Are You Ready to Rock Your Finances in the New Year?

I know many of us are already thinking about 2016 and planning to make it our best year yet. I am too. At the top of my list? Making more money and continuing to rock my freelance career.

I’m going to put it out there — even as scary as it seems — but I’m gunning for six figures. That’s what I want, and it’s not some arbitrary number. It’s a number that I know will help me pay off the last of my debt (currently at $11,700) and will help me catch up in other areas of my financial life, namely investing. It will afford me peace and comfort and help me accomplish my dreams.

While six figures still seems far away from my current income, I’m a hell of a lot closer than I was last year, or any previous years.

Times Have Changed

Three years ago when I started this blog, my net income was $20,000. I struggled more than I ever had to get by, and it was a truly humbling experience. Now, I’m super proud that this year alone I’ve paid off $20,000 in debt!

I’m not saying this to brag and never want people to think that’s what I’m doing. I’m sharing because I want people who are currently in the same situation to know what is possible. If it weren’t for so many others that showed me the way, I would have never known that freelancing full-time while paying off debt is possible.

But it is! And you can totally rock your finances being your own boss — even with the erratic income. I’ve found that being my own boss has been the only path toward building wealth.

Here’s the thing, though. So many people still believe that they’re meant to be a starving artist. Asking for money, or even wanting money, is dirty and bad. It feels like it’s tainting our work and spoiling it. But let’s be real. All of our work — especially our creative work — is of value. It’s time, resources, heart, and hustle. You deserve to get paid for your work.

And I want to help you. I’m so excited to announce that I’ve partnered with ModernThrive.com to teach creative professionals how to manage their finances and pay off debt.

The Workshop

The workshop will be over three days, January 4-6 at 7pm EST, and for one hour each night, we’ll be going through how you can manage your money, ask for more money, and build your network so that work starts coming to you.

I’m so excited to get back to teaching and share what I love! The best part? I have a killer deal for you. The workshop is $97, but with the discount code DearDebtVip, the workshop is only $37. This code is only valid until December 1.

Let’s break it down — with the discount code, that’s about $12 per hour for each class. Even with the full price, it’s only about $32 per hour.

My Passion and Pursuit

So, why am I so passionate about this? Or why am I even qualified? Because in the past year, I’ve more than doubled my income and paid off more than $20,000 in debt. I’ve learned the hard way about working for peanuts and sticking to low-paying work just because it was comfortable.

For some perspective — as recently as February, nearly all my clients fell into the $25 to $75 range. I was writing like a fiend and cranking things out. It didn’t feel particularly fun or useful, but I was “producing”. After a full month of working, I kept seeing that I was barely making $3,000 each month. After self-employment taxes and paying for my own health insurance, I was barely competing with my old nonprofit salary.

I did the math. If I wanted to make $5,000, I’d have to write 100 articles per month at $50. That’s 25 articles per week. I knew something was wrong and that something had to change. After looking everything over, I knew I was going after the wrong clients and the wrong pricing.

So I made a lot of changes, got rid of four clients in one month and relentlessly pursued higher paying clients. With a lot hard work, motivation, and branding, it worked. Now nearly all of my clients are within the $200 to $400 range (for one article).

I am living proof that you can make money being your own boss, and that you can make changes quickly, with a few small, but powerful shifts.

Now, I want to help others make more money and rock their finances. Freelancing doesn’t have to be feast or famine. You don’t have to be a starving artist. You can be a #Girlboss (or #Broboss?) that makes what you deserve and live a life you never expected.

I sure didn’t expect any of this when I was on food stamps three years ago. But I’m beyond grateful and have learned a lot.

I hope that you’ll join me in this workshop. Use discount code DearDebtVip to get it for only $37. If it’s not your thing, please share!

Are you ready to rock your finances in the new year?

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Melanie

Melanie Lockert is the founder of the blog and author of the book, Dear Debt. Through her blog, she chronicled her journey out of $81,000 in student loan debt. She is also the co-founder of the Lola Retreat, which helps bold women face their fears, own their dreams and figure out a plan to be in control of their finances. She is passionate about empowering women, helping others get out of debt, and focuses on the intersection of debt and mental health. Every September she organizes a Suicide Prevention Awareness Blog Tour, to help share resources for those struggling with debt and suicide. In addition to her love of personal finance, art and music, she is also a karaoke master and a cat mom to Miles and Thelonious.

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