Chas. wrote:I've never been in business for myself and I don't understand. If you go long periods without any pay, how do you buy groceries each week, utilities, etc. Does your wife work?
You learn self-discipline, that's for sure.
In a typical year, my monthly 'distributions' might run something like this:
- Jan - negative $5,000 (you live off savings)
Feb - negative $2,000 (still live off savings)
Mar - positive $1,500 (still live off savings, PLUS pay quarterly taxes of around $8,000)
- (that's the month I'd like to see elections held
)
(in addition, my quarterly health-insurance premium of $4,500 is due)
Apr - positive $5,500 (that money all goes to start paying back what we've lived on)
May - positive $24,000 ($8k for taxes we've already paid, set aside another $8k for next taxes)
Jun - positive $18,000 (now mostly paid up the money borrowed to live on)
- (...but another $8k in taxes and second $4,500 health insurance premium due)
Jul - positive $2,500 (glad I didn't buy that new Winchester I thought I could afford last month)
Aug - positive $26,000 (feel 'rich' now, but still haven't caught up with most of my 'laborer' friends)
Sep - positive $16,000 (getting there, after adjustment of quarterlies)
- (...only $6,000 goes to taxes this time, $4,500 health insurance same though)
Oct - positive $2,500 (three-month payroll to meet, office copier broke, flu shots to buy)
Nov - positive $1,100 (insurers try to get away with non-payment around this time of year)
- (they realize many patients change plans Jan 1, and won't care if Dr. didn't get paid)
Dec - negative $5,000 (patients don't want to pay 'co-pays' this time of year)
- (patients want us to 'just bill them', unaware that without that $20 co-pay, we LOSE money on the visit)
If we have not squandered too much money on silly stuff, we will be able to pay the fourth health-insurance premium of $4,500 from savings, pay our other bills, groceries, gas, and so on, AND have enough left for a bunch of cool Christmas presents.
I don't recite any of this for sympathy - In twenty-five years of being a family physician, my lowest pay was $29,000 or so, and my highest was $150,000 or so (worked just as hard both years
); my average income is better than it would be doing anything else I know how to do or could stand doing (
I do have a pharmacy degree and could activate my license, but I've seen those poor guys spending all day on the phone/computer arguing with insurers and having to deal with irate patients who blame THEM for the price of drugs, and with pressures from ten directions threatening their paycheck if they don't push for one or another brand switch, or whatever - no way I could do that...! Any excess income I'd make vs. now would be spent on counseling and shock-treatments.)
I recite it just as a honest example of what probably every 'business owner' deals with month to month. Sure, some businesses are more 'steady', but some are far less so. Some make tons of money, some don't, but regardless, for those of us who do it, it's worth the fluctuation either because either:
- a) we just aren't the kind of person who would 'do well' as an employee, or
b) we hope the end-of-year pay total will be higher than if we'd gone the 'safe' route
I do really think it would be a better world if everyone spent at least some time as a 'business owner', so they had to deal with the taxes and regulations and 'employee benefits' garbage out there. People would probably vote better, if nothing else. Plus, it would be a good education in 'self-discipline'. . .
What I mean by self-discipline is that if you've already had to borrow from last-year's savings to pay for the basics - food, mortgage, fuel, taxes (
...if you ever have the joy of borrowing money to pay taxes on 'income' you haven't even earned yet, it WILL make you into a small-government Libertarian... ), insurance, etc., then you hit the point in the year where "it starts to roll-in", you may find yourself with a pay-check saying "$28,000" on it. Most of my friends if they got a check like that would be putting $20,000 down on a new Corvette, because:
- a) 'taxes' are already taken out,
b) 'health-insurance' is already taken out, and
c) they know the same check will come every month.
The self-employed person, be he a doctor, roofer, landscaper, or whatever, will take that $28,000 check and reward himself with at most a few-hundred-dollar 'splurge', then
- a) tuck away at least $8,000 for taxes,
b) take out at least enough for a month's worth (typically $1,100 individual to $1,700 family) of health insurance premiums, and
c) double or triple what he takes out for the insurance, if paychecks aren't predictable.
It's a whole different world being self-employed, no matter what your actual occupation or business.
I choose it because I'm just too darned snotty to be a good-little-employee; I tried it once, but the employer wanted me to shorten office visits to an average of under six minutes, order more of whatever tests were money-makers for certain insurance companies (necessary or not), and cut corners by not ordering things I felt important or necessary if they might lose the wrong insurance company any money. I suspect most self-employed individuals have had similar experiences, or just don't want to be told what to wear, or who they have to work with, or that they can't come in fifteen minutes late but work an hour past usual hours to make it up.
I make decent money, and could make a bunch more if I changed some things (
and I will periodically change things to make more money if I see those things as good medical care). I
don't mind the long work-hours, and I
don't mind the unpredictable paychecks. Sure, I've got patients who are hairdressers who make more in a year than I do, but they are doing something people want, and not hiding behind third-party payers like insurance companies the way most doctors do, so I respect them and don't resent their income one bit. Likewise, I know people who I think work even harder than I do, or do jobs that are far more stressfull or dangerous than mine, yet don't make a fourth as much money as I do. Ultimately if there is a free-market economy without government interference,
everyone winds up with the amount of pay and the job that is 'fair', based upon competition and the value placed on their labor by their fellow citizens/customers. It's either that, or have the
government set rates - we all know how that goes.
I think I'm speaking for ALL self-employed people though, when I say we DO mind the utterly ridiculous level of paperwork required by the government - not only the tax-man, but all the other regulatory agencies with an axe to grind or an agenda to enforce. The counterproductive, money-wasting, inefficient, and sometimes dangerous things the regulators and pencil-pushers demand is VERY irritating.
As for me personally, I most definitely can't complain about my job, because
- a) I have one (...lots of people out there who don't...
)
b) the main people I have to answer to are my customers - NOT some idiot-boss dude
c) it is a job I actually enjoy - problem-solving, teaching, and dealing with (usually) nice people
d) it is a job I think sometimes actually helps people be healthier, or happier, or live longer
Add to that the ability to be self-employed (for those who choose that path), and it's awesome...!
Now if I could find a like-minded partner or two, so I could actually get enough coverage to take two or three weeks off and go out west and see some of the areas I read about, or go elk-hunting or something, I think I'd have the ideal job...!
Great news. Now lets hope the rest of the year works out the same for you.
The thought of a 700 grainer just chugging along at 900 fps or so sounded really fun. Everyone told me "You can't do that" because a .45 ACP suppressor couldn't handle the pressure, but I have seen YouTube videos of .50 BMG's with suppressors, and I'm thinking those can take larger gas-volumes AND higher pressures than my "cat-sneeze" loads for .45-70 would generate. 
