This evening Eric and I attended a workshop on financial planning. The information that was most useful to me was the terminology as the concepts of balancing my checkbook and saving for retirement aren’t new to me.

Since I quit my job it’s been even more important for me to create a budget and financial plan outlining where I want my freelancing business to take me. (Barcelona, anyone?) Sporadic income is going to make my taxes next year interesting to say the least but I’ve been keeping excellent track of the money I’ve earned so far.

Eric gave me a crash course in Quicken for Small Businesses and I’ve been using that program consistently to track invoices, payments, and expenses. It really helps me to see everything in spreadsheet format. That way I know who owes me money and whether I’ve sent them a bill. Plus, I love pie charts.

One the surface this might not seem like a typical “art blog” post, but if I’m going to make a living from this, I better have a sound plan in place!