The Thrifty (Music) Therapist

What can I tell you? How to be thrifty as a music therapist - Perhaps an update on my own financial systems? Perhaps a recommendation for how to be a bit more budget-minded as a music therapist? Perhaps a dialogue about savings that are accessible to music therapists with school id cards? These would all be great topics, but they need a bit more preparation to be fully realized.

There is so much to consider when you are a music therapist - financial things, self-awareness things, professional advocacy things, personal advocacy things, fun things, administrative task things, and client things. When you are your own boss, then there are other things that crowd the calendar and the list of daily tasks (I'm not there yet...). One of the best things that you, fellow music therapist, can do to maximize your financial status is to ensure that you get everything else done.

I am a strong advocate for the phrase, "Work smarter, NOT harder."

For me, this phrase encapsulates the things that I want to do with and for my fellow music therapists.

How can you work smarter in your job? What types of systems will help you spend less time on the chore side of things, and what will help you do more of what you love to do in this profession? Who can you enlist to do the chores that you don't want to do?

I am a bit of a tightwad when it comes to money. As I have shared in these posts recently, I have some tricks to help me justify expenditures. I am conscious of the money that I have coming in and the money that I know will be going out again. I have a budget page in my journal to help me know what bills I have coming up to help me with transfers and moving money to savings. This has been key to managing my finances. 

I do not balance a checkbook (never have), but I do watch my bank account very closely. I often use a transfer to make sure that I have a good financial cushion all month, even when waiting for my monthly paycheck. I am in that situation right now - some extra annual bills came due in this month, so I had to move some money around to accommodate those bills. Every payday, I transfer extra money in my checking account to my savings account in order to start with just my salary for the month. This helps me track expenditures from within my budget.

When I do find something that I want to spend my money on, I am currently using an envelope system to help me track how and where I am spending my money. More on that soon - it seems to be working, and I do not really need as much money as I have designated towards that system per month. It is time to evaluate what is happening and change things to reflect my actual spending.

I think the first step to being a thrifty music therapist is a budget - a carefully, thought-out, detailed budget. Now that I have that, I know what money I have to spend on things like the gutters and a new guitar. Speaking of, it is time to clear out my gutters... Happy Spring on this side of the world!

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