the mineral oil primitive on being self-employed

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023624606

Oh my.

The mineral oil primitive, the Tommy Manville of Skins's island:

MineralMan (57,065 posts)    Sun Sep 8, 2013, 04:14 PM

On being self-employed as a career for almost 40 years...

I quit working regular jobs in 1974, when I gave my notice to the County of San Luis Obispo, CA, where I was working in the County garage as a mechanic, helping to keep their fleet of cars running smoothly and carrying people around a large county. That wasn't my choice of a job, but it filled in for a while.
 
Before quitting, I had managed to sell some magazine articles to publications like Seventeen, The Mother Earth News, and a few others, and thought that I could turn that into a living.
 
Since that time, I've managed to do that, along with also running a small software company, selling mineral specimens to collectors (hence MineralMan), and now writing content for complete websites for small businesses. Managed, but not always well. Not always successfully, and not always adequately to live as I might have had I done something else.
 
Now, I'm 68 years old, and still working. I'll continue doing that until I can't, because being self-employed is always a feast or famine sort of thing that doesn't really allow for a balanced retirement plan and other such amenities. My wife does the same thing as I do and she's successful at it, too. We met at Comdex in Las Vegas, way back in 1990, both working on a freelance basis for the two largest consumer PC magazines. We were doing pretty well at that, and would still be doing well, except that that line of writing sort of ran out in the 2000s. Those magazines, along with a lot of other consumer magazines are gone...victims of the Internet.
 
Not that we're doing terribly. We own a home and a car and have no children, so we manage, one way or another to keep ourselves in food and utilities and such things. But, there's one thing that self-employment never does: It never gives you a paycheck on a regular basis, so there are always times when the next check is coming, but you don't know exactly when.
 
A client doesn't get paid by some of his customers, so he "can't pay you right now." It's an old, common story. So, you have to have a reserve on hand to fill in the gaps. It works, but there's no real security in self-employment. As long as you are doing something on contract, there will be times when your client doesn't get the money to you on a regular basis.
 
Just a note for those who are considering choosing self-employment as a career. Plan for those times. They will happen. Make sure you are always building a stash to cover those periods. The check will come, but it may not come on the day you wished it would come.
 
Sunday afternoon musings...

First up, Skippy from New York City even though he lives in San Francisco, the good chum of the brain-damaged primitive who seems to have forgotten all about Doug:

NYC_SKP (51,864 posts)    Sun Sep 8, 2013, 04:22 PM

1. I'm a contractor, at will employee. My COBRA, for one person, is $1,432.49/month

It used to not be a big deal, almost all jobs covered you and if you were independent you could have a basic plan for under $100.
 
A minimum wage full time job has monthly take home pay of $1,256.67.

My take home wouldn't even cover my insurance.

What a cluster****.

MineralMan (57,065 posts)    Sun Sep 8, 2013, 04:28 PM

4. I hear you on that. I'm finally on Medicare, but my wife still has a few years. Fortunately, tax credits under ACA are going to help with her very high health insurance premiums soon. That will be a welcome change.

reformist2 (5,329 posts)    Sun Sep 8, 2013, 04:23 PM

2. Hard times are coming. Best to get a government job and hold on tight.

Whoa.

Wait.

What?

Hard times, they are a'coming?  What's the primitive talking about?

I mean, isn't 0bomba president, and all's peachy-keen?

MineralMan (57,065 posts)    Sun Sep 8, 2013, 04:27 PM

3. Perhaps. Too late for that in my case, though.

At 68, I'm not really a great employment candidate. My clients don't care, because my work is still excellent and my fees appropriate to the quality of the work. I rarely even meet my clients, and just rely on my work and reputation for new business.

[Gern]

MineralMan (57,065 posts)    Sun Sep 8, 2013, 04:14 PM

But, there's one thing that self-employment never does: It never gives you a paycheck on a regular basis, so there are always times when the next check is coming, but you don't know exactly when.

Speak for yourself, douchebag...Sounds like you chose the wrong line of work, or you got complacent with either the amount of clients you had or the amount of work you were doing.

Successful self employment is not for the faint of heart, nor would I say it would work for 99% of DUers...it requires faith, courage, persistence, optimism, and ambition. 

Five qualities I have never observed in any of you reprobates on DU.
 

[Bad Dog]

I'm guessing MM's wife has been carrying the load most of the way.  His implication is he has no retirement plan so, thank God for wishadodo.

[GOBUCKS]

Most DUmp democrats are a little weak on retirement planning.

[Big Dog]

reformist2 (5,329 posts)    Sun Sep 8, 2013, 04:23 PM

2. Hard times are coming. Best to get a government job and hold on tight.

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyV60kTvEFE[/youtube]
Famous moonbat James Taylor and communist YoYo Ma warning the DUmmies about coming hard times.

There's lesson for the DUmmies in the lyrics:

Let us pause in life's pleasures and count its many tears,
While we all sup sorrow with the poor;
There's a song that will linger forever in our ears;
Oh hard times come again no more.

Chorus:
Tis the song, the sigh of the weary,
Hard Times, hard times, come again no more
Many days you have lingered around my cabin door;
Oh hard times come again no more.

While we seek mirth and beauty and music light and gay,
There are frail forms fainting at the door;
Though their voices are silent, their pleading looks will say
Oh hard times come again no more.
Chorus

There's a pale drooping maiden who toils her life away,
With a worn heart whose better days are o'er:
Though her voice would be merry, 'tis sighing all the day,
Oh hard times come again no more.
Chorus

Tis a sigh that is wafted across the troubled wave,
Tis a wail that is heard upon the shore
Tis a dirge that is murmured around the lowly grave
Oh hard times come again no more.
Chorus

[jukin]

reformist2 (5,329 posts)    Sun Sep 8, 2013, 04:23 PM

2. Hard times are coming. Best to get a government job and hold on tight.

I'm confused. I was under the impression that the immaculating of King Barky was going to make the whole country...nay world all fields of flowers and unicorn ranches.

What the DUchebag describes is what always has happened and always will happen when a progressive/liberal/leftist/socialist/communist/fascist is in control of a country.

[JohnnyReb]

DUmmie Self Employment: Having to personally go to the welfare office, the unemployment office, the SocSec office, the foodstamp office, the section 8 office, the local food bank, etc., etc..

[Dori]

Now, I'm 68 years old, and still working.  

I'm finally on Medicare, but my wife still has a few years.

What about your social security?  Did you never show a profit and pay into your SS account?

 



 

[Gern]

What about your social security?  Did you never show a profit and pay into your SS account?

 



 

If he made any money, he would have had to pay self employment tax, which is 13.2 % ---your SSI contribution, plus the matching part you have to pay because you are your own employer.

Of course, that's if he was straight with the IRS and didn't under report income, which I find hard to believe, given the DUmbasses propensity for hypocrisy. 

[franksolich]

If he made any money, he would have had to pay self employment tax, which is 13.2 % ---your SSI contribution, plus the matching part you have to pay because you are your own employer.

Of course, that's if he was straight with the IRS and didn't under report income, which I find hard to believe, given the DUmbasses propensity for hypocrisy. 

What is surely a hotbed of under-reporting income is probably the eBay and flea-market primitives.

You should've heard them whine when 0bomba put in a new rule about paypal and other payment services having to give them Form 1099s; if they'd been honest all along, and reported all income, it wouldn't have bothered them so.

[jukin]

If he made any money, he would have had to pay self employment tax, which is 13.2 % ---your SSI contribution, plus the matching part you have to pay because you are your own employer.

Of course, that's if he was straight with the IRS and didn't under report income, which I find hard to believe, given the DUmbasses propensity for hypocrisy. 

Also the medicare tax. The schedule SE is the most evil of all the IRS forms.

[njpines]

two largest consumer PC magazines

Oh crap, so he and I both worked for Ziff-Davis (PC Magazine/PC Computing) at roughly the same time?  Hope I never met him at one of the Comdex conventions . . . 

[BattleHymn]

Just a note for those who are considering choosing self-employment as a career. Plan for those times. They will happen. Make sure you are always building a stash to cover those periods. The check will come, but it may not come on the day you wished it would come.

What about those of you, like Doug Bulna, that were forced into self-employment?   

[JakeStyle]

The rock guy just wants to rub it in the DUmmies faces; he's smarter and more successful than any one of them will ever be.  That is the point of his OP.

[Gern]

The rock guy just wants to rub it in the DUmmies faces; he's smarter and more successful than any one of them will ever be.  That is the point of his OP.

That's not saying much. 

Being a pinnacle of career achievement among the denizens of Democratic Underground is about the equivalent of being the greatest football team in Alaska.

[GOBUCKS]

Oh crap, so he and I both worked for Ziff-Davis (PC Magazine/PC Computing) at roughly the same time?  Hope I never met him at one of the Comdex conventions . . . 

Little chance of that.

You worked for Ziff-Davis, but DUmmies like MiracleMan just lie, all the time.

He never worked for Ziff-Davis.

He's a penniless bum like all the rest of them.

[njpines]

Little chance of that.

You worked for Ziff-Davis, but DUmmies like MiracleMan just lie, all the time.

He never worked for Ziff-Davis.

He's a penniless bum like all the rest of them.

Thanks GOBUCKS, there's a good deal of consolation in that!