The Steem blockchain always pays on time, unlike my clients. Building financial buffers is key. Steempower is a great investment.
Just this morning I had to send 3 reminders to clients that have not paid yet for the work I have done for them.
Some of the reminders include hardware I upfronted.
Not paying on time seems to be a trend that is growing in my field at least, I work in IT, I'm self-employed.
It's not just me that has been noticing this behavior in clients, it also happens to other colleagues I speak too.
It's not unheard of for companies nowadays to have 60-90 days payment policy.
It doesn't matter what you put on your bill to them (mine says, pay within 20 days). They do whatever they want and there is not much one can do about it.
Waiting for your money is shit. I have no other words for it. It feels very disrespectful because the work is finished and the hardware is installed.
There is, therefore, no reason not to pay for the work that has been done.
It also gives worry. It feels like the job is not finished yet. And it cost extra time sending all those reminders.
Financial Buffers
Waiting for your money means you can't invest that money to fund new projects, you can't pay your own bills and you can't pay yourself. It can become problematic, really fast.
Financial buffers (or savings) are key to dealing with these situations. It literary buys you extra time while you wait for your money.
I would recommend anyone to start building them.
Financial buffers also act as a warning.
It has happened before that Bianca and I had to eat into the buffers. And for me, that's like a big alarm going off. It makes me incredibly restless. It basically means, there is more money going out than coming in.
At some point, I even canceled everything, all our subscriptions (cinema, netflix, spotify ect..) and not go out at all.
As soon as the buffers were rebuilt I added the subscriptions one by one.
Financial Security is my personal goal
There are two ways to be financially secure in my mind:
- Having enough money coming in every month to sustain the lifestyle you want.
- Having enough money in your bank account already to sustain the lifestyle you want.
I guess for most young people number 1 is the realistic way to go. Number 2 is harder but gets easier when you get older.
Crypto has been a big blessing for me. Especially this year it has gone up like a rocket. But it's not enough at all to sustain number 2.
So I'm aiming for number 1. With my work and crypto.
Steempower is such a great investment by the way because it can work for you. By having SP it can generate more STEEM (curating + interest).
Hopefully at some point enough to reach number 1 on its own (without selling the principal). But that's still a dream for now. (around $10 STEEM I think).
I also have other investments in crypto but they don't work for me like STEEM does. They just raise in value or go lower but don't generate extra crypto.
The Steem blockchain also doesn't have a payment policy that changes all the time like these companies. There is not a person to rely on. It's just acting according to rules.
I wish my clients paid like that.
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That's so very frustrating you're waiting on payments. In my company we usually have to wait 60-90 days before receiving payment. You're correct, this is common practice now in receiving payment and can make things very tight from time to time. It's total rubbish, but a pitfall any business must face it appears in this "new" world of business.
As for Steem Power, you're right on. We live in an era of cheap money and easy credit. What I mean by “cheap” is we have runaway central banks printing fiat into oblivion, inflating the money supply and allowing the “thief in the night”, otherwise known as inflation, to decrease the value of your hard earned fiat you carry in your pocket. You can try to save, but the banks don’t need your money anymore, they have access to all the cheap money they want, that's why interest rates are shit. Right now the USD is falling off a cliff and pretty soon we'll really start to feel the sting of inflation. Steem Power in my opinion is the best place to park your fiat. You earn more Steem Power through interest paid out 24/7 and through curation and content creation. Right now everyone who is awake to the financial mess that is our economic system, are frantically looking for USD alternatives for either a safe haven or for returns, for me I see none better than Steem Power. Great post brother & hope you get paid for your work soon.
That is the most annoying thing about clients. Those who are willing to pay late. I've had a few friends who used to run a kids club that went out of business as so many parents, in the end, did not pay for the services and he ended up going out of business.
Well I hope they pay up in the end as putting a vendor in so much financial stress and turmoil is, of course, something that isn't right but unfortunately, people do as they please and they don't stick to rules and stipulations.
In your scenario it seems like they have no reason to hold the money and it seems like they are trying to somewhat avoid paying you or something happens where you give up chasing the money.
You always want to have a financial buffer and not constantly use all your resources to the skin of your teeth. If you do, you leave yourself no security and you can get plunged into utter mayhem and toil.
Crypto and steem have been a huge blessing to me. Before I had no sort of financial stability nor buffer and payments for things like gas, electricity and rent were something that was an enormous problem. They are still problems but they have decreased thanks to steem which I'm ever thankful for.
I've been trying to accumulate as much steem power I have but it is pretty hard when I don't have much disposable income and with the price being pretty high but I'll do my best @exyle haha
In India, this problem is also increasing enormously. People don't pay for the services they received on time and when we call them for our money, they just postponed it for a week, or month as per their circumstances.
Whether its a corporate sector or self-employement field, condition has worsened over the years. Now in order to gain financial freedom, one must follow some protocols, or let's say some rules to survive this late payment injustice.
These rules must be made to maintain the financial security and the status of living for a person in present as well as in the future. Because in order to maintain the financial security, we need something today which can benefit us for the future.
Steem and Steem power is revolutionary, Indeed, but there's uncertainity in crypto market which makes it kind of gambling. It's not a pure gambling because in crypto one has to do hard work to understand it and then investment is made. My point is , to survive and flourish our financial freedom, we need to generate income from the numerous sources. Steem, alone, is not enough. If one has some spare investments, then he should do it in stocks, derivatives, gold and real estate. I have faith in Steem power but too much faith can become a means of fall. So, I diversified my investments in real estate, srock, derivates, gold and crypto's. Only steem investment, I don't believe can safeguard someone's financial freedom.
Disclaimer: This is only my views on investment, not any kind of recommendations.
This post could help to some extent.
https://steemit.com/steemit/@cryptonet/is-steem-alone-a-healthy-investment-for-future-or-there-are-other-points-to-consider-let-s-decide
Thank you @exyle sir. You're much experienced than me so I wish you all the success with your investments :)
You are right. Diversification is good.
This is one of the disadvantages of being self-employed i guess. Generally, a company will pay its employees on time, i say generally because I've seen cases where this hasn't happened!
Good luck on your quest to the holy grail of financial security and with receiving these outstanding payment from clients (who are currently called 'fuckers' until they pay!)
LOL! Man~, that last line made me laugh!
funny cause it's true! :D
Hope you're having a good week. 1 week no meat completed for me, feels good you know. If i had a Green Egg things may well be different though!
That's so shit that they take so long to pay and there really is no good reason for it. Maybe put in the terms that the payment must be within 20 days or there will be some kind of extra charge?
I work in music and it's even worse, everything takes at least a couple of months and certain royalties take years to come through and there's really no good reason for it. Maybe the blockchain can be used as a potential solution for the problem some day
Smart Contracts is something I can see growing in the music industry.
Waiting for money always tends to be unpleasant. There are ways you can access the money on invoices early through something called factoring. However, in those cases, you are getting an advance on your money in exchange for a cut to be paid to the factoring company while you wait for the invoice to be paid. There are ways to get the money but it'll cost you to access it quickly.
Steem power is a wonderful and dependable investment. It doesn't exactly pay out traditional dividends like a stock but there's definitely an income stream that comes from SBD and Steem power from posting and curation.
Wonderful post. Thanks for writing this @exyle and reminding me that:-
Steem is a great investment. I totally agree. I have seen people like @jerrybanfield get the maximum benefit out of Steem Power investment. He now earns thousands of Steem Dollars and SP every week. Incredible!
I wish I had money enough to buy some Steem or Steem Power using @blocktrades. That's a dream for now because I'm kinda broke. Haha!
The way forward for me is to keep trying and putting effort in content creation on Steemit. That's pretty much the only thing I can do until I have money to invest.
Thank you for this wonderful post. I would like that my followers read it too so I will resteem
Hey @exyle I can understand that it must be very stressful thinking you may have not completed the task fully and its for that reason you are getting the punishment of delayed payments. I have to agree steemit is a real blessing and I am working on getting number 1 sorted as my work leaves me poor hope steemit can help in future along side it.
Having Steem locked in Steem Power is like somewhat fulfilling the Number 2 goal... Yes, we can expect our clients to pay on time in future, which i hope will happen very soon, once the blockchain is adopted by masses and all goods and services transactions runs on blockchain, executing on smart contracts... Future is very bright!
totally agree. The hardest part about investment and money is to lifestyle inflation in check. Honestly, if you have more money coming in than money going out, you will never have to fear running out of money.
More buffers = more freedom.