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Money Talk: Miel Moreland on the Financial Rules She Never Breaks
Money Girl Laura Adams: When did you decide that you wanted to become an author (or other career)?
Miel Moreland: I knew I wanted to write books from a very young age, five or six at the latest. I committed to it in a serious way when I was about sixteen.
MG: Do you write full-time?
MM: I do not write full-time! I have a full-time administrative position at a university. I make more money from that job than from writing—and my job also comes with paid time off, employer-sponsored health insurance, and other benefits. It can be tricky to balance, time-wise, but the stability afforded to me by having a day job means I’m less anxious about my writing, because I’m not counting on writing books quickly in order to be able to pay rent. Since I’m both a slow writer and someone with anxiety, it’s much better to have this pressure taken off.
MG: Did you study writing (or something else) or has it always come naturally to you?
MM: I did not study writing—I was a double English/Politics major in college, but the English program at my school was focused on literature. I only took one creative writing class in college, and that was a mixture of poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction. Writing comes naturally in the sense that the love for writing comes naturally, but the skill requires significant and ongoing practice, and of course lots of revision. I read a lot (or, at least I thought I read a lot until I realized how much bloggers read!), and I’m always trying to learn from other writers.
MG: When you first started writing (or something else), were there any financial challenges? If so, how did you manage them?
MM: When I first started writing It Goes Like This, I’d just finished my teaching assistant contract in France and was back in the United States, living with my parents while I applied to jobs. Ultimately, during the year in which I wrote, revised, and queried It Goes Like This, I had a constantly changing job situation, while simultaneously applying to grad school: unemployed, working more than full time, working part-time… If I hadn’t been living at home, I wouldn’t have been able to write during periods of unemployment and part-time work—because it would have been urgent for me to work more. Instead, because much of the money I earned that year went into savings for my move to the East Coast, I was able to make the choice to work less and write more at certain times.
MG: What advice would you give someone who's creative or wants to change their lifestyle about balancing passion for their art and earning an income?
MM: Perhaps the first question is to determine if you want to earn money from your art. You don’t have to! In fact, you should consider whether turning your passion into a job could actually decrease your enjoyment of your art. If you decide to pursue financial return from your art, do you want it to be fun, bonus money, or serious money that you will rely on? What kind of time is required to make the quality and quantity of art necessary for your answer? I spend a lot of time on my author job that isn’t purely writing—I’m reading to improve my craft, networking with other authors, and promoting my books.
Before you start a side hustle, you should consider whether turning your passion into a job could actually decrease your enjoyment of your art.
Then you need to be serious about both your current financial needs or commitments and your future goals. How much money would you need from writing in order to make it an integral part of your income? What are you counting as writing: will you also offer editing services, pitch yourself for classroom visits, or write freelance articles in addition to novels? If you stay in a regular full-time or part-time job while writing, what’s the trigger point at which you would consider being a full-time writer? If you try writing full-time, what’s the plan for if it’s not sustainable long-term? You’re not less of a writer just because you have bills to pay and you can’t pay them entirely through book advances.
If you’re balancing art with another job, there are plenty of factors to consider. Some writers thrive on having other jobs related to writing, such as teaching or working in communications. I would be too drained by having a day job that required a lot of creativity. For now, I’ve also deliberately chosen a job with a strict 9-5 schedule. If I were in a job that required a significant amount of overtime, I wouldn’t have time to write. As with everything in life, don’t be afraid to change your mind as your wants or needs evolve over time!
It can be tricky to balance, time-wise, but the stability afforded to me by having a day job means I’m less anxious about my writing.
MG: What do you like to spend money on that some people might consider a splurge or luxury?
MM: Cake from local bakeries to celebrate any book milestone, no matter how minor. And concerts, of course—I promise I didn’t write any tickets off on my taxes as book research.
MG: What’s the best thing you’ve bought in the last few months?
MM: On a practical level, the best thing I bought was a new phone. My previous one was old, physically falling apart, and could not hold a charge. Plus, it was constantly crashing, which was obviously an issue when a significant part of being an author is promoting your books online!
On a fun level, I recently bought a ticket to a live comedy show for the first time. I started watching comedy specials and stand-up during the pandemic, and since live comedy seems to be coming back sooner than live music, this is replacing a concert I might have gone to this year.
I grew up in a household that prioritized experiences over things, and sometimes experiences translate to really nice chocolate cake, and sometimes you just want to be in a big space with other people, all sharing in a particular joy.
MG: What’s the biggest money mistake you’ve ever made?
MM: Not tracking my expenses exactly when I got my first post-college position. I had a basic budget, and I kept a rough sum going in my head, but not knowing the exact numbers was an unnecessary stressor. This was complicated by the fact that my savings were in my American bank and my income—and most of my expenses—were going through my French bank.
It’s especially important to track your money exactly when you’re not charging everything to the same account, or when some portion of your money is only available for certain purchases or in certain locations.
MG: Tell me a financial rule that you never break.
MM: I pay my credit card off completely every month!
Okay, I have broken this rule twice… once when I had to use my American credit card for certain travel expenses but my paychecks were going into my French bank account, and once when a friend was slow to pay me back for a concert ticket. But it’s now been years since I’ve broken this streak.
Stock Market Today: Dow Falls for Third Straight Day
Oil futures logged their sixth consecutive loss.
Money Talk: Sara Fujimura on the Importance of Talking About Money
Money Girl Laura Adams: When did you decide that you wanted to become an author (or other career)?
Sara Fujimura: Not until after college where I earned a B.S. in Public Health Education. My favorite class in college was Epidemiology, and deadly diseases used to be my jam…that is until March 2020. I am infinitely fascinated by the Spanish Flu and did several articles about it, including one for Perspectives in Health, published by an arm of the World Health Organization. While doing research, I came across all kinds of captivating stories in diaries, letters, newspaper articles, and even some video interviews (much later on) from survivors. I took these true stories and wove them into my young adult historical fiction novel Breathe, which came out in 2018 on the 100th anniversary of the pandemic. Who knew that only two years later, everybody would suddenly become an expert on the Spanish Flu and pandemics in general? While I was doing research (so much research!) for Breathe, I decided to keep going with my storytelling, slowly moving from magazine articles to young adult books full-time.
MG: Do you write full-time?
SF: I do, but I am also blessed to have a spouse with a stable job and health insurance. I didn’t start writing full-time until after my children finished high school. Before then, I wrote part-time and donated a lot of time to my children’s schools/activities. I don’t regret this at all. It was a time of story-collecting and educating myself on writing craft.
Writing tends to be a feast-or-famine occupation, and the pandemic hit our profession just as hard as everybody else’s. COVID19 has been the great equalizer. Whether you were the Big Fish or the tiny minnow in your publishing house, NOBODY went out on book tour. This is where being an indie-pubbed author first saved my bacon. Tor Teen (publisher for my third and fourth books) can definitely do things that I can’t, like getting my book reviewed on NPR. But I can also do things that they can’t, like tapping into my local networks and keeping my books alive even when all of my in-person events went *poof* in 2020. Yeah, releasing a new book two weeks before the country goes into lockdown…1 out of 10 stars. Highly would NOT recommend it. With America slowly opening back up, I hope to combine my entrepreneurial spirit with Tor Teen’s fantastic marketing team to make an exponential jump in sales with my latest book, Faking Reality (July 13).
MG: Did you study writing (or something else) or has it always come naturally to you?
SF: People are often surprised to hear that I do NOT have an English degree. It was my Public Health degree that led me to write. My senior year, one of my professors asked me to be his intern because he knew I could take complex topics and boil them down into accessible information for the general public. Fast-forward to the early 2000s when I received a call from an editor of a homeland security magazine who had seen my articles on the Spanish Flu. He wanted me to take cutting-edge scientific information and boil it down so that first responders could implement it into their jobs. Though I stopped doing magazine work so I could concentrate on book projects, in a way, I am still using this skill. You can enjoy my books as funny, sweet romances. Or, if you want to dig deeper, there is a lot of fact behind the fiction woven into them. I do Behind the Book posts on Instagram frequently to show readers how I brought my books to life.
MG: When you first started writing (or something else), were there any financial challenges? How did you manage them?
SF: Definitely! For most of my twenty years of writing, money has flowed more out than in. Granted, that was a choice. I could write on staff at a newspaper or edit for other authors to create some kind of financial stability in my business, but I don’t.
I reinvest my paychecks into my LLC and update my equipment, attend conferences, and pay for marketing. My first two books were independently published. To ensure that the final product was of the same quality as something found on a Barnes & Noble shelf, I had to spend money. A lot of money.
I hired content editors, copyeditors, experts, historians, and graphic designers. I also needed a large chunk of money for the business side of my book-making. That included everything from purchasing tax licenses, a tent and tables, bookmarks, KDP ads, travel to events, and more. It adds up very quickly, but it paid off. I’ve finally started turning a profit. If Netflix wants to make one of my books into a movie or series, that would definitely help my bottom line.
MG: What advice would you give someone who's creative or wants to change their lifestyle about balancing passion for their art and earning an income?
SF: Start small and build. I had the safety net of my husband’s job and healthcare underneath me so I could experiment more than maybe some can. Keep reinvesting any income into your business and education. Take the time to build your community and lift up other creatives in your circles.
Talking about money always feels squidgy, but we need to do it!
MG: What productivity tips have helped you achieve success?
SP: My productivity hacks continue to evolve as I listen to a lot of productivity and entrepreneurial podcasts. I agree with the experts that success *doesn’t* come from time management but instead focus management. Not only do I have the usual distractions (social media, snacks, a toddler cat who will eat the couch if she’s feeling ignored), but I also have new ideas pinging around my brain all the time.
Success doesn’t come from time management but instead focus management.
I often sing to my cat the line from the great contemporary poets/songwriters LMFAO…“Every day I’m shufflin’. Shufflin’. Shufflin’.” If I’ve been burning the midnight oil too much, Tiger Lily might even get some interpretative dance along with it. (For the record, she is not impressed by either.) Seriously though, I’ve yet to turn into the type of author who keeps the same strict writing schedule. I’m always out of balance, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I can write a complete (crappy) novel in two months, but it tears up my body, and I become a hermit. With a new book coming out on July 13th (Faking Reality with Tor Teen), launch prep and promo for the new book is my primary focus this month. This fall, I’m planning a long vacation to the East Coast to see my family and probably won’t work at all while I’m there. To help me decide where to put my time, focus, and energy, I use a couple of tools.
- I use Brian Moran’s 12-Week Year philosophy (https://12weekyear.com/) to help me cull the ideas and decide where to put my focus each “year.” That way, I don’t have a big freak out every December. The system helps me go deeper on fewer things, and that’s how progress realistically happens.
- I use Todoist (https://todoist.com/) to park all the tasks. Granted there are days when I have 25 things on my list, but at least I know they are all captured somewhere, even if it isn’t that project’s “year” yet.
- I take my sometimes (okay, often) unrealistic To-Do list and pull a few of the highest-value tasks into a much more manageable list in my bullet journal. There are utilitarian bullet journals and ones that are mini art masterpieces. Mine is somewhere in between. My bujo contains To-Do lists done in colored pens in nice handwriting and decorated with washi tape. I will not be taking questions on the amount of washi tape I own. *cough*
MG: What do you like to spend money on that some people might consider a splurge or luxury?
Travel. I would rather live a modest retirement with thousands of stories to reminisce about than retire with a billion dollars after working non-stop until retirement age. Though I would be okay with having a billion dollars *and* going on multiple vacations around the globe each year. Netflix, call me!
Also, cute washi tape. Moving on.
SF: What’s the best thing you’ve bought in the last few months?
Renting an Air B&B up in Sedona for a long weekend with my husband and two grown kids. Being outside and hiking around the gorgeous red rocks recharged my spirit more than any expensive purse or shoes could have.
MG: What’s the biggest money mistake you’ve ever made?
Early in my writing career, I didn’t always write with a contract. I got burned so many times. Yes, it was for only a few hundred dollars each time, but the bigger issue was that I didn’t feel confident enough to insist on a contract.
SF: Tell me a financial rule that you never break.
Errr…how about I tell you the rule that has continued to plague me? It is the same problem as the previous answer, only in a different form: Undervaluing my work and giving away too much of my time, energy, and expertise. Yes, I want to be generous and helpful to others, but when a male counterpart is paid more than you for the same work (or worse, subpar work but done with chutzpah), you need to reevaluate your fee schedule. I get on my female friends regularly about undercharging for their products/services. I have lost count of the number of times I have overtipped or refused a discount because a businesswoman was undervaluing herself. This is where having a community is paramount.
You need to know what the going rate is in your area. If you have a mastermind group with other women in your field, then I challenge your group to set an agreed-upon amount so that your price becomes the area’s norm, not the exception.
My author mastermind group recently had a frank discussion about school visit fees, where I realized that my rates were way too low. Talking about money always feels squidgy, but we need to do it!
Child Tax Credit Payment Schedule for the Rest of 2021
The IRS has already sent two batches of monthly child tax credit payments. Here’s when you can expect the rest of your payments.
6 Hidden Costs of Starting a New Business in 2021 + How to Reduce Them
If the upheaval of the past year has taught us anything, it's that there are no guarantees in business. But one hidden benefit of mass closures and unexpected downtime at home is the opportunity to reevaluate our careers. Many have taken this time to rethink what life and work really mean to them and decided to start their own businesses.
The thought of going out on your own may bring a mixture of fear and excitement. Maybe it's something you've been thinking about for a while, and now fate has forced your hand. But before you take that step, there are some hidden costs you may not have considered. It’s important to know your market and understand the costs you’re up against when starting your own business
Hidden costs for new businesses
Anyone who has ever worked long hours at a dead end job may have dreamed of being their own boss someday. Maybe you have a side hustle or a hobby you've wanted to expand into a business.
However, being your own boss is challenging, and it’s definitely not for everyone. The reality is that working for yourself often means working harder than you ever have before — not to mention barely breaking even for quite some time.
Costs like office space, equipment, and payroll are to be expected and may be easier to calculate. But, there are many expenses that might take you by surprise when you launch your startup. Everything from the hidden costs of website maintenance to acquiring the right kind of insurance can set you back if you don’t plan for them.
Before you take the leap, here are six hidden costs that you should know about, plus some tips on how to make them more manageable.
Startup funding
You might think that you can just start your business small and build upon it. But even a stellar business idea requires some capital to get it off the ground. Unfortunately, this is also one of the hardest parts of starting a company.
Some new business owners don’t understand the finances behind starting a business well enough to present their financial information to loan officers or potential investors. What’s more, women, persons of color, and other minorities underrepresented in the startup space face additional bias and challenges. For example, one study found that black business owners were 10% more likely to apply for startup assistance but 19% less likely to be approved.
Rather than trying to obtain a bank loan — or using your personal savings — consider crowdfunding or angel investors.
You could also look into small business grants, which don't need to be repaid.
This may be the nest egg you need to get your business off the ground in the event you are unable to acquire a loan or other funding source.
Startup fees
It would be a mistake to avoid the two crucial expenses for starting any business: hiring an accountant and a business lawyer. Regulations about licensing vary from state to state, as do tax filing deadlines and fees. These also vary by the type of business or service and corporate structure. You can cut some of these costs by only using a business lawyer and accountant for your initial consultation about corporate structure, tax obligations, and insurance requirements.
Budget management is also critical from day one. One of the first things you acquire for your business should be quality accounting software. Make sure your accounting tools come with crucial features such as robust small business accounting reports and accountant-friendly software to avoid any regulatory headaches or overlooked expenses on tax day.
Insurance
Insurance is an expense you'd rather not need, but you'll be glad you have it when the unexpected happens. Plus, for some states and industries, it's a legal requirement. If you have any employees, you'll also need to consider workers compensation as well as health and life insurance.
Insurance is the one expense you can't put off, so it's best to shop around for the best rates and policies for your current situation. Consider only getting a liability insurance plan at first if that is feasible for you in terms of risk, and discuss your options with your provider.
You can always add coverage as your business grows, so it’s important to get flexible insurance plans.
Administrative costs
These are the little costs that you might have taken for granted when you worked for someone else, but they really add up if you aren't paying attention. Admin costs include big things like computers and software, in addition to little things like ink, paper, and other office supplies. If you're working from home, you will even have to consider the effect of running a home office on your electric bill.
If you meet certain requirements, you can deduct part of your rent or mortgage, phone, and utility bills for business use of your home.
Keep in mind that office supplies are less expensive when you buy them in bulk.
As for your tech solutions, consider the cost-benefit of leasing versus buying, outsourcing versus in-house, and SaaS or PaaS. These alternatives may come with upgrades and maintenance built into the contract.
Building your website
No matter what type of business you plan to launch, you're going to need a website. And one thing to beware of is that even "free" websites aren't really free. Hosting services that claim they are free will often make money by selling your data or forcing you to have ads on your site.
There's also a chance that you won't even own your domain or have the freedom to move your website later. When preparing to build your site, you'll need to consider the cost of registering your domain, designing the site itself, and finding a hosting provider.
Usually, the main expenses are domain registration and a reliable hosting provider. There are some trustworthy, inexpensive options out there, but be wary of hidden costs. According to Alex Williams of Hosting Data, you should be strategic about the hosting service you decide to use. This is because some hosting providers will try to up-sell, such as trying to get you to purchase add-ons that you could get for free simply by making clever use of your control panel.
Advertising
Perhaps you think that telling your friends and family or posting on Facebook is enough to get your business going. While your mom and your next door neighbor might account for a few sales, it's not enough to keep you going for more than a few weeks. Social media is only as good as the effort — and sometimes, money — that you put into it.
You can save money on advertising by leveraging digital platforms and letting technology do the heavy lifting.
You can pay a small fee for targeted ads on most social media platforms, reach out to influencers with sway among your target demographic, or look into affiliate marketing.
The bottom line
Our goal is to help you avoid the pitfalls that can derail your new venture, and funding issues are one of the most significant challenges for new businesses. As you’re starting out, keep these practical tips in mind so you don’t overlook any critical costs that might bring your business planning to a halt.