bers. Those include how much you spend in your business and personal arenas each
month, what you owe, what you own, and what you bring in on average each month.
Taming your finances bring with it a lot of freedom.
Plan for Retirement or Die On Stage ... Or In the Studio
Oh sure, it might sound glorious to drop dead on stage, especially for the death metal
crew. Here’s a chilling, hardcore reality. If you don’t plan for retirement, odds are you’ll
end up working until you depart this Earth. Being an eighty-five year old lead guitarist on
oxygen isn’t too glorious, either. And here’s a not-so-fun factoid to go with it. An as-
tounding 76 percent of Los Angeles-area freelance journalists have nothing saved toward
retirement. Odds are, the numbers for other freelancers and self-employed people, includ-
ing musicians, are similar.
You might be in your twenties or thirties right now, when retirement seems a lifetime
away, but sixty-five will arrive quicker than you expect. Without a retirement plan and
the savings to go with it, you’ll still be working to make ends meet. But in your mid-to-
late sixties, will you still be relevant and working in music? Will you even want to? Sev-
eral big names, including McCartney, Jagger, and loads of others do and continue to per-
form, write and make loads of money. But they’re the exception to the rule. The way
things are going, it’s a safe bet you won’t be able to count on Social Security to keep you
afloat. This can mean that without a substantial savings, you can easily find yourself bag-
ging groceries to make ends meet. Sure, you’ll be dining on salmon and tuna, but it will
be from a can meant for your feline friend.
Is all this meant to scare the heck out of you? Absolutely!