To compensate for the somewhat
mussy presentation, here is a text version that elaborates on the points
mentioned during the session and includes the ones that were omitted for lack
of time. The text is NOT the transcript of the presentation; rather, it’s my
thoughts on and around the topic.
Money matters have always been
and will probably always be an inexhaustible source of discussions, anger,
complaints, self-pity, conflicts and wars in, among and between family,
colleagues, businesses, governments or countries, and translators/interpreters
are in no way different. Therefore I gladly accepted the topic of personal
financial management offered by Csaba hoping I will be giving out practical
tips coming from an experienced and pragmatic guy. But my self-confidence was
shaken over the next few weeks in the course of my preparations: I discovered a
few aspects (new for myself) that left me uneasy.
First of all, it’s indeed very
individual. Even within families, the idea of proper financial management can
range from maximum thrift (generally typical for the conservative-minded) to
nearly absolute thoughtlessness (which is often characteristic for teenagers).
Need I say that in an audience that is a much brighter mix of cultures,
economic environments, ages and personalities, reaching common ground is even
more problematic.
Second, there was another
obstacle. I’ve probably talked to thousands of translators, and many of them,
when asked “Why do you translate?” come up with “Because I like it”
all-explaining answer. While it’s always nice when someone likes what s/he is
doing, it does turn into a bit of a problem when “liking it” is the only reason
for doing. In this case, the job becomes a kind of extraversive hobby (thanks
for the prompt, Erik!), and income is either regarded as a recognition proof,
or is of minor importance. The I-likers who are often in love with
translation (which says nothing about the quality!) are, at the same time,
often abhorrent of business, and sometimes reluctant of improving the
commercial side of it scared that money might kill love… My experience says, a
pretty large part of the audience at any translation would belong to that
group, and they are often the hardest to reach to.
Yet another of my concerns had to
do with the fact that the issue of personal financial management is actually
quite diversified and can be viewed from different perspectives; and it’s the
view that sets the foundation for any practical recommendations, approaches or
even strategies.
As a result, I chose the easy
way: I decided I would be describing my concept, my perception, my
understanding, pointing out that any advice I give may be inapplicable for the
specific situations other persons are in. The challenge was still there, and it
added up to the excitement.
(I’ll tell you a secret: in
most cases, when offering myself as a speaker at a new conference, I want to do
a few things. Sharing my experience – definitely, and I enjoy it when someone
finds it useful. The other, more subtle goals, include learning (in the course
of the preparation) and assessment of my concept and views – before, during and
after the session – through questions and feedback).
OK, the introduction is over,
let’s get started.
Frame 1: Why do we Want More?
- Are you satisfied with the
level of well-being that you get with your current income?
- Would you like to get a higher
income?
Surely I anticipated some 50% of the attendees to say yes to
the first question and 90% to 100% answer positively to the second one.
There is a seeming contradiction
between the following two statements: “I’m satisfied with it” and “I would like
to have more of it”, but if we look deeper, there’s no conflict whatsoever. The
first question deals with reality, and true, some of us are happy with
it while some aren’t. The second question aims at perception of “good
life”, “proper living standards” or “well-being as I see it”. Thus, two yes
answers simply mean that there is a gap between reality (what we have) and
imagination (what we would like to have).
Frame 2: How is it All Put
Together?
---- wishful and wistful
--- desirable
--- affordable
--- satisfactory
--- basic
This diagram puts together all
levels of our consumption / well-being / living standards. Going from bottom
up:
- Basic level (survival kit): primitive;
requires little or no effort/income at all; can hardly called well-being –
rather, just being; of no applied interest and was added just to complete the
picture
- Satisfaction: closely linked to
common sense; is not a line but a range from “necessary minimum” to “more than
enough”; it’s what I believe to be good/OK/sufficient for me
- Affordability: related to
income; can be artificially raised by borrowing/loans that inevitably leads to
increased expenses, even though postponed
- Desirability: from sound (the
family is outgrowing the current home, we decided to move at a larger place) to
daydreaming (I wish I had ……………. – blanks to be filled individually); very
often derived from films, TV, advertising, exaggerated stories in media, etc.
- Wishful and wistful: “if I win
a thousand zinzillion jackpot in the lottery, I will…”; has absolutely nothing
to do with reality
Here’s a table to illustrate the diagram.
|
Basic
|
Satisfactory
|
Affordable
|
Desirable
|
W&W
|
|
Food
|
Good food
|
The food you consume
|
Chef meal at a fancy restaurant; exotic; gourmet…
|
Something you’ve never tasted before
|
|
Clothes
|
Good clothes
|
Clothes you wear
|
Fashionable / brand clothes
|
Exclusive outfit from a world-famous designer
|
|
---
|
Good/Czech beer
|
Good/Czech beer or the beer you drink
|
Brewery beer, every time new
|
---
|
|
---
|
(Good) car
|
Your car
|
A better / newer / posh / second car
|
Something no one else has
|
|
---
|
A vacation once or twice a year
|
Your vacation schedule / tours you make
|
A round-the-world trip / a week with your partner on an uninhabited
island…
|
Something you never experienced before
|
|
You can go on with the game using any other items you purchase
|
|
|
|
|
|
???
|
|
|
|
|
If the theory starts to wear you
down, I suggest an exercise that is not only interesting but also quite revealing.
It’s called “categorize your purchase”. List all of your expenditures over a
given time period and try to identify which category each of them belongs to. Mind
that the same items bought in different circumstances can be in different
categories, and sometimes an item may belong to more than one category. For
example:
- Book: entertainment – if it’s
fiction (or education – if it is my International Freelancing: Practical
Guide for Translators (search the web for comments); or business – if it is
a dictionary; or social duty – if bought to be given to a friend on his or her
birthday)
- A visit to a restaurant: food
(or social duty – if it’s a party you would prefer to skip; or pleasant emotions
+ social duty – if it’s a family celebration; or status – if you then start bragging
to your friends about the lousy meal you were offered at that creep joint with –
who would have thought? – three Michelin stars)
- Yoga lessons: health / safety –
if you really believe it will help you cope with the health problems you start
noticing (or status – if you joined the trend that is popular in your
community)
- An apple at the local grocery:
food – if you were hungry; whimsical dream-come-true – if you were passing by
the grocery and suddenly saw it, fresh, big, ripe, yellow and red, juicy, so appetizing
and promising all gastronomic pleasures of the world… it turned out to be
waxwork after all, so you had to put up with another one, green and less
seducing but real – so it is food, again!
This exercise is useful to
understand one simple thing:
Income ≠ well-being
A somewhat confusing (for those
who don’t look too deep) and absolutely logical (for those who do): the same
income level may, even under similar circumstances, make some of happy and
leave others miserable. I guess it’s because the well-being is largely based on
our own perceptions.
It would definitely be much
easier if we had a table of proportional weights of the following type: 1 Unit
of Income = 0.1 Unit of Satisfaction = 0.01 Unit of Well-Being, or 1 Liter of
Czech beer = 0.0013 Unit of Satisfaction – 0.00052 Units of Health x 25 minutes
+ 2 Units of Drunken Happiness x 2 hours. We would then have scientific
formulae to calculate the required income and ways of spending it to feel
satisfied with our lives!
Alas, it all works differently. We
have to do it on our own, trusting our intuition, common sense and other people’s
experience, and even with these, the outcome is not guaranteed.
Frame 3: What About Personal
Financial Management?
Yes, we are almost there.
Hopefully I was persuasive enough
in showing show that income per se is not the purpose; in fact, it’s an
instrument, a tool… or can I say, a transport (oftentimes the fastest one) which
is supposed to take us wherever we want. Hence the logic: higher income gives
more opportunities. That’s probably true; but it’s only part of the truth –
otherwise the richest would always be the happiest. Do you think they are?
I believe the solution is in bringing
the “satisfactory” and “desirable” levels as close as possible and keep them below
the “affordable” line. The ways and methods to do it are numerous and various, they
include pushing the “desirable” line down by giving up attempts to achieve the
unachievable, cutting down the expenses that qualify as “prestige” or “status” or
getting rid of the nasty habit of daydreaming. At the same time, it requires
psychological efforts which are not exactly the content of the current
publication.
We finally approached the income
issue (other technique will be mentioned where appropriate). The Raise your
Income list is copied from the presentation, and I commented on most of them
during the session. So I’ll only add a few notes.
-
Increasing rates
-
Always looking for new
clients
-
Optimizing one’s cashflow
(invoicing, banking…)
-
Cutting cuttable expenses
(e.g., by combining them)
-
Diversifying
-
Creating additional sources
of income
-
Investing
Looking for
new clients: a few interesting things have been mentioned at conferences
and in conversations of the past few weeks.
1.
Being where the clients
are: conferences of translation agencies (ELIA?); fairs, sectoral events,
exhibitions; web forums(!) – the latter is an especially good idea if you are
in IT.
2.
Spamming out – but sending
cooperation offers to newly created companies instead of to all in the database
or even short-listed.
3.
Web platforms (though not of
them) are still useful; mind that different tactics should be used, for
example, at ProZ.com and Upwork
Cutting
cuttable expenses: in my view, time shown by watches sold at two quid for a
handful is the same as displayed by a Rolex; still, I realize that no amount of
reasoning would make boys forget about their toys. I even have a few of mine,
too, and soothe myself with the thought that they were chosen for known and
proven quality, not for being prestigious or fashionable.
Diversifying:
I tend to interpret the term in a very broad sense. Very close to the
diversification are
creating additional sources of income and
investing. Whether it’s real estate, art objects, new skills or a garden you
invest in, do take into account the changes happening around you (locally and
globally), as well as changes happening with you (e.g., ageing), anticipate
them and adapt accordingly.
(I made a publication
on diversification earlier, it’s in Russian but Google translate may help).
To illustrate
my approach to diversification/creation of additional income
sources/investment, I have a dacha. The flowers blossoming from March (crocuses,
snowdrops and other early bloomers) till probably November (colchicum) and
occasionally during warm spells in winter (hellebores) are a joy for the eye satisfying
my urge for the beautiful while some 200-400 kg of vegetables and fruit (with
assortment exceeding 80 titles – from tomatoes and reddish to honeyberry and figs,
the latter being quite a rarity for our parts) are a feast. The virgin territory
of about 5,000 m2 turning into a comfortable, efficient, ecological
and, to an extent, live art space is a way to release my creative itching, and selling
bulbs from 120+ cultivars of lilies or transplants with 3-5 varieties of apples
or pears on each helps to keep our family budget safe. And, of course, it’s a
great place to escape from the urban life: see the cover picture of my FB page!
Frame 4
There’s little
to add to the last two slides of the presentation:
How much
should one earn?
Ideally,
enough + a little extra
What is
it all about?
It’s not
about how much money one earns or has at his or her disposal.
It’s about
being happy.
