How much is considered alot of money

[Butterfly Man]

Rest in Peace

Butterfly Man’s Estate Planning

Unlike most fathers, I don’t care what happens to my son after I die … after all, I’m dead. Who gives a shit what he thinks? My wife too, fuck her … she saves every fucking penny for her “retirement”. What’s THAT? Retirement is not fuckin’ working. That means I’ve been retired since I became a street performer cause everyone knows that ain’t work … it’s simply a way to get laid. So here’s the best financial advice I could think of:

Don’t save for shit …don’t invest in shit. Old people die with hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings accounts and investments every day. And who gets it? That’s right … their kids or wife or who-the-fuck ever … it don’t matter … THEY didn’t get to spend it cause they HAD IT WHEN THEY DIED!!!!!

Tips:

#1. Don’t own … rent …and never fuckin’ move as long as they don’t raise the rent. Do it a rent controlled area … you’ll never be happier than when you invite people over and tell them what you pay each month and they shit themselves.

#2. Borrow as much money as you can from banks and other lending institutions. This will be tough but it can be done. Maximize every account and only keep enough money on hand to pay the monthly minimum.

#3. Never, repeat, never, get a life insurance policy or make any arrangements for a funeral or anything stupid like that … let other people worry about your dead corpse, who gives a rat’s ass what they have to go through?

RIP

[Daniel Craig]

Re: you can't handle the truth

Originally posted by Butterfly Man
However, if you add a zero...

then I'm interested ...

...real interested.

0.75..?

[Stretch]

define - evaluate - set goals - practice - evaluate

I make on average $110 per day

7 days a week? one day a month? weekends? See, it all depends.

Is that an average of $1 a head? Or do you have an audience of one that drops a $100 bill and some pocket change into your hat?

Is it about what you ARE making, or what you WANT to make while having fun? Or is it about what you want to make no mater how much it hurts?

Or is it about NOT doing what you hate to make that kind of money. If the alternative is mowing lawns and you HATE mowing lawns, then does it really matter?

More questions lead to more meaningful answers.

I'm sure you could make more money. Do you want to pay the price? How well do you know yourself?

[Daniel Mooncalf]

My scale...

Was "Did I make more today, than I would've at my day job? In less time?"

If the answer is YES, I'm happy about it.

[lambda]

It's really hard to say what you would consider a lot of money, because it all depends on what you're doing it for. If you're just doing it a day or two here and there for some fun and extra pocket change, then a hundred bucks in a day can feel pretty good. If you're trying to do it as a profession, then it all depends on how much you need to make to support your current lifestyle, how often you're able to put in that kind of performance, how much your expenses are, and so on.

Lets say that, adding up both your personal expenses and performing expenses, you want to make a reasonably modest $30,000 a year (I'm talking in US dollars, since I'm USian). That's a bit above the median personal income in the US, so I'd say it's not too unreasonable a target (though it may be on the high side for a performer; I'm not sure, since I'm not a professional performer myself). Remember, of course, that this is before taxes, and includes all of your performing expenses, such as equipment, promotion, travel, etc.

Now, there are 52 weeks in the year. Of course, you're going to want to have a couple weeks of vacation time (some people may love street performing enough to consider it all a big vacation, but most people, even those who love their jobs, need a break from it every once in a while). And you're going to need some days off for times when you're too sick, busy with other things, or whatever to perform Also, depending on the climate where you live, there may be a few months in the year when the street is not an appropriate temperature or weather for performing, but we'll assume for the sake of argument that you're able to move north for the winter, find a good indoor pitch, or just freeze your balls off and get sympathy money from people passing by. So lets say between sick days and vacations, you spend 4 weeks not working. We're down to 48 weeks. That means you need to make $625 per week.

You won't be able to perform every day. You need to spend some time practicing, some days will have bad weather, and since most people make money with paid gigs as well as the street, some of your time will be taken up with all of the things that entails, like keeping in touch with people, working out schedules, billing people and nagging them incessantly until they actually pay you, working on promotional materials, etc. Also, you're probably going to be able to make the most money on weekends, so days other than the weekend may not be worth the effort. Between all that, you'll probably only be able to get two or three good days a week. In those two or three days, in order to make your target income, you'll need to make $200-$300 a day. Now, there will be ups and downs, so to make up for the bad days, you'll probably want to be making closer to $400 before you consider it a really good day.

Now, of course, there were a lot of assumptions in all of these calculations, so you need to check those assumptions and figure out what works for you. I know some people who are perfectly happy on $12,000 a year, and some who could not even imagine getting by on less than $60,000 a year, and so if you're in one of those groups, you can adjust the numbers accordingly. Or if you can perform a good, solid, 5 days a week without burning out, then you'd need considerably less per day to meet your goals. Or if you have a lot of expenses, because you spend all of your time travelling to festivals, buying fancy new equipment and costumes, and spend a lot of money on promotion, then you'll need considerably more than this. But this should give you an idea of how to think about the amount of money you make, and whether it will meet your needs.

[Unisykolist]

Re: define - evaluate - set goals - practice - evaluate

Originally posted by Stretch
7 days a week? one day a month? weekends? See, it all depends.

Is that an average of $1 a head? Or do you have an audience of one that drops a $100 bill and some pocket change into your hat?

Is it about what you ARE making, or what you WANT to make while having fun? Or is it about what you want to make no mater how much it hurts?

Or is it about NOT doing what you hate to make that kind of money. If the alternative is mowing lawns and you HATE mowing lawns, then does it really matter?

More questions lead to more meaningful answers.

I'm sure you could make more money. Do you want to pay the price? How well do you know yourself?

Oh sorry I didn't tell you that.
I busk about 2 or 3 days every school holidays so thats every 10 weeks...
And not just one person putting heeps in, its heeps of people.

[Stretch]

heeps

I like heeps! Heeps good !

And not just one person putting heeps in, its heeps of people.

[Unisykolist]

Re: Rest in Peace

Originally posted by Butterfly Man
Butterfly Man’s Estate Planning

Unlike most fathers, I don’t care what happens to my son after I die … after all, I’m dead. Who gives a shit what he thinks? My wife too, fuck her … she saves every fucking penny for her “retirement”. What’s THAT? Retirement is not fuckin’ working. That means I’ve been retired since I became a street performer cause everyone knows that ain’t work … it’s simply a way to get laid. So here’s the best financial advice I could think of:

Don’t save for shit …don’t invest in shit. Old people die with hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings accounts and investments every day. And who gets it? That’s right … their kids or wife or who-the-fuck ever … it don’t matter … THEY didn’t get to spend it cause they HAD IT WHEN THEY DIED!!!!!

Tips:

#1. Don’t own … rent …and never fuckin’ move as long as they don’t raise the rent. Do it a rent controlled area … you’ll never be happier than when you invite people over and tell them what you pay each month and they shit themselves.

#2. Borrow as much money as you can from banks and other lending institutions. This will be tough but it can be done. Maximize every account and only keep enough money on hand to pay the monthly minimum.

#3. Never, repeat, never, get a life insurance policy or make any arrangements for a funeral or anything stupid like that … let other people worry about your dead corpse, who gives a rat’s ass what they have to go through?

RIP

"My wife too, fuck her"
Very nice advice you have there.


BTW me and my friend plan to rent a house near the mall so I can busk on free days and rake in the free cash that I worked for...her her her

[harmonicatunes]

For musicians on this thread: a standard way to increase earnings is to put together a CD. Generally people will hand over $20 (Australian) for a well presented CD. If your act is decent, then you should sell around one per hour, perhaps more.

It adds up.

[Kate Awesome]

I'd say if you have only been busking a little while, that's pretty darn good (and about average for somebody starting out)! I can't really offer anything new than everyone else since they've said it all: it's all pending on what you want to do with the money/if you are pursuing this as a career option, etc.


Now, if you've been a busker for 10 + years, well, then I may have something a bit different to say..

[Lex Brodie]

and I know it must be frustrating that nobody has posted a direct answer to your question.

I'd like to add that the OP is doing 2X the rate I made money panhandling, and panhandling is probably the most lucrative thing someone not born into wealth in the US can do. Ugh I don't like panhandling, but I had to do it for a bit, I don't now.

From the sound of it, the OP is making above-average wages.

Now, there may be NO wages for months of winter, this is what I ran into last year, $20 a day on average half the year, $0 a day the other 6 months. Ouch. I was hustling "awareness" ribbons in a tourist town 50 miles away, and commuting back'n'forth. Ouch.

Now, I'm working on my trumpet playing, and hope to get out there. I LIKE trumpet playing, actually playing a cornet I got that I like, a bit quieter and mellower sound. I hope to do my first "busk" this weekend.

I've cut my expenses down to where I can survive on very little, and my $300 a month has been coming in from odd jobs and selling junk at a swapmeet once a month. That leaves the rest of the month, besides a fair amount of farm chores here, to learn my trumpet and go out and busk with it wherever I can reach by walking, bus, bicycle (this last once I get a bicycle).

For me, right now, $20 a day average for the year would be a LOT of money! For a person supporting an apartment, owning a car, the usual stuff considered normal, they may need to bring in $100 a day on average with their horn, magic wand, whatever.

I've been reading everything I can find on busking and I see reports of money earned that are all over the map. Buskers I've seen, given money to, hung around near, personally seem more of a realistic guide. And $50-$200 a day, this last at a farmer's market or some such thing, seems reasonable. I also observe that they tend to consider busking almost a "loss leader" or "bread and butter" activity, they will have cards to hand out and the busking not only pays decently but gets 'em gigs.

(These days I love ALL music, even church music, doesn't matter!)

Remember it's not just what you make, it's what you save.