Are friends/family shocked at your salary?

I think some people confuse "fun" with "fulfillment." I think Barack Obama probably has the most fulfilling job in America. I doubt he would call it "fun." Same thing with, say, a brain or heart surgeon.

I also cringe at the Stockholm Syndrome I see on this thread, and in this business, where workers are just so, so, so happy just to have a job doing this. I think Magic in the Night had perhaps the most dead-on post on the thread. We have people in our industry who could be saving the world. Instead, they've been convinced that that would be a betrayal of the nice men who are giving them $10/hour to cover high school tennis and track.

 

But you don't know what you and your future wife and perhaps a few kids can live on. Nor do you understand the fact that if you should choose to get married and have a family, your priorities should, actually better, change.

Nor do you understand that "being a grown-up" and having to miss all or most of your kids activities and many other family functions because you are tied to a desk every weekend and many nights -- or covering stuff every weekend and many nights -- gets fucking old, particularly when they aren't paying you shit, don't appreciate you and you are always a publishers mood change from being laid off.

 

I gradually switched from writing to editing to managing (and back to editing) as the young Editudes came aboard. Your priorities do change as you get older, supporting more than just yourself and a Friday night beer fund. There are jobs in this profession, today, that pay well, but the trick will be assessing how many will provide a living in 10 years. I'm not particularly confident, but I've been wrong before.

 

God, Waylon, I'm afraid that you're reading my fucking mind.

Five years ago, I was saying EXACTLY what NightHawk was saying. I was so goddamn adamant that I would never do something I didn't want to do, that sportswriting was what I loved and that I'd always stick to it. All my older relatives, many of whom worked jobs they hated to make ends meet, would tell me the same goddamn thing: "Don't sell out your happiness for a paycheck." By golly, I thought, they're right. I'll never bend or break or stoop to the level of busting my ass from 9-5 or whatever just to make a decent wage.

Well, life is pretty fucking funny.

I'm 26 years old, I'm getting married in August, I was laid off from my newspaper in October and I'm humping my ass freelancing and doing whatever writing I can to make some cash. In the meantime, I also work at a warehouse a couple times a week. My fiancee's pretty good about things and is fortunate to have a pretty secure, decent-paying job, but she worries about money, and when I bitch that maybe things would be better if I had just never fucking gotten laid off, she reminds me (correctly) that I never made that much in my old job anyways. I've never made more than 25K in a year, for fuck's sake. I'll run into guys I went to high school with who were total screw-ups, smoked pot all day and never went to college, and they're probably making twice what I'm making working at some home improvement store.

Yeah, sportswriting is still fun sometimes. I enjoy the occasional freelancing gigs I grab when I get to cover the NFL or major-league baseball games. Some high school games can be entertaining, some make me want to slit my wrists, but that's all part of the job. But what really fucking makes me angry is when I drive an hour each way to cover, say, a minor-league baseball game, write a couple stories, drive back, spend maybe 8-10 hours of work for fucking 75 bucks. No reinbursement for gas mileage, no reinbursement for food, and I have to pay income taxes on that every April. I appreciate the freelance work I'm given, but essentially I'm operating at a long-term loss for a short-term paycheck just so I have the pleasure of saying "I did something I love within the boundaries of the profession I'm good at."

Well, fuck that. I'm tired of having to save up to buy a damn pair of $50 shoes. I'm tired of going to bars with much wealthier buddies who laugh at me for saying I can't spend more than 20 bucks tonight. I'm going to Vegas for my bachelor party (probably not the best idea considering my current financial status, but airfares and hotel rates are real cheap out there right now, FYI) and I have to go bargain-basement on the trip while most of my friends are booking suites.

Most of all, I'm sick of living paycheck-to-paycheck. I'm sick of being invited to friends' houses and feeling jealous that I can't afford the same things. I've started to look at homes with my fiancee, and I've come to realize that if I want to afford the modestly nice things that we both want, I better get out of this stupid profession. A job's a job, nothing more.

I don't know what I'm gonna do. I've studied a bit to go to law school, but that's probably gonna have to wait considering I've got so much money tied up in my wedding and what not. Christ, if I was offered a full-time job in the warehouse I work at a couple days a week (for more per hour than I've ever made at a newspaper, BTW), I'm not so sure I wouldn't take it.

Working a job you enjoy is nice. But making enough money so you can actually enjoy your life outside of work and provide your loved ones with decent things is even better.

 

Stix: Do you really believe some clerk in Home fucking Depot is making "twice as much" as you made in newspapers?
And tell me, what other job are you going to find right now?

I'm sorry you got laid off. The business is shit for young people right now. But, again, the whole freaking economy is shit right now.

And going to a bar and spending even $20 is stupid in your situation. Having a freaking bachelor party in Vegas is downright moronic...no matter how cheap the airfares and hotel rates are.

 

Spnited, I make roughly $500 more a month as a security guard than I did as a sportswriter and I actually get paid for all the hours I work. If I work 50 hours a week, I get OT and I don't have to sit in a meeting with every fucking boss at my site to explain why I worked the OT.

I work to live, not the other way around.

 

Good for you, Ross.

What has that got to do with my response to Stix or anyone else?

 

I appreciate your honesty. Look, I realize that even covering a crappy high school girls basketball game is probably better than humping on the conveyor line at a factory for 8 hours.

And I've covered many thrilling high school games where the story writes itself, and you feel lucky to have covered it. Maybe that's what keeps me pulled towards this profession, is the feeling I get when I cover an entertaining game (whether it's high school, college or pro), get some nice quotes and write a story that I read the next day and say, "Fuck, that was pretty well-written." Or when I uncover a nugget of information and report it before anyone else. It can be a fun job, and if you enjoy it enough, there's no law that says you can't continue to freelance in your spare time even when you leave the profession. That's probably what I'll do.

But reality is a real fucking bitch. There are several on this board who will say they're in sportswriting and they're still making a solid wage, and that's good for them, but I can GUARANTEE they are the exception. Trust me, I've been doing this awhile and I know a lot of people who are barely scraping by. You might be able to support yourself, but if you want to support a family, you better hope your spouse makes a decent wage.

For me, I'm at a crossroads. As Waylon said, this board is so good at perpetuating the myth that 1. You either stick with sportswriting because you love it and you deal with the shit wages, or 2. You make more money doing something you hate.

Well, sportswriting isn't the only thing out there that we can enjoy. Is it what I really want to do with my life if I could make a decent wage off it? Absolutely. But, increasingly, it's becoming more clear to me that that's not going to happen. Maybe some of us are so talented that we can always get by in this field just fine, but that probably doesn't describe me. I think I'm good at what I do, but like in any field, there are many others who are better. That's life. Hard work can do a lot, but natural talent is a key component.

So what do I do now? I don't know, but I do know that I have to make a decision soon. I hope by some miracle I can stay in sporswriting full-time, but if not, then I'll find a job that pays better, work hard, grin and bear it, try to enjoy my life and spend more time worrying about things besides money and forging "a career" that all my family can brag about.

 

While I am 100% on board with the idea that what you think you want at 21 will probably be different by 26, and I agree 100% that making $25k/year sucks (making $22k myself right now with my wife matching exactly), let me say that your post also shows some worrisome signs.

If you aren't happy spending $20 at the bar, you might not be happy spending $50. If you don't enjoy Vegas on a bargain basement plan, you might not enjoy it on a medium plan. There will always be someone making more money than you and having things you don't have. If I'm full of it and just reading too much into things, maybe my story can help out some other people:

We (Mrs. Stain and I) spent years during and after college trying to live like we made $30k a year when we made $25k combined, and wondering why it didn't work because we weren't trying to live it up. But living beyond your means gets you just as broke no matter how you do it.

If you (or anyone else) wants a list of web sites that can really help on this idea, PM me. A year ago at this time, I was thousands of dollars behind on my regular monthly bills and fending off utility shutdowns almost daily. My parents were making plans for us to move in any week. At one point in early April, my paycheck deposit didn't cover the amount my checking account was overdrawn, and we had $15 dollars to eat on that week. Then my wife's mother went into the hospital suddenly and seriously, and we had to hope that the $15 dollars would buy enough gas to get down there (it did, barely) and we could scrounge enough off relatives while we were down there to eat and get back.

Among the many things we learned that awful week was that enough was enough, and we were *not* going to keep living like this. We educated ourselves on finances, made some tough decisions, learned some very important lessons and now a year later, I can say that all my bills are paid, all my debts besides my car payment and my student loans are caught up, and I have two full months worth of expenses sitting there in cash savings (it'll be three months by next paycheck, and would have been more if Mrs. Stain hadn't ignored all our budget plans for 2009 and gotten pregnant ).

By all means, we should all be looking for an industry where we don't have to deal with $25k/year or less. I'm planning to do that myself. But don't be so sure that more money will fix all the problems, because the stress of living paycheck-to-paycheck afflicts people making $90k/year, too.

</soapbox>

 

Good points, Rick.

The simple fact that stix is having a bachklor party in Vegas when he says he can't afford anything tells me he's living way beyond his means -- trust me, I used to be the king of that life -- tryng to keep up with his friends.

 

Why is that stupid? Because I want to fucking enjoy myself once in a while? Because I don't feel like I need to spend every fucking waking second of my life pinching every goddamn cent from my paycheck? It's not like I spend 20 bucks at a bar every night. I'm talking maybe once a week. And that Vegas bachelor party, I've been saving up for months now. I'm doing fucking yardwork for a buddy of mine who owns a 5-acre property in my spare time at 10 bucks an hour to raise money to go on the trip, and it's not like I plan on hitting the 100 dollar blackjack tables at the Rio or anything.

But it really pisses me off when people say I'm "moronic" for going to Vegas. I may not be making a ton in sportswriting at the moment, but I am working like three other jobs. I can do whatever the fuck I please with my money, and I have my finances in order. I know this may be taking the point a little too far, but I'm not one of those people who's planning on pinching every penny until the day I retire, then at age 65 I can finally "enjoy" myself. I'm going to enjoy myself at age 26, and I'll make zero apologies. Besides, I'm getting married in August, so this Vegas trip is pretty much a "last-hurrah" for awhile, at least until I settle in with my future wife and hopefully make some more money. That's what a fucking bachelor party is suppoed to be, right?

As for your other questions, yeah, the economy sucks, but I'm working in a warehouse a couple days a week making plenty per hour. No full-time positions at the moment, but we'll see. And I also recently got a bartender's license that I have yet to put to use. Maybe I'll try out that field. There are plenty of things to do, and if it's not a "white-collar" job, so be it.

And saying clerks at Home Depot make twice what I made in newspapers was an exaggeration on my part. But I did work at Menard's right after college before I got my newspaper job, and the mangers there made about 50K a year. Sure, they worked about 80 fucking hours a week, but it was more money than newspapers.

 

Hey stix,

Chill out and live a little.