Why ‘mezza voce’ and budgets really don’t matter

Why ‘mezza voce’ and budgets really don’t matter

by | Dec 6, 2016 | Budgets

Budgets don't matter

I was doing a podcast a little while ago, talking to two fellow opera singers about what I love about personal finance and financial planning and one of the hosts stopped me and said something like:

“Look, I hear what you’re saying, and it sounds great… like it’s this game changing thing… but it can’t be that easy.

(… that’s a horrible misquote of a much more eloquently expressed thought, but it’s been rolling around in my mind for a while now…)

It’s such a trap to write about something you believe is a transformative tool that everyone needs.

Because… everyone doesn’t need it.

That’s right. I said it. Not everyone needs this personal finance/financial planning stuff.

Some people are fine. And if everything is honestly working fine… why micro manage it. It’s working.

And for those of us that aren’t doing fine… it’s not easy. It’s really difficult… but not for the reasons you might think.

Consider this massive oversimplification of my job as an opera singer….

 

When I’m singing my main goal is to communicate an awesome idea or emotion to another person.

Budgets don't matter

There’s a lot of tools to help this happen: staging, lighting, vocal colour, and of course … the baritone claw. But the whole point it to get that idea from my brain to that other person’s brain.

But I forget that all the time.

I’ll be sitting in a masterclass, or a performance and hear some insane piece of technique. A mezza voce that stops my soul, or a bone shaking resonance and immediately I’m thinking…

“How cool would it be if I could do that?”

So I run to the practise room and obsess about mezza voce for the next 6 months or on one unfortunate period of my life it was trying to master the goat trill.

The problem is that the tool doesn’t matter on it’s own. If it’s not helping my overall purpose of communicating an awesome idea… it’s kind of useless.

Budgets don't matter

And let’s be honest. I’m oversimplifying the purpose of opera by saying it’s ‘just communicating an awesome idea’. It makes it sound like something simple…

… but you know it’s not.

It’s freaking hard.

It takes years of mastery. It’s not a matter of ‘just’ doing anything. It’s a combination of a thousand ever changing factors and tools that match with your deepest, darkest identity.

It’s the same with money.

What if the oversimplified purpose of your life is to take the values that you find really important (family, beautify, justice) and put them into the world.

Money is one of the tools that helps you do that.

The challenge is to connect your money with your values to create a life that you’re happy with.

Budgets don't matter

Now, you might need some tools to help you with that….

But that basic goal is what matters.

Not financial planning.

Not budgets

Not any tool or ideology at all.

There’s a million ways to communicate an awesome idea.

I sing opera. Maybe you paint on canvas, or channel your soul through the words of Shakespeare.

There are also a million ways to make peace with money.

I use financial planning and teach it to others.

But that doesn’t mean it’s the right tool for you.

Want to start getting control of your money? How can I help?

Chris Enns

Chris Enns

Financial Planner/Opera Singer

Money never came naturally to me. In fact... I was a bit of a disaster. I remember (very clearly) what it feels like to be 'financially out of control'.

And honestly, I still get stressed about money... that doesn't stop... the difference is that now I have the tools to deal with that stress.

And those tools are what's made it possible for me to build a life full of the things I want: art, creativity, travel, family and more.

If you want to start getting control of your money I'd love to help. You can start with THIS QUIZ, visiting my GETTING STARTED PAGE or by checking out my SERVICES page.

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Don’t let audition season destroy your bank account

Don’t let audition season destroy your bank account

by | Nov 18, 2016 | Budgets, Getting Started, Money Meditations, Saving, Variable Income

This post originally appeared on Schmopera: an excellent site for all things opera.

Auditioning is so freaking expensive.

This is a fact. And it feels like it’s getting worse.

After application fees, travel, accommodation, food, accompanist fees, and the 3 beers you need after they decided to only hear one aria even though you were banking on them asking for the Bellini...

...you’re probably not sitting on a whole lot of leftover cash.

But you have to do it, right? How are you supposed to get work if you don’t show up?

That’s right. You do have to audition. You do have to pay all the fees, whether you think they’re ethical or not.

But you don’t have to let it destroy your bank account.

AUDITION SEASON HAPPENS EVERY YEAR:

Every year. It’s like Christmas or Flag day. So why not save ahead?

People are always complaining about how it’s impossible to budget in this business. The income is too variable! The costs are too variable!! Well, there are SOLUTIONS FOR THE VARIABLE INCOME, and I’d like to challenge the idea of variable costs as well.

A tree falling on your car is an unexpected cost. Audition season is a totally 100% expected cost, one that you can completely plan for.

No, you don’t ever know exactly how much it’s going to cost every year, but you can make a pretty good guess. If you’ve been through it before, take a look at what it cost you last year. If it’s your first time… think it through. A few trips to New York or Toronto: where are you going to stay? How much does that cost? What do accompanists charge? How many applications are you putting in?

You can get exact about the number, or you can just pick a number out of thin air.

I’m going to save 2000 dollars for audition season.

Wait...what? Where am I supposed to get 2000 dollars...? That’s insane.

LIFE LESSON: BIG NUMBERS ARE MADE OF SMALL NUMBERS

The thing about these big one-time costs.. Christmas, car insurance, or audition season.. is that they seem like too much to set aside out of any given month’s income.

When you’re pulling in just enough to make it through, it’s impossible to set aside two grand in one month. So why not break it up into chunks?

What if last January you had taken a look at the year in front of you, and thought… "man… I want to make a big push next audition season. Last year it cost me around 2000 dollars, so if I just sock away 200 bucks a month, I’ll be ready to roll come November."

200 bucks a month 47 bucks a week 6.78 a day

And hey presto, come audition season you’re ready to roll!

BUT I DON’T HAVE 200 BUCKS A MONTH TO SPEND ON... SAVINGS...

When I talk about savings, it sounds like I’m outlining a luxury: something to do with all your ‘extra’ money. So if you don’t have any ‘extra’ money, saving seems impossible.

But I’m not talking about how you can spend your ‘extra’ money. I’m talking about how you’re going to find the money to afford to support what you’re already spending.

You’re going to audition. We talked about it in the first paragraph. You have to.

So if you don’t put aside the money, where’s it going to come from?

Planning for major once a year expenses, like Christmas, birthdays, or… audition season, isn’t about adding another cost to every month. It’s acknowledging the fact that you’re already spending the money, and breaking up the cost over more time to make it easier to collect it.

 

 

IT’S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE, IT’S CALLED A PLAN

You can choose to be blindsided by the same stuff every year.

"How did I spend that much on Christmas???" "Plane tickets cost HOW MUCH???"

Or you can stop budgeting bullshit. It’s fine that you spend money at Christmas. Christmas is great!! And if you put away 25 bucks a month all year, you can do all that spending, without the guilt. I’ve been doing it for the last few years, and I love Christmas now… it’s all the fun, with none of the pain.

Audition season is such a stressful time. There’s so much that you can’t control. There’s so much that is really hard. Why not try to take the pressure off of yourself?

Look ahead. Make a little sketch of the costs, and starting this January put away a little cash every month to make next year’s auditions just a little less awful.

Want to start getting control of your money? How can I help?

Chris Enns

Chris Enns

Financial Planner/Opera Singer

Money never came naturally to me. In fact... I was a bit of a disaster. I remember (very clearly) what it feels like to be 'financially out of control'.

And honestly, I still get stressed about money... that doesn't stop... the difference is that now I have the tools to deal with that stress.

And those tools are what's made it possible for me to build a life full of the things I want: art, creativity, travel, family and more.

If you want to start getting control of your money I'd love to help. You can start with THIS QUIZ, visiting my GETTING STARTED PAGE by checking out my SERVICES page.

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Lindsay VS her debt: Part 4 – BUDGET AHOY!!!!

Lindsay VS her debt: Part 4 – BUDGET AHOY!!!!

by | Jun 16, 2016 | Artist 2 Artist, Budgets, Debt

Budget Island

*The following is part 4 of a year-long series. If you want to start from the beginning, learn about who Lindsay is, and check out how much debt she started with…  check out PART 1.*

Well, friends, remember that time I was going to try and pay off over $1000 this month?

That didn’t even happen a little bit.

May ended up being a crazy busy month – it flew by before I realized it had even started. Along with it being busy work wise, I’ve found myself a bit, well… distracted as of late. So I didn’t budget. And then the month ended. And then I found out I only had $490 to pay towards my debt… so that’s where I’m at. UGH!

The amazing thing about failures is that they have the ability to become amazing learning experiences. The biggest thing I learned from last month, is that I seriously… SERIOUSLY! need to use a budget.

I’ve been using YNAB (à la Chris) for about 8 months or so now, and I use it fairly consistently. To be honest, I thought it was a good thing to have, but I didn’t really understand why it was important. (I’m on top of my finances because I use budgeting software! Look at me! Gold star!)

I basically never stick to my budget. I constantly adjust and move amounts and overspend – it’s pretty much always in flux. So if I was adjusting it all the time, it really didn’t matter that much, right?

WRONG!!!! (more…)

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WHY YOU MAKE LESS THAN YOU THINK: FIGURING OUT YOUR “TAKE HOME” PAY

WHY YOU MAKE LESS THAN YOU THINK: FIGURING OUT YOUR “TAKE HOME” PAY

by | Oct 6, 2015 | Budgets, Business Tools

What's your Take Home Pay - From Rags to Reasonable

Do you know how much money Lebron James makes…?

Hint: It’s a lot.
Hint: He’s a basketball player
Hint: Basketball is a sport…

Every year at tax time when I’m forced to actually distill the sum of a year’s work into a single number, gross income (gross indeed), I come face to face with the reality that Lebron James and I are very different people.

It’s a tough pill to swallow (because people are always saying how we’re so similar…).

But even though my number is about three billion percent less than his, I’m actually usually surprised by how much I made every year. Honestly… it’s generally more than it felt like I made.

I was commiserating with a fellow artist friend recently about that very fact and he agreed. He had had a particularly good year, and although he had ended up making 6 figures it didn’t really feel like the riches that he imagined it would be.

It’s not because the money is slipping between our fingers… it’s because as sole proprietors of a small business our ‘gross income’ isn’t remotely the same as our ‘take home pay”. (more…)

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CAN YOU AFFORD YOUR LIFE?

CAN YOU AFFORD YOUR LIFE?

by | Sep 17, 2015 | Budgets, Getting Started, Worksheet

Afford your life

Getting paid is the sweetest thing in a freelancer's life.

Well, I guess there's that whole "doing what you love" thing... But getting paid for it is pretty great. And so when you start to make some money it's easy to ... TREAT YO'SELF.

You work hard. You deserve it.

And you totally do.... except that sometimes, even though it seems like there's money coming in, a ton of that money is already spoken for.

I've talked about MANAGING DEDUCTIONS FOR FREELANCERS: making sure you remember which money is yours and which money belongs to the government (or your union). But there's also a bunch of money that's already spoken for because... well... your life costs something.

Some of those expenses are ones you think about all the time, like rent and phone bills. But some of them only happen once and a year (like the holidays) so they can be easier to forget.

No matter how in tune you might be with your expenses there's a good chance you haven't sat down and looked at what they all add up to.

Basically... What your life actually costs.

KNOWING YOUR NUMBER

There is no greater piece of financial information you can have about yourself than ‘your number’.

It’s the amount of money that it takes to run your life, however you live it.

Once you have a number that you know you can survive on, you know:

  1. How much you need to save to get you through dry times (when the phone just isn't ringing).
  2. How much money you need to be making to break even.
  3. How many months a big paycheque will last you.
  4. How much money you have left over to invest in the EXTRAS.

Everybody’s number will be different, and that’s great. The only problem is when ‘your number’ is more than your income. That, my dear friends, is a recipe for unhappiness. But we'll talk about that later... for now let's figure out YOUR NUMBER!!!

5 Minutes of financial fun!

So here's a worksheet to give you an idea of 'your number'.

Sit down and write down your best guess. At this point it's okay if you're not sure about how much you spend on food or Christmas. Don't over think it, it's not about being exact... it's about getting an idea of the whole cost of your life (and how that breaks down into a per month number).

Honestly, it should take you around 5 minutes!

DOWNLOAD A COPY OF YOUR OWN HERE: WHAT'S YOUR NUMBER WORKSHEET (FOR FREE) 

can you afford your life? this 5 minute worksheet will tell you!

Get my worksheet

WHAT NOW?

So... How much does it cost? Does it sound like something you can afford?

If so... that's awesome... but if it ended up being a little more than you'd like there are only two actual options:

  •  decrease expenses
  •  or increase income

Ya... I know. There technically is a third option: ignore it and keep putting things on your line of credit... but I've got to seriously recommend not doing that one.

FACT: Avoidance is expensive.

So don't freak out. Here are a few things you could do right now to start trending in the right direction:

  • You could TRACK YOUR SPENDING to get a better idea of some of the numbers you guessed at.
  • Or BUILD A BUDGET... To make sure you're getting the most out of every dollar.
  • MAKE A BUSINESS PLAN to make sure you're getting the most bang for your business bucks.
  • If increasing your income tickles your fancy check out some SIDE JOBS that other artists have for making sure their bills are paid.

Living a rich life doesn't have mean a big 'number'. Actually you'll usually find the 'richest' people have found ways to keep the cost of their life as small as possible.

Size doesn't matter, and everyone will have different wants and needs in their life. There's no right and wrong there... but there is a can and can't when it comes to your ability to afford it.

Can you afford the life you're living right now? If not, what are you going to do about it?

WONDERING WHAT YOUR NEXT 'MONEY STEP' SHOULD BE? TAKE MY FREE QUIZ

It will help you figure out the perfect place to start getting control over your money. 

TAKE THE QUIZ

Want to start getting control of your money? How can I help?

Chris Enns

Chris Enns

Financial Planner/Opera Singer

Money never came naturally to me. In fact... I was a bit of a disaster. I remember (very clearly) what it feels like to be 'financially out of control'.

And honestly, I still get stressed about money... that doesn't stop... the difference is that now I have the tools to deal with that stress.

And those tools are what's made it possible for me to build a life full of the things I want: art, creativity, travel, family and more.

If you want to start getting control of your money I'd love to help. You can start with THIS QUIZ, visiting my GETTING STARTED PAGE by checking out my SERVICES page.

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THE KEY TO BUILDING A BUDGET THAT DOESN’T SUCK

THE KEY TO BUILDING A BUDGET THAT DOESN’T SUCK

by | Jul 28, 2015 | Budgets

The Key to Building a Budget that doesn't SuckSo 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 a wine bottle open… a hammer probably isn’t the right tool for the job.

So what is a budget good for?

Budgets can help you:

  • Pay off your debt
  • Save for something (A house, a car, a trip to Kalamazoo)
  • Make a little money go a little further
  • Feel more in control of your financial situation
  • Get a sense of where your money is going

If you’re not interested in any of that… then you might not need a budget.

If you do… how do you build one that you’ll actually use (for longer than a week)? (more…)

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