifully and given me more stability and peace of mind than I ever thought ...

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Nobody thinks emergencies are fun. But there’s one thing about an emergency that can be pretty great. If you, for reasons that really aren’t important right now, find yourself in the middle of a forest… no food, no water, no idea where civilization might be found … there’s no real question about what needs to be done. Emergencies simplify all the ‘noise’ of life, and cut it down to pure focus. I’ve got to get some water, then some food, then climb a tree (and see if I can see a McDonalds sign). Honestly… sometimes when I’m feeling particularly purposeless ...

So I like budgets… but I’m willing to bet that you probably don’t. And why is that? Am I just a huge dork, and you’re the prettiest girl at the prom with no time for that financial nonsense? Probably, but there’s a chance that your experience with budgets has been entirely with budgets that just suck. But they don’t have to. Do you even need a budget? Budgets are a great tool, but they’re just that… a tool. Hammers are a great tool too, but only for when you’ve got to get some hammering done. If you’ve got to get ...

I'm really good at losing focus! Both in the little things and the big picture stuff. And do you know what's really incredible?…  I'm so good at it, it doesn't even look like I'm losing focus at all. I'll sit down at my desk in the morning, start with some studying, and then be reminded of an email I need to send. Half-way through that I get a good idea for a blog post ... then an interesting aria idea that I should try. I call it hyper productive time wasting. I'm getting things done... Without really accomplishing anything ...

I’m sure there was a time when I didn’t have a bank account, but I don’t remember it… so therefore it doesn’t exist (a statement which may have just shown off an extremely flawed world view ... I’m gonna roll with it). But even though a bank account is something I always remember having, I don’t think I’ve ever actually given any real thought to which bank I would pick. I have made all of my banking decisions purely based on proximity. Closest one wins. That’s how I picked my first bank (although on the prairies, sometimes the closest bank is ...

Just last month two of my favourite people in the world had a baby. It's kind of crazy how many unknowns there are when you're starting a family: who is this little person going to be? Am I going to be a good parent? How are we going to afford this? What will my life look like now? Can I still live this freelance artist life.... and be a mom/dad? So I sent notes to some of my artist friends who had recently started families to see if they could shed a little light on the unexpected (and expected challenges) ...

Any artist knows that moment… it comes up so often… at parties, family gatherings.. basically anytime that small talk goes beyond your name and the weather. “So… what do you do?” “I’m an *insert name of art you practise here*.” *Confused look*  “You can make money at that?” Here's the thing, my well-meaning friend… the answer I want to give is … “Yes, I easily fulfil all the financial needs in my life, making money is simple in the arts,  in fact I am killing it financial-styles.” *drops mic* ... But the truth is often much more complicated than what ...

A while ago I talked about how, through separating your personal and business finances, you could pay yourself a salary and better handle the variable income that comes with being a freelancer: artist or otherwise. But that’s not the only reason for separating your personal life from your business one. And I’m not just talking about record keeping and all that stuff. It can be a really useful mental distinction. Mental stuff matters I think for a lot of small business owners it’s tough to separate what we do, from who we are. That’s probably true of lots of people, ...

You know what drives me crazy? The completely inferior education being given to those talented children enrolled in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Yes. They are magic children, but does that mean that they don’t need any training in language or math? Does science cease to be relevant if you can conjure matter out of thin air…. Or does it just get super interesting? And the subjects they do take… what jobs are they being prepared for? Why is care of magical creatures REQUIRED for the first 3 years?! That has senior elective written all over it. What they ...

I have 4 bags of turmeric in my kitchen. Like... big bags of it. I don’t really use turmeric for anything. Yet… I have soooooo much of it. Why is that? Well, because every time a recipe calls for it (probably a grand total of 4 times) I assume I don’t have it. And purchase myself a fresh new bag. This happens at the grocery store all the time. I end up in the aisle staring at the spices, or the veggies, trying to remember what’s in my fridge. The more I strain to picture whether there’s a green pepper in the drawer, the ...