Thanks for responding my email, but I should clarify that I myself am not in gamedev. I was in commercial art long ago, which is the thing I lost passion and ambition for, at least enough for doing it day in and day out. And I don’t like working in digital, which was a large part of why I lost the drive, when it became the standard and expected. It’s been various labor jobs paying my bills since then. Occasionally I’ll sell a physical piece, but I only create as the mood strikes me. I own a car, but like the rest of the financially under-educated, I had a monthly payment. Do not recommend.
I was just saying that having a passion like the Stardew dev might make up for the meager income and need for frugality, and that it is possible to live on such without being miserable, but I supposed that’s relative to each individual temperament.
But for God’s sake children, do become financially literate, and start early as possible! Learn about all avenues of income, not just a job, or the university track, or the trade track, which while they can provide lucrative skills, you may not be the type that can stand doing the same thing everyday for years; feeling stuck is the worst and the whole point of financial literacy is to avoid that imo. Don’t have a car note -either buy what you can afford all at once or seriously evaluate if you need a car at all. Learn about side hustles, passive income, small business, big business, assets, venture capitalism, etc. Look where you can help or serve people, money is often at the end of it; and contacts -it’s often just who you know that leads to greater opportunities. But also don’t have a death grip on your finances like I did. That’s a poverty/scarcity mentality, which every struggling or just getting by person I know has. Sometimes you have to let it go to get more back. Successful people know/believe that money is a renewable resource.
And maybe most importantly, don’t play the Game Industry games. They are designed to steal your mind and your time, both of which you need if you want to have any kind of success (even the success of realizing your passion on 40k a year). And they are shit games.
I bolded the above. I don’t think the emailer will be upset that I did.
All of my free time is going into game development. Therefore, this page is suffering because of it. I need to make more breaks in game dev for this site. Much needs to be said.
Let me make a point about financial literacy. Everyone reading this site thinks they know what that means. This is why they are so stupid.
(No, don’t laugh, reader. I’m serious! Stupid people don’t realize they’re stupid. Everyone is a genius these days. This is why they are dumb.)
I want to put financial literacy in its exact context.
In the past, there was reading literacy. What did that mean?
It meant that people didn’t know how to read and write. And to those who could read and write, there are higher tiers to reading and writing. Reading a news article takes significantly less reading literacy than reading Shakespeare. Writing well also takes more literacy than writing poorly.
How did reading literacy matter? Without reading literacy, you couldn’t learn. A book means nothing if you cannot read it. Without writing literacy, you couldn’t communicate. It doesn’t matter what you have to say if you cannot communicate it.
If you want to control someone, take away their literacy. Slaves were not taught to read and write for a reason. Everyone, reading this, understands this. It is why American founding fathers promoted putting up public libraries everywhere. An educated population is one who cannot be enslaved.
Now compare that to financial literacy. Financial literacy IS NOT ‘spend less than you make’ or ‘do your 401ks and invest for retirement’. Financial literacy IS NOT ‘buy gold and silver’.
Financial literacy is literally being literate in the process of money. Where does money come from? Where does it go? How do you read a financial statement?
Our era is not defined by word literacy. That was the last era. Our era is about financial literacy. Financial literacy defines who is poor and who is rich.
Not your job ‘income’.
If you give money to a financially illiterate person, they will lose it. Hence, most lottery winners end up going broke. Many sports stars end up going broke. There is a story going around now about how a former model is now seen dumpster diving for food. Clearly, she was not financially literate.
They do not teach financial literacy in schools. Not even university.
It’s not profitable for the powers that be for the common people to become financially literate. How would they be able to sell cars and houses at their outrageous rates? Or university degrees?
The barrier to financial literacy is not intellectual. Let me repeat this again because the guy in the back wasn’t listening.
The barrier to financial literacy is not intellectual. It is profoundly emotional. The most financially illiterate are those who are so ‘smart’ and ‘intellectual’ with money. Blah blah blah bitcoin, blah blah blah gold, blah blah blah 401ks, etc.
Interestingly, I have noticed the same pig-headed nature of ‘investing’ as I do with ‘food diet’. Everyone apparently is a genius with their diets. Yet, everyone is obese. Maybe they aren’t as genius as they think they are.
When I look at my own financial life, it isn’t that bad. I have no debt. Literally, no debt. My income is still 100% reliant on a job. But the reason why I am not rich is because I haven’t had the BALLS to take the necessary actions.
And it is more than just ‘balls’. You need advisers. In your quest for asset acquisition, you need the help of a lawyer, an accountant, and others whose experience you can draw on.
“But Malstrom, what do you call such a group?”
They are your Board of Directors.
Things like ‘board of directors’ isn’t some corporate creation. It literally is nothing more than ‘experienced advisers’.
Take Nintendo. Did you know Nintendo has added an Illumination person to their Board of Directors? Nintendo did this because they want the guidance of someone in the movie industry. Miyamoto does not have that experience. The other developers at Nintendo do not have that experience. This is why board of directors exist.
Do YOU have a Board of Directors? Since I know the answer is no, this is why you are poor. Most Middle Class people go broke because they think ‘being smart’ is how you get rich. Rich people know they need help so they create a board. The board removes a ton of risk from the equation.
But the emailer is right. You will be using money for the rest of your life. The sooner you start learning about money, the better your life will be. Guaranteed.
Malstrom's Articles News 