Balancing time and money
A frank financial reflection
It has been approximately six months since I embarked upon a new way of earning a living.
Six months since I began a part-time teaching job, working three days per week.
Six months since I started earning a self-employed income from interior design consultations, tutoring, piano teaching and writing.
Today’s post is a financial reflection on that journey so far: what I’ve earned from salaried and freelance work and the challenges I’ve encountered.
I’m going to be frank with you and share figures and so, with that in mind, most of this piece is behind a paywall. I’m asking you to pay to read this because writing is a slice of how I earn my living. I now feel confident to say that I am a writer and, if you like reading what I write, then it is worth paying for.
Paying to read will additionally give you access to the voiceover (read by me) and the comments where there is much wisdom from you, my knowledgeable and creative readers!
Being honest is important to me in my writing, and I hope you will find this openness about money to be helpful in navigating your own financial journey, particularly if you are self-employed. I believe that women talking candidly about money may go some way to address issues relating to the gender pay gap. We have to try something, right?
My career began as a music teacher in a secondary (high) school. Back then in 2007, I also worked part-time because I was completing a Master’s degree in composition and it was the only way I could fund it. As a newly qualified teacher, my full-time salary was £22,000 per year, and working 2 and a half days per week, I was earning half of that. Combined with (stupidly) being on the wrong tax code for the first year of working in that job, I was taking home around £800 per month. I’m not sure how I survived living in London, but somehow, I did.
Three years later when my postgraduate degree was completed, I applied for a new teaching job. It was also part-time, but more hours at 3 and a half days per week (0.7 fte). This job was in a small independent school in central London and I nearly fell of my chair when the head of the school told me that my full-time equivalent salary would be £38,000 per year!