Who is a rich designer, and who is a poor one?
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- unknown0
middle poor
some beer,
my rent, a few nights out
and i'm 1000 $ under zero every month..
- unknown0
the thing is when i go out, i spend about 500 $ in a few hours :)
but soon i'll be mega rich and rule the world, earn 600 k and ignore u all
- paulrand0
I hate rich people. I hate myself.
- Hypo0
carver who do you work for
- BonSeff0
hey, my maid's name is svetlana!
goddamnit, she said she was a virgin. Rich people can only bang the pure help.
- Hypo0
Guiness?
- jackie0no0
If you want to be a rich designer, move to baltimore- it's cheap cheap cheap- 45 min from DC, 1hr/30min from Philly, 3 hrs from Manhattan. Cool rowhouses in the middle of the city for under 100K and lots and lots of pretty girls!
- jpea0
dirt poor over here!
not a penny to my name, barely made the bills, and eating $2 burritos every day....someday though, someday i'll have my bling bling (not just a bling, but 2!)... then i'll invite all you bitches to my pad when i throw the biggest party eva' seen!
ps: anyone want to give me a job? ;-)
- 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.
- unknown0
nice idea mg, .. i agree with eveything you said.. it's very true..
i'm just so, so bad doing budget and stuff.. i jus can't count !
i make more money since december and i spend more and at the end i have less money and every month i say : Hooray ! i'm rich after i get my wages but after the rent and bills again i fee ldepressed sometimes.. sometimes money problems are gettting too much attention from me and pulling all the good things out of my life..
it's hard to control.. when i was younger i didn't give a shit.. now i try to be careful..it's not about how much you get
it's about how much you spend
- unknown0
And I'll add this: I do totally know what it's like to barely have money for food. Up until I had started temping for a few months I was only working a part time clothing retail job, often trying to eat on $5 a week.
I moved to Chicago without a job, promptly ran out of money, and did nothing all day but work on portfolio and look for jobs.
I sympathize with anyone and everyone who is trying to get work these days. It wasn't easy.
- unknown0
you gotta have the skills to pay da bills!
- ********0
hey mg.. im interested in your excel program.. if you dont mind.. can you email it to
thanks.
and im a student.
with a budget..
could use that budget program to help me out mg..
- unknown0
no problem. Anyone who would like it: Send me an e-mail
and I'll reply with it and instructions. Need to rewrite the directions, so it will be sometime this afternoon.
- exador0
was a poor designer for many many many many years..making about 30k or so a year (can. dollars...which works out to about 19k USD...hahah yikes)
up untill i was about 27 or so..
then, due to making the right friends, and working hard, i got offered a job here at montage, as the art director.just about tripled my salary in 4 years.
which is due in large part again, to the nuttiness of this job, and the fact that my first year here was back in 99, well before everything went crashing, and they started handing out insane raises for no reason, other than to hang on to the staff...
no staff roll-over means good PR on the street..
anyhow...since i'm the only one here that does graphics (making me the head of an art-dept. of just one employee...myself ;) )
i've managed to avoid the subsequent layoffs that plagued the industry...
its a great life, and my wife and i were able to buy a house because of it, and my wife is a highschool teacher, so she makes pretty ok money too...the thing is not to get tooo used to any of it..
the market is still nutsy, and since AT&T Canada owns my company, and since they're about to go through a whole re-branding (starting tonite..no more att canada..whole new identity) who knows what could happen..
so, i make great money today...but a year from now, i could be back to square one, ...
i just try to save as best as i can, and try, try try not to let it get to my head...
i've been well off, and i've been poor..
both have their problems..
but, i'll ride this montage thing for as looooooong as i can..been a great ride so far..
with any luck, it'll keep going for a few more years..
:)
- ********0
i just don't have a clue as for what i earn... (freelance)..
all my shit goes to the accountant, and i don't want to know... but i hardly pay taxes cuz i invest well.
sometimes i feel rich sometimes poor.
I feel okay with it.
- ********0
except for when i was a photographer, and made (estim.) 50-60k euros per year... but I always complained back then and i felt poor...
one day i'll be a photographer again tho..
I like changes in my life, care more for that then a ton of cash..
- k0na_an0k0
i used to know this real bitch of a design....... er.
um.... sorry... that says RICH. my bad.
- jpea0
yeah, i took a risk with what i did i guess... moved to a city where i didn't know anyone... took an internship (suggested by me to the owners of the studio so i wasn't really in a position to ask for money)... ran out of money reeeal quick and subsequently decided to start something on my own somewhere else... good things and bad things came from it though..
mainly knowing what i don't want to do, knowing what i still have to learn, keeping some of the work and future clients for myself, and knowing where i feel comfortable in my own life.
I leave here on thursday:-)
- ********0
if it's of any comfort to ya, jpea:
I am about to move to a city where I know very little people, and I am absolutely unaware about the situation there for me as a designer! :)
oh well, it's an adventure!