Don’t Quit Your Day Job
By Dorothy McFalls


It was a warm spring afternoon and I was grumbling about having to give up a day of work in order to attend my workplace’s annual employee retreat. We’d finished wrapping each other in toilet paper (a truly odd trust-building exercise) and were sitting around picnic tables in a park pavilion. The motivational speaker who’d been brought in to inspire us stood up and asked what became a life-changing question for me. “If you won the lottery today, what would you do?”

For two years I’d been working close to 12-hour days, spending what was left of my nights, weekends, and lunch hours on my novel in progress. This drive to be a successful urban planner and a successful novelist was, quite frankly, wearing me out. So when the motivational speaker wanted to know what I would do if I had all the money I needed--the answer came only too quickly: I’d quit my job and write full-time!

Thankfully, I didn’t leap up from the picnic bench and tender my resignation right then and there. Had the heat gotten to me? What was I thinking? I couldn’t quit my job. My paycheck was half my family’s income! The more I thought about it, the more impossible the idea seemed.

Yet, with my husband’s encouragement, along with changes to how we spent our money, we were able to make a reality out of the impossible. Three years and five manuscripts later, my debut book, The Marriage List (Signet, May 2005), is solid proof I made the right decision to chase after my dream... without waiting for that lottery windfall! This is how it was done:

Facing the Fear of Money

As long as my husband and I had money in our bank account at the end of each month, I figured we were doing a good job budgeting. I didn’t want to know where the money was going. I was afraid of what we might discover.

But just as writers must overcome their fear of rejection in order to succeed, I realized I needed to confront my fear of money if I wanted to change my life. Before we could make any major life decisions, we had to create a clear and accurate picture of our finances and spending priorities.

 ·  We logged where our money was going each month.

 ·  We identified and prioritized all expenses based on individual needs:

     - Essential: Expenses that cannot be eliminated, such as food, housing, health care, retirement savings

     - Desired: Expenses that are necessary to maintain a desired quality of life, such as travel expenses, new clothes, weekly entertainment

     - Optional: Expenses that are not necessary and are often impulse buys, such as trendy new shoes, eating out, buying that cute new car

 ·   We made a list of debts owed and interest rates.

 ·   And didn’t forget about yearly/quarterly expenses such as property taxes and insurance payments.

Eliminate

Once we had a picture of how we were spending our money, it was fairly easy to identify and remove frivolous expenses from the “optional” and “desired” categories in our budget.

Author LuAnn McLane eliminated unnecessary expenses in order to stay out of the workforce. Years earlier she’d put her dream of writing romance on hold and worked as a stay-at-home mom. Once the kids were old enough to allow her to pursue her dream, the family budget was suddenly hit with bills for her kids’ college tuition. “My husband announced that I had to go to work and I argued that I had to write,” LuAnn explains. “He gave me one year while we cut corners... no caller ID, no satellite TV, goodbye gym membership (hello 15 lbs.). I came in just under the gun with a contract for Hot Summer Nights from NAL.”

Reduce

According to our budget situation, I still was not able to quit my job after simply eliminating unnecessary expenses. We had to do more. So we set out to reduce the cost of our “essential” and remaining “desired” expenses by shopping around for bargain deals. To begin with, we comparison shopped for the lowest auto and home insurance premiums. We ended up combining our auto and home insurances with one company to take advantage of a volume discount and increased the deductibles in order to further lower the premiums. Switching long distance, cell phone, and Internet service providers also reduced our monthly expenses.

Debut author Cara King (My Lady Gamester, Signet, November 2005) knows the value of being a keen shopper. She keeps within her budget while still dressing stylishly by shopping for clothes and shoes exclusively at thrift stores.

Consolidate

Although eliminating certain budget items and reducing the costs of others saved us money, we still needed my monthly income in order to make ends meet. At that point, I was ready to give up on my dream of writing full-time. My husband was not. He worked out a plan for us to downsize and combine our existing expenses and debts. At the time, interest rates were rapidly falling. We refinanced our home, using our equity to wrap our other debts into the mortgage, and took advantage of not only the lower interest rate but also the fact that we were originating a new 30-year loan, which meant considerably lower monthly payments.

Debut author Tracy Anne Warren (The Husband Trap, Ballantine, March 2006) was driven to leave a high-paying job after a poorly handled renovation of her office building left her suffering from constant sinus infections and migraine headaches. “When I quit my job, I made some really dramatic budget cuts,” she says, “like selling my almost brand new car, selling my house, and moving to a less expensive area and less expensive house, and using proceeds from the sale of my home to pay off credit card and other outstanding debts.” She admits the transition was a scary time for her. “My illness left me few choices but ironically gave me the courage to risk everything and follow my dream of writing novels.”

Budgeting = Freedom

Our finances were in line, but before I handed in my resignation my husband and I made a mock run our new budget, using my paycheck to build an emergency savings account while refining our spending habits. After several trial months, I was able to walk away from my career confident we wouldn’t starve and feeling lucky that our budget allowed me to forge this new path. But even if our finances hadn’t worked to that end, understanding them opened up new possibilities, such as seeking part-time work or building our savings to allow for an early retirement.

Bottom line: be creative and don’t let money keep you from realizing your dreams.
 

1.      DO make budgeting a team effort. You don’t want your partner sabotaging your money-saving efforts.

2.      DON’T rule out part-time work to help cover expenses. Time away from the keyboard can assist the creative process.

3.      DO budget for fun and travel. Don’t eliminate fun, but do look for ways to reduce money spent on entertainment, such as purchasing annual movie passes.

4.      DON’T spend on impulse or emotion. Uncontrolled Internet shopping can be a big budget buster.

5.      DO budget for writing expenses. Costs for postage, paper, research books, and contests add up quickly.

6.      DON’T go to the grocery store hungry.

7.      DO shop around for the lowest price and watch for sales. Smart bulk buying can save money in the long-term.

8.      DON’T eat out as often. An exceptional home-cooked meal can cost half as much and be twice as special.

9.      DO schedule errands wisely. A carefully planned travel route and lumping appointments/errands for the same day can save money on gas.

10.  DON’T make your budget too rigid. Budgeting is balancing. Create a budget that embraces your lifestyle.

Dorothy McFalls found the time to write The Marriage List (Signet Regency, May 2005) while happily doing more with less for the past four years. Go to www.dorothymcfalls.com for further information about the author and her books.