What Do Stage Managers Do?

What Do Stage Managers Do?

I was looking up some SEO information on Stage Management – for my non-blogger friends out there, that’s how to optimize for searches and found that one of the most commonly searched phrases is Stage Manager Job Description. And it got me thinking. It’s kind of a hard job to define, isn’t it? If you’re…

Frugal Things I Still Do Now

Frugal Things I Still Do Now

I recently gave a personal finance talk and when I was talking about frugality I pointed out that my favorite thing about frugality is you can take what you like and leave what you don’t – though you do need to do a bit of experimenting to know what is what. There are also a…

What is a 401(k)?

What is a 401(k)?

A 401(k) is a retirement savings plan that is usually offered by an employer. If you work in education, your employer may offer you a 403(b), which is essentially the same thing. Additionally, if you’re self-employed, you can open a SEP 401(k), though they are a bit more complicated and while the essence of a…

Moving Some Money, Letting Go of Some Plans

Moving Some Money, Letting Go of Some Plans

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about that the past few weeks. I have spent a lot of this year with a lot of money in a savings account. Not through fear of investment or anything but because I have two pretty big goals I’ve been saving towards for a number of years and…

How to Get Started with an Emergency Savings Account

How to Get Started with an Emergency Savings Account

You might be lucky enough to be financially stable and just realizing you should shift some money into an account for emergencies or start setting aside a few hundred dollars a month for an emergency account. For a lot of folks, getting started with an emergency savings account can be a lot more difficult. It’s…

Times When Spending More Makes Sense

Times When Spending More Makes Sense

I’ve been holed up in an AirBnB in the Outerbanks for several weeks now and for the first time since this spring, I’ve been buying groceries just for me. At home, my dad will eat pretty much anything. Food doesn’t last long. I am not the same. I had this grand idea I was going…

Some Thoughts on Saver’s Remorse

Some Thoughts on Saver’s Remorse

I don’t know if any of you are reading She Picks Up Pennies, but it’s another fantastic personal finance blog and recently she wrote a great post on Saver’s Remorse. Let me start with the disclaimer that this is the epitome of a first world problem. It’s a decent problem to have. But it struck…

Is a 1/3 Life Crisis a Thing?

Is a 1/3 Life Crisis a Thing?

When I was 27, I hit the quarter life crisis thing pretty hard (which is funny cause I’m not exactly expecting to live to 128). It was also the year my best friend and I jumped out of a plane because I thought, if we die, I don’t have to figure out what I want…

Don’t Forget to Try on Your Jeans Sometimes

Don’t Forget to Try on Your Jeans Sometimes

I have a theory that my body inflates to the extent it is allowed to. Hear me out. In the prepandemic times, I would wear my jeans almost every day. I would know pretty quickly if they were starting to feel tight and I could make life adjustments to make sure I didn’t stay on…

How to Pick a First Credit Card

How to Pick a First Credit Card

It makes sense to me to be a little wary of using credit cards, but they are one of the easiest ways to start building up credit. Before getting a credit card, I think it’s important to get in the right mental state. I don’t know about everyone else, but in my family, no one…

The Starving Artist Anchor Effect

The Starving Artist Anchor Effect

A few weeks ago, I went on a bit of stage management specific tangent about anchoring and priming effects from reading Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. I’m still thinking about this subject, but today I want to reflect a little on how, as performing arts workers, we get anchored in the starving artist…

Accountability: February 2021

Profile I am thirty six years old and I’m a freelance digital event producer. I make $50/hour and generally work about 16-20 hours a week. I also work part time for a theatre company doing a digital murder mystery/escape room for £15 a show a few evenings a week. Spending & Saving I’m starting to…

Is a LinkedIn Profile Worth It?

Is a LinkedIn Profile Worth It?

Being a stage manager puts me in a unique position that a lot of 9-5ers don’t find themselves in often – I am constantly applying for jobs. Because my mind is always partially on the next gig, it’s easy for me to stay on top of things like my resume, website, and LinkedIn account because…

Stage Management and the Priming/Anchoring Effects

Stage Management and the Priming/Anchoring Effects

Today’s post is all stage management, friends, sorry, we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled personal finance and sometimes moaning about life shortly. So my day job does a lot with apply cognitive behavioral science to selling techniques and a book that gets mentioned a lot at work is Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel…

Motivation and the Pandemic

Motivation and the Pandemic

Ya’ll, I sat for a while trying to figure out what to write about today. I have to be honest with you. I don’t have a lot of motivation these days. The majority of goals I usually have are largely on hold thanks to the pandemic. It’s pretty much survival mode over here. I’d actually…

How Much Do Delivery Apps Add?

How Much Do Delivery Apps Add?

The other day I was running a few errands and picked up a pizza and was shocked at how cheap it was. Not so much because the pizza was actually so cheap – it was a regular priced pizza – more because I’ve been using so many apps to order so much food over the…

Achieving a Goal

Achieving a Goal

When I moved back in with my dad in July, I felt like I was making the smartest financial choices possible. I had just lost my job. My lease was up on my apartment. My industry was still in ruins. I figured I’d stay a few weeks until I got sorted. I’ve bounced back home…

Accountability: January 2021

Profile I am thirty six years old and I’m a freelance digital event producer. I got a raise to $50/hour and generally work about 16-20 hours a week. I also work part time for a theatre company doing a digital murder mystery/escape room for £15 a show a few evenings a week. Spending & Saving…