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batmansymbol · 11 months ago

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I hope this isn't a weird or too random question (and if it is, feel free to ignore ofc!) but I was wondering if you had any advice for someone thinking of writing full-time? The obvious question is, of course, can one make a living from it even if they're not like Stephen King or GRR Martin or something? Do you have any tips from your experience that you would have found helpful when first starting out? <3

Hi, sweet anon! Not weird at all. I'm happy to chime in with some (long) thoughts.

Firstly, yes! Authors can make a full-time living from writing even if they're not GRRM &c. I know a number of full-timers, and some of them aren't even NYT bestsellers.

As a caveat, I know very little about the indie/self-publishing space, so the following is based on my experience in traditional publishing.

I spent around 2-3 years writing books full-time. I no longer do that, and don't plan to return to it unless I have a big commercial breakout. It was just a never-ending parade of financial stress. It's hard even to give "tips" because so much is out of your control -- but if you're considering trying to write full time, you should definitely know what you're signing up for.

Here's an average situation for a non-bestseller trying to full-time it:

Let's say you've published two books, and your third is on the way (awesome!). For your first two novels, you got advances of $40,000, but maybe they've only sold 15k copies apiece -- not enough to "earn out" your advance and start making new money. So, you're not making a cent off your older books. Probably won't for years.

Let's say your book 3 is supposed to publish in June 2025, and it sold for more than your last books: $75,000. Pretty good! Advances are usually divided into thirds these days: 1/3 on contract signing, 1/3 on delivery of the fully edited manuscript (D&A), and 1/3 on publication. So that makes a $50,000 salary this year, yes?

Kind of. Right off the bat, your agent gets 15%, so that would make a $42,500 salary. A little tighter, but still seems doable. Also, you need to make estimated tax payments to the IRS. So, let's ballpark your taxes at $7,000, state and federal, which you'll pay in installments throughout the year.

Contract negotiations take a few months as usual, and let's say in April, you get the first payment: your first $21,250. Nice.

Unfortunately, your editor's swamped, and 2 months go by before they send you edits. When you get the letter in June, you're like -- shit, this is a more extensive revision than I thought. You start rehauling the novel, but after your month-long deadline passes, it's still not right. You take another six weeks before you're happy. It's now September.

Suddenly money is very tight. You got $21,250 in April, but since then you've paid $5,250 in estimated taxes, and every month you pay $2,250 in rent, health insurance, and food. You were supposed to have your second payment already, because the contract's estimated D&A date said September. But you still need to do line edits. You now have $2,500 in the bank. You are very aware that this will last a little over a month.

Your editor gets back after a few weeks, having loved your revision, and has sent you line edits. Thank God she didn't want a second round of bigger edits. But it's now October. You rush through the line edits, turn them in after a single jam-packed week. You have $250 in the bank. Your D&A payment is now due.

A week goes by. Where is the payment? You email your agent. She badgers the publisher. They say the payment will be sent through in a pay run next week, so after agency processing, it'll be with you in early November.

You have $75 in the bank. You start putting everything on your credit cards. Then your utility company makes a direct withdrawal from your checking account. You wake up to an overdraft notice and zero dollars in your account. Holy shit, you think, why did I choose this career. November hits. You are late on rent. Maybe you should start drawing from your retirement account, which you put $5,000 into, one time, three years ago?

When your payment arrives, you're not happy so much as ready to cry with relief. You start paying off your cards and sending late, embarrassed Venmos to your friends. You can finally stop declining invites to hang out because you have no money.

And by then it's November, and you're realizing that you really need to be thinking about your next book. If you were working smart, you got a jump on it earlier in the year, when your editor was late with your edit letter. Let's say you wrote an entire first draft back then, between January and June. (Which, to be clear, IS fast for a novel, do not believe the ridiculous standards of writing speed you see online.) If you now take six months to mold that first draft into actual art, then send it to your agent next May, and she wants changes, and you submit in July, and it sells after an average couple months on submission, you won't get your next contract payment until January, 2026.

ARE YOU ANXIOUS YET?

The above scenario is ordinary. An editor having a delay on an edit letter for a month or two, or an author getting stuck and running over deadline for a month -- that stuff is barely worth commenting on.

And there are all sorts of other bumps in the road. Let's say the publisher has turnover in the contracts department. Immediately, that'll be a delay on your signing payment. I've waited 6 months for a contract payment before. I've waited months for a simple email reply from an editor because the company was going through layoffs.

Add more people into the process, and it gets slower. Are you working on IP, let's say a novelization of a TV property? That team might take months to get back to you even on your proposed outline. Working with a freelancer or cowriter? Add weeks or months to every step. In publishing, you spend half your life waiting. You know what doesn't wait? Rent, taxes, and health insurance.

Anon, this is the shoestring, desperate kind of full-time author existence. If you're doing a little better -- still midlist, but better -- you might have earned out one or more of your backlist titles. That means you'll get additional royalties twice a year, usually April and October. That will help.

Or maybe you're a super-fast writer who's always, always juggling multiple contracts and shooting drafts in and out of your door. That's a decent way to make a healthy living as a full-time author, but you'll need to complete multiple books a year, for sure.

This is why I have a survival job half the week that pays my rent. The stress is still there, but it's less frequent and less intense. Honestly, given my sales figures, which are (checks notes) bad, I'm lucky to get to keep doing this after five novels. Because the biggest looming threat is that if you don't break out, editors will start shutting the door immediately because of your lack of established audience.

The only really reliable way to pay your bills is to break out. Then if your editor leaves your publishing house, and you get reassigned, and that pads 3 months onto the editing process, or whatever, it doesn't matter. You'll have actual, substantial royalty payments twice a year. Your advances will always be over six figures. You can live a normal life where you're not staring into the murky distance, wondering when some payment is going to soar out of the night and into your terrible bank account.

Or ... you can just get a day job. And you will get paid biweekly, reliably, on SPECIFIC DATES!!!, forever. When I tell you this shit was life-changing for me. Good God.

Obviously the biggest problem in this whole post is the bit where I wrote "every month you pay $2,250 in rent, insurance, and food," and worried if I was, in fact, lowballing that amount. What a broken world!

Anyway. Best of luck with the writing, anon -- no matter what your experiences in or around the industry, I hope the work itself continues to feed your soul.

#reply #publishing #advice

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the-firebird69 · 6 months ago

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Yeah okay the Mac did not sign it it's not Nathaniel Hawthorne. And he named it after Nathaniel Hawthorne that's the mall and there is a famous guy who is Nathaniel Hawthorne and he's around and he looks odd too and this guy looks like Dorothy and Dave stager couple of the guys. To release the money and he was taking it out of her son's account and he says for bad behavior or something and he's doing it to be mean because he's a mean person and a son moved around thought he had the money and it kept running out of money and the idiot was taking it the investment money out anyway please try to hit the piece of s*** and we knew why he was doing it and we didn't want him doing it so he put the money in and the max actually derived the number now they had him do it it was a hit on himself they had an issue and it might be why Trump is not issuing checks no he's issuing it and it's not working for him he says and he himself is getting hit by the social security check and if he issues more he'll get hit more so yeah he didn't get possessed and that's what our son and daughter were trying to say with Yuri it's actually him and it makes sense and the idiot was trying to do something to her son but the way the code reads it's not good what it says and the max were using it and had him do it mac daddy said to pay him and trouble waiting and it cost him and Trump said I did on my time or something and she did he did it later and Mac found out that mad and he got mad I'll tell you what this guy paid severely his people are dying he's dying and he's not really going to pay him anything what he did last time was he paid him and took the money out of the account and he tried covering it up with the overdraft issue he says it's over drafted because of this idiot Trump taking money out of my account and I had investment money I got out of storm and Trump tried to issue it and thought it was a code to kind of ding me but the max didn't want him issuing that money at that time and they're the ones who are having to hold it so Bill got it to him and he couldn't figure it out it's much later that he started to say it's on that they're having us just sit there and they're not really trying for it and they're not still so you flips out today says he's laughing about something he's just quite big she's what he's laughing about and says why is it funny you're torturing me you say and you're killing you actually put a dumb a****** and he got mad and said it sounds real stupid cuz it is and saying it's stupid for you I said you're the stupid a****** and he said that was our son there's a f****** who doesn't know what anything means and you keep issuing stupid sh and it's wrong and you keep getting hit and I need you to hell out of here so it started to say stuff and he went off ran around and he fell asleep somewhere and he woke up and said where am I but hell these people don't care for me at all and I'm sitting on him they're going after me somehow but these Max are going after me for real how many issue my own death certificate or warrant and then they went after him again today because they told him not to talk about it and finally he settles down and says I got to get to work and starts working on his plan to try and harm us it says it's his reaction at the max know you react that way and he says they're manipulating me and I can't get away from it he says they're simply going to have you executed by the order that you issued on yourself it might explain why you're cheap and he got really really mad I said that order is the one that's standing and you taking the money back because of the dollar values that's what the Mac said and all of a sudden he said I can't freaking believe this and he's going over the numbers and certain things they usually stick out to you he's going to try and verify it and they're going to go after him really this is what it is

Thor Freya

Olympus

Been going today we finally get it out there this is terrible but now it's happening and it's going to be harder and harder for them to get your money and it's like this argument your code doesn't do anything cuz he feels not out there and they keep arguing about it eventually they will payout some money and the code will be changed and we will go after them It will be tainted and we will go after them for it pretty proud of what my husband is doing

Hera

Olympus this is where we come in it's not a lot of money and they owe him and they stole money and he said it on the phone said you don't think that they know what you're doing and Bank of America and what you're doing down there he started to get a little paranoid I said how do they know later The code by taking the money back cuz you're a f****** f**** it takes money from poor people cuz you're stupid they don't know who we are out there but they're using the code against yours and he started to freak out and he said how do you know I said just sitting here telling me and Bill is figuring out some of the numbers so he's pastoring him now and his pestering Preston to get it said no but it looks real so he's going to have to put it together and if he doesn't we're just going to butcher the freak so damn useless people are killing him with a code it was a big execute order and no the numbers that are sun has now are real the girl put it there too he said this freaks had a number and they won't tell me what it is and she got close I don't think about it they all are thinking about it and wondering why the hell it's in the stay there so they're saying it too for him to take the money back that they gave to him but it's his money so he still knows about it and that was the order

Thor Freya

I helped get this out we need it out

Hera

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finsterhund · 1 year ago

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Every time I think I'm safe from heatwaves we get another one.

Maui is also on fire.

How much of our permafrost have we lost? I don't even want to check.

Will my favourite extant wild animal (emperor penguins) still be around in a hundred years?

Yeah it's one of these days 😔

And through all of this my bank is like 500 in the red. My overdraft is only 300. Bruh. Agony and pain on planet earth

But still I'm silly ��

Haven't been able to do my laundry so I'm not snuggling Sly because I'm in less than clean pajamas. Why did they raise the laundry cost so much :(

Talking to my mom and she's visiting family and seeing my cousins who are healthy normal well adjusted boys with ADHD with good lives and healthy support networks and functional social lives has made her realize how much she allowed my birth father to ruin my brother and me and she's shown so much remorse and yeah it is partially her fault but I'm telling her over and over that she was just as much taken advantage of by that monster as we were and it's wrong for her to shoulder the entirety of the blame when it wouldn't have happened if she had been married to a better person. Idk.

Her feeling so much remorse has actually made her soften her heart enough that she wants to send me the quilt grandma made for me though. Or is it the quilt great grandma made for me. She doesn't know. Idk how she'd be able to forget that. I fear her memory is just dying. Maybe she's so scared of my ability to remember things because it's showing to her she might be getting one of those mental diseases you get for memory with age. Idk. I know we're incompatible to live together and our relationship is still not healthy but I do care about her a lot. Don't want her to get sick or die. Really afraid of death and people I care about dying.

I'm not being torn apart mentally this time and I contribute that to my new antipsychotics but it's still pretty depression to think about all of this.

It's too hot to do anything so I'm just sorta stuck right now. Gotta keep telling myself that my financial distress will eventually become less scary. Because eventually my roommate won't need me to cover his expenses and eventually the government will have to raise my pension and eventually the housing market will collapse and eventually all the old money will die. Or whatever. Having a scary negative bank account and getting insufficient funds charges are just stupid monkey fake problems it doesn't mean I'm going to get hurt it doesn't mean I'm going to starve it doesn't mean I'm going to die. Just keep telling myself this. But it's still scary. I don't like feeling like I owe things. I know I can probably go to my bank and get them to reverse certain fees even make them increase my overdraft limit perhaps. Idk.

I just wish things could get better already you know? I get so tired all the time.

Apparently we're going camping on Friday. I'm all ready. Hoping my plants will be fine. I will water them well before we go. We're only going to be gone for half a week. Timed it around when I get paid so I can be away from civilization for the last days before my money comes in and puts by bank out of the negative. Roommate still says he doesn't know if he'll be able to cover all his own expenses this month yet. Big frustrated sigh. I don't just help because I need rent paid to keep the roof over my own head but also because I care. Maybe I care too much. People insist those with brains like mine do not care so I might as well prove them right. Less pain for me. But I just care. I care too much. Maybe I care because it helps me survive. I don't know.

Maybe the fact that I did have the period of my early years where my grandparents took care of me has actually made my life harder. Because I got a taste of how things should be so I'm less resilient to being hurt. I don't know if I'm conveying that thought well enough. Basically it allowed me to not have as thick of skin or whatever. Idk. I wonder if there will ever be a point in my relationship with my mom where we could live together. Humans are supposed to care for each other. God.

My cousins are all able to grow up. I am not. I am stunted and broken and frozen. Even if I thrive it's like I'm a bonsai tree compared to trees growing wild. I need special pruning. I need special access to light and water. I need special fertilizer. I can never reach my full potential. Can I thrive? Some think so. Some don't. If I get the best care possible I can look nice. But is that thriving? Is it inhumane regardless? Who can say. But there's no space for me to live "properly". If that makes sense.

How traumatic is it that it's integral to the queer experience, the neurodivergent experience, the disabled experience, that we have to fight just to have space to live? Humanity has built boxes that we now have to stake out an existence within the parameters of. To earn the right to exist.

Hoping I enjoy our camping trip. I'm not expecting it to fix me but I am fully anticipating that I enjoy it. Assuming I'm able to still enjoy things.

I have everything I need for the trip. I was responsible. Please don't let it be ruined.

I wish I'd hear back from my surgeon. I was supposed to have my surgery in May. Fucking May. My summer could have been so much better.

I wish me and Cazza could live on the farm. Was thinking about how if I had some money I could buy the land around the house back and set up a wind farm. Clean energy you know? Solar would be great out there too. I wouldn't even have to run a traditional farm. We need energy. I'd that my purpose? Hmm. If I was one of those assholes I could mine crypto too.

I think about having a solarium. You know one of those cool rooms with the big rounded ceiling windows? I would love to have that in the middle of nowhere and just have sleepovers out there. When it rains it would hit and run down those windows and look and sound really nice. I really just am made for the steppe. One or two special trees, wide open space, big sky. If reincarnation is real I hope I get to be Mongolian.

#text post #negative #long post

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bepatientandpersistent · 2 years ago

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My constant thought these days is "life is weird". I don't even know how to elaborate on that. This is probably going to be a long rambling nonsensical post. You can read if you want, obviously that's why I put it on here, but I just learned how to put things under the "keep reading" cut. I know, I'm super late 😂 but I don't post on here like I'd like to.

I feel like I've just had so many feelings recently. Today one kind of surprised me because I thought "it's gonna be okay". Like, I tell myself that all the time, because life is a struggle and I need to remind myself to keep going and that things WILL in fact be okay. But today the thought occurred to me subconsciously without me having to force it. So, maybe things will actually be okay.

I've been really struggling financially for a couple months. Well, actually about 7 months, since my mom's income got suspended (she's on SSI). We finally got that resolved last month and it helps a ton, she can pay her own bills now. But my bills are behind because I was helping her AND I chose to go down to one day a week at the hotel. I have been doing door dash and spark deliveries for a few months and those options were pretty stable, but now they aren't as busy as they were. I spend many hours each week waiting for deliveries, and sometimes they just dont come. I've resorted to just leaving bills unpaid or overdrafting my bank account to pay them. When I do that, my bank charges me $36 per day that I'm overdrafted. It's a killer. I had to borrow a large sum of money from one of my good friends yesterday, and it just barely covered the overdraft I had.. I will be able to pay him back, and he's allowing me to pay in payments. Im so thankful for him.

I start my new big-girl hospital job on Monday! I'm excited but nervous. I can't believe it's finally here and happening. I take my NCLEX on the 10th. I haven't been studying like I should because all of every day has been spent doing and waiting for deliveries. My goal for today is to answer 100 review questions, maybe more of I can but AT LEAST 100. I have the resources to do it and today I have the time, I just need to make myself. I'm doing that after I post this.

I'll get my first paycheck and a $6500 sign-on bonus check on the 22nd. I just hope I can hold out on money until then. My commute to work will be ~40 minutes each way, and that takes gas. 5 days a week throughout June. After that I may go down to 3 days a week but that's to be determined.

My mom and I have been bickering about money and bills for weeks. We don't live together and our bills are technically separate but we help each other. If I have money and she needs something paid or needs something, I help her, and vice versa. Sometimes one of us will spend money on something unnecessary and it causes a rift. Because money is so tight right now. I don't feel like I should have to explain where every cent of my money goes, but I understand why she gets frustrated. We are broke. I am so ready for us to not have to share money and bills and to be able to do as I wish with the money I make. That's where my frustration comes in also: most of the money we have to spend is mine. I work 3 jobs right now, soon to be 4. If I want to spend the money I work my ass off for, I can do that. I just have to face the consequences of it sometimes..

I'm still living with my aunt and uncle and since my income will be much higher here soon, the thought of getting my own place has crossed my mind. My mom would like for us to live together. I'm not convinced that's a good idea. I'd love to have my own space and there are things I dislike about living with family. My dad may also potentially be moving here before the year is up. He probably wouldn't have a job immediately so he would either have to stay with my mom (in her living room) or with me in my own place. My mom complains about him constantly when he stays at her apartment. If like to avoid that if possible. I also don't enjoy the thought of having to move houses in the summer, that just sounds terrible. Plus, it would give me a few months to save up for deposits and moving costs.. no plans are set in stone yet, but moving this year is a definite possibility.

I've been trying to get back in the mindset of getting healthy and losing weight. I've stopped drinking sodas again (4 days ago) and am consequently drinking more water. However, I started smoking cigarettes again about 1.5 months ago and haven't kicked the habit yet. I am determined to make this pack the last and wait before I start work on Monday... I think I can do it. I haven't been any more active. My scale still says 266, which is 1 pound less than my high weight. At least it's not more right? I just know I'm going to be miserable working as a nurse being this overweight and out of shape. Part of me wants to try keto again because I know it will make me lose weight fast. But I can never keep up with it, I always quit right after it starts working. I'm still trying to decide what I want to do.. trying to decide what I think I can stick with.

I need to call my storage place and pay for my unit. I need to call and pay a loan. I need to go tomorrow to buy scrubs for work. I need to go study. I think I'll end this post there. I'm sorry if you've read this far 😅 I didn't know where I was going with it lol. I feel like I have lots more to say but I'll continue later.

#personal #life #work #update

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soloh · 2 years ago

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Hi! I noticed your tags about the banks meme and I was wondering if you were interested in elaborating a bit on your perspective based on your knowledge and experiences? I'm genuinely curious! :) absolutely no obligation to share at all though!

This explains most of it better than I ever could

But the reason I was kind of like "eh, feels like OP doesn't fully understand" is that it is your low-depositors (I.e. the people putting in smaller amounts of money, such as members of the working class, single parents, teens with part-time jobs at mcdonalds etc.) into that bank who are being protected by the money being injected back into the bank. That's why the central bank is available as a lender of last resort, so that the ordinary citizens who keep their wages from their jobs in the bank don't suddenly lose it all.

It was absolutely irresponsible for the bank to lend so much money in one go that it was unable to settle debts, given that fund transfers, repayments, and account settlement with the central bank are, as a rule of thumb, done daily, so they ballsed this up in a very short period of time. It was also irresponsible to continue lending when people started taking their money out of their accounts, given that it's their money being lent out, and the bank can't guarantee it'll be paid back, and banks are only required to hold a certain percentage in reserve, not every dollar that people deposit. BUT it's the people getting screwed by overdrafts and overdraft fees who are being protected as much as possible by the central bank/government stepping in.

Tl;dr The bank system is shady and messy, government bailouts in moments like these are actually one of the only things protecting your average joe bloggs from losing everything from banks failing to hedge risk properly, so the bailout itself isn't inherently a bad thing. Yes, it protects the bank for taking stupid risks which is not great, but it protects the customers more, because it means the customers can continue to withdraw the money that is rightfully theirs without worrying about it suddenly disappearing, but the bank still has to find a way to pay back the money they've been loaned to save them.

(I don't know enough about the other banks internationally to comment on their problems, my finance paper has only really covered Aotearoa and a bit of the US so far)

#reply #jupiter-squid #it should be noted that i have a first year of university level of understanding #the whole thing is much more nuanced and complicated and involves playing with money that doesnt exist which imo is absurd #but it keeps the average person from losing that week's wages or their savings so i dont hate that the central bank is able to intervene

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dhaaruni · 2 years ago

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Dhaaruni, I hope it's ok if I vent for a moment in your askbox but it just keeps angering me and like, given the various circumstances of my life, the thing that gets me about young women and girls these days wanting to be wives so their husband pays for everything and they magically hold zero cares in the world is like.... Have you ever even Been There? [1]

No extra money of your own because it's in a joint account so it's for Everyone or No One? Cleaning the house, doing the laundry, cooking meals, etc.--something you will be expected to do as the Unemployed Person! Even if "hubby" never says so explicitly I guarantee you he's been raised to anticipate some woman always being there to fulfill his needs and keep house--can only fill up so much of your time. For example, I can sweep and mop up half of a house and wash up a load of laundry in 2 hours. Wow! How efficient. Except gee, what to do next? The other half? Bake a loaf of bread or a batch of cookies? (I do enjoy baking and cooking but it's still work!) Another odd load of laundry? Oh wait. There's so many things to watch on streaming services! Books to read! Maybe I'll finish up my painting!! Except when do you feel justified to take time like that when a full time job is from 8 to 5, and you can get so much done is so little time? [2] [Wow, finally tumblr is cooperating with me! Last one!] Oh but wait! Childcare. Childcare is a whole new ballpark. Have fun communicating with a wee screeching thing for anything from hunger and thirst, to outside playtime, oh no the favorite blanket is missing, and so on. It's not frustrating or maddening at all! Bonus points if you find yourself hit in the head by any object the baby/toddler can throw at you, and no amount of, "No, we don't throw. That's not nice. That hurts." will stop it! You just have to take it and hope that someday it'll finally click before you're the one screaming and throwing things in the backyard. And that's one little piece of childcare! You have to factor in meal planning for picky tastes but also ensure a balanced diet lest you constipate or give them diarrhea to kingdom come! Blowouts and diapers so sodden with urine they explode just by removing clothes! Tantrums and when they realize they can't throw something at you, they will scream right in your ear! Etc.! (I know it's Controversial ig but David Lynch nailed it with Eraserhead. Parenthood is that messy and messed up, This Be the Verse, etc.) Like this is well and truly what makes me wonder about girls and women wanting this. It gets old. I'm not saying a job as a cashier or barista is gonna fulfill my life or wouldn't be as mind-numbingly soul crushing. But it would actually pay bills! It would be more than the paltry change I'm granted as a full time nanny right now! Yes, I work 10.5-12 hours a day and I'm way below the poverty line! But ig I ought to be happy bc childcare isn't real work somehow? Or that it's solely my money? Except I can't afford much of anything without risking overdraft hmm. Which ig is why minimum wage looks better where I'm at! Terrible, right? Because even that tiny sum is an improvement for me. Like I'm part of a long, long line of unemployed, unmarried, childless women being made into cheap and convenient childcare! So the return to tradwife bimbo whatever bullshit makes me livid constantly. I cried so many times reading The Feminine Mystique bc while Betty Friedan didn't write it with someone like me in mind--I got my degree! I've never wanted kids! Sure I never planned out future education or found employment in my field, but this wasn't my choice!--, I can relate all too well! And all these girls and women wanting to go back?? Please please please READ The Feminine Mystique! I don't know a single woman that would take my place much less choose to be a stay at home mom even if money wasn't an issue! Because shockingly if women are human beings, our lives don't end at motherhood and homemaking! Crazy concept, right?

You're completely right, and I think you'll appreciate this post from @mini-wrants with @sprinkledsalt's addition.

#anonymous #answered #feminism

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mousedetective · 5 years ago

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Hey you might want to consider getting an amex bluebired card. You can use it with direct deposit, has no fees and their customer support is pretty good. It works like a debit card, it's taken anywhere they take amex and you can get them at walmart. The thing I like about it is that there is only one fee using an out of network ATM they charge a $1.50 But the big thing is that all transaction process instantly and they don't do overdrafts. If the money isn't there it's not covered.

I have had one of those in the past and yeah, it was really a good thing. And I myself currently have a PayPal Prepaid Mastercard which links up to my PayPal account, only allows me to overdraft by $10 and has a $4.99 monthly fee, which isn’t too bad. So I get the reason it’s being suggested.

But, the one direct deposit you can’t put on a pre-paid card is social security payments, which I know because I tried to use my PayPal card since I didn’t want another debit card that basically has no use except for me to spend money on it (that’s the one the government sends to people who don’t have bank accounts when they get SSI/SSDI...it’s not bad, but certain places won’t take it for online purchases and I can’t add money to it if I need to cover a cost larger than my Social Security balance).

My mom has had this account for a long long time (it’s Chase bank), and it’s where she’s gotten her payments for the last nine years. Normally we don’t overdraft this badly; June and this month both had 10 day-long visits with the kidlet where we had to cover everything because L sent him with no clothes and didn’t help with food or gas. Those usually don’t happen very often, but they cost well over the $1,200 that we spent to get the room, hence why we gambled on going over to make sure everyone was taken care of (for example, no one expected me to be projectile vomiting or have a swollen inner cheek that visit, but that’s what ended up happening).

I might suggest to my mom we talk to Chase about overdraft protections, because I think it’s a thing they can do, and I’m really hoping we don’t get any more surprise ten-day visits were we get absolutely no help from L, but I’m not holding my breath, since there are problems in the household that might mean we need to take my son more often (not with my son and L, they’re getting along better than before).

Right now, I’m hoping I can get the overdraft down to at least $400 - $500 and maybe cover my phone bill since it’s due tomorrow, I think (though I’m more worried about the account at the moment, I kind of need my phone because I’m dealing with stuff from getting Medicaid this month when it comes to my meds and referrals, and I still haven’t heard from my Alpha Project coordinator but I don’t want to call when I can’t get a call back). Mainly I’m just worried having the draft for so long they’ll close my mom’s account, and then she’ll lose the ability to get her SSI/SSDI for a few months and we’ll really be screwed.

#answering asks!#moving saga #personal stuff #money issues #resplendentgoldenwings

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