Who is a rich designer, and who is a poor one?
Out of context: Reply #29
- Started
- Last post
- 61 Responses
- unknown0
I think by living within your means you can feel "rich" based on your own standards, if that makes sense. I make $30K a year, that's about what I wanted to make out of college, I'm not doing design/web stuff yet (I work at a law firm in Chicago) but hopefully I'll get into that within a few years.
Having a roommate helps, split rent and bills and that helps to save money and have more to spend.
If you feel good living within your means, that's the best thing you can do for yourself. Having money for food, doing stuff with my girlfriend, going to see bands, buying stuff for apartment, taking care of my cat, helping a friend out with a little cash every now and then, those things are not that extravagant, but they're enjoyable and I'm glad I can do them.
At the same time, I work with people who make 3-8 times what I do. As long as you don't make yourself feel less because you don't have what they have, you'll do fine.
If anyone is interested, I made a spreadsheet/budget calculator in Excel not long ago that helps plan what you have to spend each month (bills, rent, credit card payments) as well as showing how much allowance you can give yourself weekly. It also factors in how much you want to put to a savings account, and projects how much you'll have by the end of the year. It's pretty simple, but it helped to see just what you have to work with each month/prevents you from blowing everything all at once.