So what do you, me, Warren Buffett, Martha Stewart, and Cardi B have in common?
We all operate within a 24-hour day. Everybody’s clock is a little different but all of us have 1,440 minutes each day to accomplish what we need to get done. Within those daily 86,400 seconds in the day, we become the positive embodiment of what John Wooden implied when he said “Things work out best for those who make the best of how things work out.” Or the frustration Coco Chanel alluded to when she talked about “beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door. ”
Most of us who are music teachers in an elementary school (or most any other school, for that matter) are working a seven and a half hour workday, from approximately 8 in the morning till 3:30 in the afternoon. That leaves thirteen and a half hours before and after school for us to get done what we need to get done.
Our seven and a half hour workday is going to provide a fairly static income. There is no time like the present to do the math.
Got that number?
Is that number large enough to carry you (and a family should you decide to start one) emotionally, mentally, personally, professionally, spiritually, and financially starting today until the day you retire? For that matter, will it establish security as well as sustain those pesky habits like eating and having a roof over your head in your post-employment years? Probably not. So it's what you do in those thirteen and a half hours that will make or break a lot of what you want from your life. You can choose to go home, have a few beers, kick back, attend church, volunteer at a hospital, practice your instruments, take a course on taxidermy, write lesson plans, have a Netflix night, or hit the sack.
And then do it all over again tomorrow.
And then enjoy your weekend with all that money you have left over from your paycheck.
Or maybe you'll be going home to brush up on the talents that you know you need to improve, like your guitar playing skills or your ability to play songs by ear at the piano.
No matter what choices you make with those 16.5 hours when you’re in your 20’s, you must comprehend that they will have a significant impact on your 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s. Those choices and how you occupy those hours 13.5 hours will also have a significant effect on how well you succeed during those 7.5 hours for the next forty-five years.
A Job and a Business
As a music teacher, you have a job and a business.
The “job” is the 7.5 hours when you are working for someone else’s business. Social security tax, federal tax, and state tax will take in excess of 25% of what you earn working at your job. You work for others.
The “business” is you: the career you cultivate in the other 13.5 hours. This is where you are the boss, the owner, and the primary beneficiary of your efforts. Others work for you.
Any money we spend during our 24 hour day comes from either earned income, passive income, or portfolio income. (I am assuming that you are similar to me – I didn’t have rich parents nor was I on a family payroll.)
Each of those three income streams are significantly different from one another and have pros and cons associated with them. In future blogs, I delineate how each are different, and why they are important to you, a music teacher.
I know all this money talk has nothing to do with the modes, recitals, Beethoven, parallel fifths, or eight-to-five marching band, but it is a crucial topic that was missing in my education at all levels. As the Walrus said in “Alice in Wonderland”, “The time has come to talk of many things: Of shoes and ships - and sealing wax - of cabbages and kings”. I’m pretty sure one of those things had to be an allegory for finances.
It took me a while to realize that if I was going to succeed as a music teacher, a musician, and a card-carrying adult, I needed more education. And not necessarily in Schenkerian analysis.
I mean, think about it. Maybe you’re like me.
For twelve years, I was taught by people who took a vow of poverty.
That should have been my first clue that I needed to be a more active participant in my financial education.
As the Chambers Brothers put it, “Time has come today.”
We all operate within a 24-hour day. Everybody’s clock is a little different but all of us have 1,440 minutes each day to accomplish what we need to get done. Within those daily 86,400 seconds in the day, we become the positive embodiment of what John Wooden implied when he said “Things work out best for those who make the best of how things work out.” Or the frustration Coco Chanel alluded to when she talked about “beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door. ”
Most of us who are music teachers in an elementary school (or most any other school, for that matter) are working a seven and a half hour workday, from approximately 8 in the morning till 3:30 in the afternoon. That leaves thirteen and a half hours before and after school for us to get done what we need to get done.
Our seven and a half hour workday is going to provide a fairly static income. There is no time like the present to do the math.
Got that number?
Is that number large enough to carry you (and a family should you decide to start one) emotionally, mentally, personally, professionally, spiritually, and financially starting today until the day you retire? For that matter, will it establish security as well as sustain those pesky habits like eating and having a roof over your head in your post-employment years? Probably not. So it's what you do in those thirteen and a half hours that will make or break a lot of what you want from your life. You can choose to go home, have a few beers, kick back, attend church, volunteer at a hospital, practice your instruments, take a course on taxidermy, write lesson plans, have a Netflix night, or hit the sack.
And then do it all over again tomorrow.
And then enjoy your weekend with all that money you have left over from your paycheck.
Or maybe you'll be going home to brush up on the talents that you know you need to improve, like your guitar playing skills or your ability to play songs by ear at the piano.
No matter what choices you make with those 16.5 hours when you’re in your 20’s, you must comprehend that they will have a significant impact on your 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s. Those choices and how you occupy those hours 13.5 hours will also have a significant effect on how well you succeed during those 7.5 hours for the next forty-five years.
A Job and a Business
As a music teacher, you have a job and a business.
The “job” is the 7.5 hours when you are working for someone else’s business. Social security tax, federal tax, and state tax will take in excess of 25% of what you earn working at your job. You work for others.
The “business” is you: the career you cultivate in the other 13.5 hours. This is where you are the boss, the owner, and the primary beneficiary of your efforts. Others work for you.
Any money we spend during our 24 hour day comes from either earned income, passive income, or portfolio income. (I am assuming that you are similar to me – I didn’t have rich parents nor was I on a family payroll.)
Each of those three income streams are significantly different from one another and have pros and cons associated with them. In future blogs, I delineate how each are different, and why they are important to you, a music teacher.
I know all this money talk has nothing to do with the modes, recitals, Beethoven, parallel fifths, or eight-to-five marching band, but it is a crucial topic that was missing in my education at all levels. As the Walrus said in “Alice in Wonderland”, “The time has come to talk of many things: Of shoes and ships - and sealing wax - of cabbages and kings”. I’m pretty sure one of those things had to be an allegory for finances.
It took me a while to realize that if I was going to succeed as a music teacher, a musician, and a card-carrying adult, I needed more education. And not necessarily in Schenkerian analysis.
I mean, think about it. Maybe you’re like me.
For twelve years, I was taught by people who took a vow of poverty.
That should have been my first clue that I needed to be a more active participant in my financial education.
As the Chambers Brothers put it, “Time has come today.”
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