As some of you know, I’ve got a mission here at R2R to provide one-on-one financial help to everyone who needs it – no matter what their income is.
So I thought I’d let you know how that work has been going.
In August/September I was able to connect more than $1,200 worth of services to people who needed them.
That money came from the R2R fund which is supported by contributing 10% of every dollar I make through R2R and by a fabulous group of Patrons through PATREON.
Here’s how it all broke down:
Office Hours:
In the last few months there has been an increasing flow of office hours, as we all transition from August to the insanity of fall.
I’ve managed to connect with 15 fantastic folks, some of them new faces and some of them old friends. We did 30 minute Skype sessions and talked about a ton of things, lots of which are hard to boil down into specific questions and point form.
But to give you a little bit of an idea, topics included:
- scheduling time for finances when your life is insanely different from day to day (theatre people… you know what I’m talking about).
- strategies for saving (when you know that if you can see the money… you’ll spend the money).
- behavioural finance – what it means and where are the best places to learn about it.
- how to get back on track after dropping the ball for a little while.
- best ways to use an inheritance
- managing variable income… always a huge issue
- and how to take advantage of a period of time when you’re making a regular paycheque.
One of most satisfying things is checking in with someone who’s been a regular office hours participant over a few months and is starting to feel differently about this whole money thing.
There was a moment in early September when someone looked at me and just beamed: “It doesn’t feel nearly so hopeless anymore.”
If you’re ever struggled with money you know how huge of a step it is to go from ‘hopeless’ to ‘not nearly so hopeless’.
Pay-what-you-can Financial Planning
In August I officially launched pay-what-you-can financial planning (even though it had been operating in a more less structured way all year). I got a few great applicants, and have started to work with the first one in September.
For those of you who haven’t heard about it … it works by allowing clients in lower income brackets to set what they can afford to pay, and the rest is subsided through the R2R fund (which is funded by a combination of PATREON and the R2R mission of donating 10% of every dollar made to this kind of work).
I’m sure there will be a lot more to share as this program grows, but I’m very excited about it.
If you know anyone who might benefit from either of these programs please spread the word!
I really have to give a massive shout out to the R2R patrons who are a HUGE part of funding this work. There are currently 18 of them giving every month, and that stable cashflow has allowed me to be able to commit to continuing these programs in the future and being able to do this work that I really love.
If you want to join them (no pressure of course)… you can learn everything you want to know over on my PATREON PAGE.
Emily Nixon
Rags to Reasonable Community Outreach Coordinator
Emily Nixon is an actor/writer/director/filmmaking Swiss Army Knife. She is also a big money nerd and Community Outreach Coordinator for Rags to Reasonable.
She came to this work after becoming completely fed up with living paycheque-to-paycheque and being too afraid to look in her chequing account. She is passionate about empowering other artists and variable income earners to keep doing what they love and feel confident about their finances.
Email Emily at emily@ragstoreasonable.com
