Artists and Money -- Amanda Clayman on Artists and Money

Artists and Money -- Amanda Clayman on Artists and Money http://fictionwriting.about.com/od/thebusinessofwriting/a/financ... Fiction Writing Sponsored Links Become Your Own Publisher Self-publish, build readership and get discovered through BookSurge. www.BookSurge.com Amanda Clayman on Artists and Money By Ginny Wiehardt, About.com Fiction Writing Newsletter - Sign up! Discuss in My Forum Email Print While many artists and writers accept financial distress as part of the creative life, Amanda Clayman, a psychotherapist specializing in financial wellness, knows better. For years, she has counseled artists through the Actors Fund in New York City, helping them bring money into balance while pursuing their artistic goals. She maintains a blog called "The Good, the Bad, and the Money" and is at work on a book by the same name. Over the years I've had several conversations with Amanda about the financial traps artists fall into and about the importance of pursuing financial security along with creative success. Around tax time, I usually link to her blog; this year I asked her to expand on her thoughts about artists and money specifically for About.com. About.com: Are there certain financial traps that artists are particularly susceptible to? Amanda Clayman: There are several challenges that are particularly endemic to artists. First is the very real and concrete challenge of living on a variable income. Typically artists have a variety of different jobs that they take to pay the bills while they work on their art. These jobs have different pay rates and some are only available during certain seasons or times of the year. What an artist earns one year can vary widely from what he or she earns in the next, making it difficult to plan ahead. Many artists use credit as a way to pay bills in a dry spell or to achieve lifestyle continuity during the ups and downs of variable income, but this can quickly become an expensive or even unsupportable situation. Artists also must come to terms with a lot of baggage around money from within the artistic community. There are a lot of confusing messages about being willing to risk yourself financially for your art, about putting a price on art, and about how money compromises art. Artists also must come to terms with a lot of baggage around money from within the artistic community. There are a lot of confusing messages about being willing to risk yourself financially for your art, about putting a price on art, and about how money compromises art. Finally, many art projects or media are expensive! Most works are self-financed, and when an artist is in pursuit of their vision, it can seem impossible to compromise on the materials or processes that will ensure the realization of their creative goal. About: What advice can you offer creative people with regard to their finances? AC: First, I would encourage people to be familiar with their own financial lives. Familiarity with how much they spend on housing, utilities, and regular out-of-pocket costs will help them to set targets for themselves when it comes to how much they need to earn. This may sound surprising, and in fact it's somewhat backward compared to how it works for people with steady paychecks -- in that case you're advised to budget your expenses based on your earnings. But I think it behooves people in creative fields or who mainly freelance to set income targets for themselves. It also helps to keep your overhead low. Having low housing costs and transportation costs allows you the freedom to take Amanda Clayman Counsels Artists on Money © 2008 Amanda Clayman 1 of 2 9/4/08 9:54 PM Artists and Money -- Amanda Clayman on Artists and Money http://fictionwriting.about.com/od/thebusinessofwriting/a/financ... more time and energy for your artistic pursuits. I would also advise artists to not be afraid of money. Explore it as a meaningful part of your life. Money is so woven into every aspect of our lives. Understanding how you use money and the meaning it has for you is a path to significant self-understanding and growth that can only enhance the ways you find to be creative (any idiot can use a credit card, it takes real ingenuity to find ways to work around financial challenges). About: What other steps can artists take to create financial stability? AC: Artists should keep all fixed costs as low as possible. Anything that is a regular bill -- rent, cable, cell phone, etc. -should be as low as you can tolerate without feeling trapped in a deprivation mentality. Whenever there is a lump sum that comes in, be it from an advance, sale, gift, tax refund, or whatever, the majority of that money should be saved and used to keep the lights on and the rent paid. Once there is a significant reserve (enough to cover those basic costs for at least a few months), any leftover funds can be used for non-regular expenses, long-term savings, and then for treats and splurges. It's paramount that artists prioritize their stability first and protect their ability to pay their bills on time. Be extremely careful about incurring debt, including student loans. Student loans are such a killer because they are a fixed cost that must be paid month after month and year after year with almost no opportunity for discharge or forgiveness, and yet in the arts field training and education are no guarantee of financial success. And don't forget about your long-term security. Most artists don't have a 401(k) and may not even have work that is on the books and therefore contributing toward qualifying for social security. Think about investments for the future that are flexible, for example an IRA versus a down payment on a house. An IRA will continue to grow even if you are not able to make contributions to it, whereas you can lose your house if you get into a dry spell and are unable to keep up with your mortgage. 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