Hey folks, I’m Nick.
Per the subject header, I’m 41, a new dad, and feeling very much like I need to step things up on the income front,
We hadn’t planned things quite this way. My wife and I started trying for a family about 7 years ago. After three years of not much joy, we tried IVF, and after another three years, two miscarriages, and a LOT of money spent, we finally had one stick, only to find out at the 12 week ultrasound that he had a pretty significant congenital issue.
Yay...
On doctors advice we relocated interstate to be near the best hospital, and after a very dramatic birth, 67 days in the NICU, and a few near misses, we finally brought home a beautiful baby boy. He’s 5 months old today, doing great, and was worth every dollar spent, and every moment of terror and panic.
HOWEVER
Now the pragmatic world approaches. We don’t really have any financial reserve left. My wife has a great job, but she has had to take a lot more time off than we had planned. Our son’s prognosis is just fine, but he will need a bit more care in his early months/years. Also, a big contract that I’d been banking on to get us over the income shortfall has been delayed by months (and counting), and we’re starting to scrape dangerously close to the edge of our resources. I’d never really thought of us as a “sidewalk” household, but circumstances have kind of stripped away the illusion.
To be clear, I’m not looking for sympathy - we made decisions, we stand by them, and I wouldn’t trade my son for all the money in the world. But nevertheless I find myself in need of an income paradigm change, and pretty fast. During a recent trip back to the hospital for a followup I came across the Millionaire Fastlane , and it hit a nerve. So here I am!
WHERE I’M AT
I currently run a couple of small business.
One is a video production business servicing my local state market. Largely low-ish budget local TV commercials, some corporate videos etc. That’s my bread & butter income, and generates around AU$120K a year, split 50/50 with a business partner. It’s extremely variable from month to month (so very tricky to budget).
My other business is doing sound design & music for video, primarily for the one client (which is not a safe position!) This is the one that’s been delayed, and has laid bare the precariousness of my income situation. I wasn’t expecting the delay, and I didn’t have a backup.
THE PLAN
I’ve been planning out a productised service business based on a subset of my existing services, but given the urgency of current circumstances I’m putting that to the side for a month or three. My new priority is to hustle for short term income over and above my usual bread and butter. That means freelancing, so I’ll be dusting off my Upwork account and trying to put some of @SinisterLex ‘s teachings into action. I know freelancing isn’t really fastlane, but alas I’m just scratching to bring in dollars right now.
I hate that I’m in this position at 41. In my darker moments I get very angry with myself for wasting as much time as I have, and for letting us get this close to serious problems. I know we’ve had exceptional circumstances, but it’s still hard not to feel like I could have done things better.
Anyway... nice to be here. I’ve been reading a lot of threads, and there seem to be some pretty great people here. I’m looking forward to getting to know you all.
Nick
Per the subject header, I’m 41, a new dad, and feeling very much like I need to step things up on the income front,
We hadn’t planned things quite this way. My wife and I started trying for a family about 7 years ago. After three years of not much joy, we tried IVF, and after another three years, two miscarriages, and a LOT of money spent, we finally had one stick, only to find out at the 12 week ultrasound that he had a pretty significant congenital issue.
Yay...
On doctors advice we relocated interstate to be near the best hospital, and after a very dramatic birth, 67 days in the NICU, and a few near misses, we finally brought home a beautiful baby boy. He’s 5 months old today, doing great, and was worth every dollar spent, and every moment of terror and panic.
HOWEVER
Now the pragmatic world approaches. We don’t really have any financial reserve left. My wife has a great job, but she has had to take a lot more time off than we had planned. Our son’s prognosis is just fine, but he will need a bit more care in his early months/years. Also, a big contract that I’d been banking on to get us over the income shortfall has been delayed by months (and counting), and we’re starting to scrape dangerously close to the edge of our resources. I’d never really thought of us as a “sidewalk” household, but circumstances have kind of stripped away the illusion.
To be clear, I’m not looking for sympathy - we made decisions, we stand by them, and I wouldn’t trade my son for all the money in the world. But nevertheless I find myself in need of an income paradigm change, and pretty fast. During a recent trip back to the hospital for a followup I came across the Millionaire Fastlane , and it hit a nerve. So here I am!
WHERE I’M AT
I currently run a couple of small business.
One is a video production business servicing my local state market. Largely low-ish budget local TV commercials, some corporate videos etc. That’s my bread & butter income, and generates around AU$120K a year, split 50/50 with a business partner. It’s extremely variable from month to month (so very tricky to budget).
My other business is doing sound design & music for video, primarily for the one client (which is not a safe position!) This is the one that’s been delayed, and has laid bare the precariousness of my income situation. I wasn’t expecting the delay, and I didn’t have a backup.
THE PLAN
I’ve been planning out a productised service business based on a subset of my existing services, but given the urgency of current circumstances I’m putting that to the side for a month or three. My new priority is to hustle for short term income over and above my usual bread and butter. That means freelancing, so I’ll be dusting off my Upwork account and trying to put some of @SinisterLex ‘s teachings into action. I know freelancing isn’t really fastlane, but alas I’m just scratching to bring in dollars right now.
I hate that I’m in this position at 41. In my darker moments I get very angry with myself for wasting as much time as I have, and for letting us get this close to serious problems. I know we’ve had exceptional circumstances, but it’s still hard not to feel like I could have done things better.
Anyway... nice to be here. I’ve been reading a lot of threads, and there seem to be some pretty great people here. I’m looking forward to getting to know you all.
Nick
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