It’s money-related, I promise.

The question of making your newsletter a full-time gig comes up every week at least. Some either want to do it and are asking how to speedrun newsletter success while others save a bunch of money in their emergency fund, go all in for a few months and are now wondering if it was a mistake.

I don’t have an answer for any of those and honestly, it’s none of my business. But I have quite a few new subscribers, so let’s level-set. I have no plans to go all in on The Budgette and most of my work here will continue to be available to everyone. I guess that means I fail at media capitalism. shrugs.

My original thoughts were that I never want to rely on one source of income, especially on a platform that doesn’t belong to me. I’ve seen what happens when the platform makes a change: people lose their main source of income. I am a believer in multiple incomes so I do other things than The Budgette.

The second is I like doing those other things. Not in a a multitasking way but in a ‘this could be cool, let’s explore it’ way. Not all of it fits here.

But I was talking with a friend, Chloe and she pointed out something I hadn’t thought of: paywalling my type of content would contribute to inequality. If you’re an OG here, you know I go on and on about a lot of policy and planning that disadvantage single people. I obviously feel we should all benefit from knowledge to make our decisions so no paywall. Making people pay for that defeats the purpose.

These decisions do mean reduced pressure on me having to market the newsletter and I don’t worry about whether or not I’ll be able to pay my bills this month. It also gives me a little leeway to cover topics that fit within The Budgette’s mandate. Finally, I won’t resent having to write this newsletter. Six years later, it’s still fun to write.

The longer stories will remain paywalled because obviously but I do maybe three to five of those a year. Older stories automatically get paywalled but those get updated, rewritten and published, so at some point you’ll see them again. Will any of this change? If I ever have a team, sure but that’s unlikely in the immediate or medium future.

For my paid subscribers, thank you so much. Your money means I get to pay writers and for hosting. I do and will always appreciate your confidence in me.

Question for you

Ok, so question time for my 50+ single readers: how are you feeling about retirement? What questions do you have taht I can go hunting for answers?

This week’s readings:

Home is not an asset (The Tyee)

Canadians are tipping less (MoneySense)

By me: An American Company Could Soon Be Handling Your Financial Data (The Walrus)

Half of Canadians want a side hustle. What’s stoppigng them? (MoneySense)