*sigh*

[ksmith]

An interesting post by an agent tailor-made to burst my little soap bubble dreams.

I dream of the quit-the-day-job deal. I am also a tad security-conscious. I once took one of those on-the-job personality tests--the results were a tie between "entrepreneur" and "security", which is about as conflicted a result as you can get.

To be a full-time writer. The books need to keep selling, and you need to keep writing them. For 20, 30, 40 years or more.

Comments

[pbray.livejournal.com]

My goal is to make enough money from my writing so I can quit the corporate job (high stress/60+ hours a week) and take a part-time job that will give me more time and mental energy to write.

I do have a specific savings goal in mind, and hopefully in the next five years I'll be able to take that step. Assuming the stock market doesn't completely tank and I stay in good health.

But I don't ever see myself quitting work entirely.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

This sounds like me, in a reverse way. I have an idea of what I would need to live on. I don't believe that I will need 100% replacement income, which is what many of the financial advice books preach. I only take home about 45% of what I make, and am hoping that if the 401(k) can cover, say, 60% replacement income, whatever remains of the company pension (yes, I still have one coming, at least for now) will combine to provide enough of a base so that writing income, while nice, would not be an absolute necessity. So I am approaching it from the other side--I don't want to have to depend at all on the writing income. I'm hoping that saves my brain. I burned out once, and I don't want to do it again. I will. however, work part-time in the wild if necessary. It would probably be better if I did that anyway, in the interests of social interaction and research. The paycheck probably wouldn't hurt, either.

Yes, I know, I'm not figuring in taxes or health insurance. Well, yes I am, but in a roundabout way. I have a Roth IRA set up that I hope to use for health care premiums/fund an HSA/whatever. Taxes will get paid. Barring a complete collapse of the financial markets, I shouldn't, hear me God, risk my house or wind up under a bridge. All those entertaining adult thoughts.

I'm hoping I can swing this in the next 2.5 years. It may be later. Just watching the numbers.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

That was my plan when I became an LMT. But I had nagging illness, and never could make the step to more money coming in than coming out. Then the writing dried up--stress, I thought, and applied myself to work.

Then I found out I had a serious medical condition, and boy, it's nice to have kept my insurance despite its cost. Of course, the IT industry crashed around all this, plus 9/11. So although I wasn't making a lot, I was doing better than tech friends who were laid off.

Moral? Plan. And then plan some more. And expect to live simply unless you're really lucky.

Still hoping for a bestseller, of course...

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Hoping for a bestseller is always good.

Access to reasonably priced group health insurance is the biggest sticking point for me as well. I know too many writers who have made the leap to full-time status, only to find themselves in a financial crisis when they had health issues.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I've been seeing commercials recently for a company called Assurant, which apparently specializes in health care policies for the self-employed. I know this was a recent name change (from Fortis?), but I wondered if anyone had looked into them.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

I haven't checked any of the plans out recently, though this is an issue that often gets discussed on the Novelists Ink email loop, since many of our members are full-time writers.

I know NINC had looked into trying to get group health insurance to offer to their members, but the problem is that it's not a huge buying pool, and the demographics of the group aren't attractive to insurers (who want the majority of policy holders to be relatively young and healthy).

Last time I checked, depending on where you lived, one of the cheaper options for getting group health rates was to see if there were plans available to members of your local chamber of commerce, or through professional associations.

The Authors Guild also offers health plans, but I seem to recall that they've had problems keeping an insurance carrier, and in getting coverage outside major metropolitan areas.

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

Access to reasonably priced group health insurance is the biggest sticking point for me as well. I know too many writers who have made the leap to full-time status, only to find themselves in a financial crisis when they had health issues.

Honestly, I'd advise people not to do it without insurance. And it's hard to get that through to the very young and healthy. We all think we're immortal at that age. We don't know, until a friend is stricken, about MS, chronic fatigue, etc. And don't realize it often hits in the late 20s.