Being self-employed can be a challenge sometimes. Here’s an example…
Since I don’t have a “real job” and I’m single, I’m responsible for my own health insurance. I have an insurance agent who helps me with that and my auto & renter’s insurance.
Recently, I got a letter from my health insurance provider stating that my premium is going up about 13% and my deductible is going up about 17% with no increase in benefits. Yay.
I called said insurance agent looking for better options. All he did was bitch about the state of the industry for about half an hour and didn’t offer any solutions. Double yay.
Being union eligible, I checked the SAG AFTRA Member Benefits page to see what’s what. If I read it correctly, I’d have to pay $3,000 to join and the premiums are about the same. Yay cubed.
A friend suggested I look into getting a Heath Savings Account. There are very few available in my state and cost about the same. Yay to the fourth.
Then I found Oscar.
Oscar is only offered in New York & New Jersey, at least for now. The plan I’m looking at is about 50% less than my current plan and includes free generic drugs which I didn’t get before. I also found a great plan from another provider for dental and eye-care, which my current plan also doesn’t offer. I will do my due diligence (of course) and let you know how it goes.
TIP OF THE WEEK
All our lives we have been trained to be followers, to become as good as we can at making money for other people/companies and not for ourselves.
To be successfully self-employed, we need to speak a new language. We need to think outside of that box that we have been stuffed into all our lives. We can’t rely on outside entities or institutions to help us figure out how to ply our trade because they don’t understand us nor do they want to.
We are on our own, but thank God we have each other!
NEWS AND NOTES!
My next Edge Studio Business and Money 201 seminar will be Thursday November 12 @8PM EST. The Subject: Keeping Clients Coming Back. We’re gonna talk about about tips & strategies for being your clients’ go-to voice. Click here to sign up!
HAPPY HAPPYS!
Happy Sesame Street Day and I Love To Write Day!
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
Include yourself among those you love.
Neale Donald Walsh from “Conversations with God“
From my village to yours; this is Tom Dheere, GKN News…
Tom Dheere is a 19-year veteran of the voice over industry who has narrated thousands of projects for clients in over a dozen countries. He is also a coach at Edge Studio, voiceover business consultant known as the Voice Over Strategist, and is currently writing & producing the comic book “Agent 1.22”.