In this article you’ll learn 6 paths to help new artists pay off their student debt with less stress and pave the way to financial freedom.
Student debt is one of the scariest things for an unproven artist to go up against. Many feel like they are stuck in a paradox between “I am paying off debt and I can’t make art!” or “If I make art, I can’t pay off debt!” But there are several practical ways to approach your debt that can make your point of view a lot less intimidating than you might have thought.
In most situations nobody forced you to go to art school. In fact, most young artists have at least a few stories of people advising them to study finance, science, basket-weaving, or anything but art. Use your debt as a positive motivator to continue sharpening your skills and looking for opportunities. Aaron Draplin, a great American graphic designer and founder of Field Notes, tells all his fans to hurry up and pay off their debt to earn their freedom.
With no further ado, here are the tips guaranteed to help artists get rid of that pile of debt.
1. Get a Roommate
This is the most obvious first thing a lot of people do after college. It splits the costs of living almost in half! You split rent, utilities, insurance, and Netflix between whatever number of people live with you.
A typical one bedroom apartment can cost $600-$1000 depending on where you choose to live. On the other hand, a three bedroom apartment might be $950-$1500. So instead of paying $800 plus utilities for yourself, you’re paying more like $500 plus utilities.
For argument’s sake we’ll say you’re saving $300 a month which is $3600 a year!
2. Move to the Country
If you want to spread the savings even more, move to a small town in the country. In Kansas City rent can be in the $1000s, but just an hour down the interstate you can find a cozy house in the middle of nowhere for $400-$500 a month.
This can be a great option if you’re at a stage where you can afford to work part time and devote more man hours to your creative endeavors. Apply the roommate formula to this equation and you’re living for almost nothing!
There are a lot of benefits besides the savings living out in the boonies. One, you can see the stars at night! Two, the air is fresher. Three, the grass literally is greener. If you don’t mind a little bit of isolation, this could be a great option for you.
3. Drive Uber or Grub-hub
Use your days off to drive an Uber or deliver Grub-hub. It is not uncommon for drivers to make $300 in a weekend. Factor in gas costing 25% percent of your costs then that is $225 a weekend. If you stick to your guns and deliver every weekend then you could make over $15,000* all year!
*Over $10,000 after taxes
Here is a tip on getting more business with Uber and Grub-hub. Park your car in a busy part of town instead of waiting at your apartment. The more people there are physically close to you, the more orders you’ll get.
If you are the kind of artist that feels like they’re wasting time when you aren’t practicing then you could use this down time in your car to work on painting plein air sketches from your car. You’ll probably see a side of the city you’ve never seen before while driving locals to their favorite spots. You might as well document it.
4. Work in the Trades
There is a major shortage of labor in the trades industry and the jobs are ripe for the picking with great benefits too. An average wage for someone working in the trades is $25 an hour. Union dues and additional schooling are very affordable, usually in the $100s. Some unions even pay retirement and benefits for you in addition to your weekly pay.
As an artist who loves working with their hands, these kinds of jobs can be very rewarding. Every day you get to see the fruits of your labor make in impact right away.
Don’t forget about the occasional overtime and opportunity to travel. Maybe you’ll be asked to work on the east or west coast for a few months with free room and a food allowance on top of your pay. Doesn’t that sound nice!
Working an entire year at the national minimum wage would earn you approximately $15,000. But one year in the trades is almost $50,000 on average. Thats a difference of $35,000!
5. Become a Graphic Designer
Many fine artists struggle with bridging the gap between artist and designer, but if you can manage to acquire this skillset then you could make an average of $42,000 a year.
Many agencies love getting a graphic designer on the team with extra-ordinary art skills. Combining digital techniques with your traditional media can be a challenging and rewarding accomplishment.
As an alternative to the agency field, you could work in-house for a larger company. These positions usually have better benefits, more relaxed schedules, and more job security than their agency counter-parts. As an added bonus, working in-house gets you closer to the marketing team than most ad agencies do. You can learn how companies really scale their product offerings and all the in’s and out’s of product development. These are incredibly complex procedures that can really benefit you as an artist who wants to learn how to make art a life-style business.
Using your critical eye on a regular basis definitely carries over into your personal art. Having a pile of somebody else’s work to perform everyday is a good way to practice building you capacity for creative endurance without having to pay money for your own supplies.
This is the route I chose to pursue after graduating art school.
6. Become a Web Developer
Web development is another one of those somewhat lucrative career paths that doesn’t cost much to learn. In fact there are resources like freecodecamp.org that teach you an entry level understanding of code without forcing you to pay a dime! The entry level salary for this field can be over $50,000.
The only catch with web development is that you have to break through that treacherous learning curve before you’re even slightly useful. You’ll have a great advantage in this field if you can implement your creative background. Many web developers don’t have a creative bone in their body and they flip out when they see real graphic talent on their side of the development world!
But I don’t want to work 9 to 5…
Its not easy to sell your soul to “the man” to make ends meet. But having extra cashflow while you’re paying off this debt will allow you to invest in yourself . You’ll be able to buy those new tools, take that course, go on that inspiring vacation, and pay off your bills without the stress of starving.
A wise professor once said that young artists should expect to spend at least a decade honing their craft before seeing the fruits of their labor. So if you are bummed out that you aren’t making it as a full time artist right out of school, its ok. Just don’t give up! Once you’ve made it, you’re queen/king of the world!
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How I’m Paying Off $33,000
Just so the readers know I’m not full of fluff and stuff, I’ll tell you my story.
I graduated in May 2016 with around $33k of student debt. I have a degree in Fine art and Illustration and there aren’t exactly day jobs for these kind of careers in the Kansas City area. I was lucky to get a design internship at a small ad agency and my “design” career began.
Following my own rules, I kept my living situation simple. I got a 3 bedroom townhouse with 2 roommates for $1500 a month(split three ways). I drove a used car. I cooked all my meals(even when my girlfriend came over). Before making large payments on my student loans, I saved 3 months of bills($2000*ish) so I would have emergency funds if necessary.
It was very hard watching my roommates and friends from college buy all sorts of nice things for themselves and eat out almost every night, but I resisted the urge. I had my eye on the prize; a full time art career. My splurge was a gym membership.
I worked at the ad agency for a year and a half and later moved to an in-house company afterwards. I recommend all fine artists who are working as designers move to an in house position rather than an ad agency if they can help it. Ad agencies work you to the bone and you have almost no energy left for freelance or personal projects. My in-house job pays better, has better benefits, and less working hours (40 instead 60). My freelance illustration career has a chance to lift off now that I have more creative energy to devote to it.
Thanks to frugal habits and a little bit of luck, I’ll have my $33k paid off by the end of 2019. That is less than 3 years after graduating.
More Success Stories
Here are a few success stories from my graduating class in art school.
Person 1 lives very comfortably as a carpenter. I do not know the status of his loan payoffs, but he follows many of the frugality principles mentioned above. Driving a used truck and doing freelance on the side. He enjoys working with his hands and restores furniture for fun sometimes.
Person 2 graduated debt free because he worked very hard in the summer time. His summers were spent in Alaska at a gold mine where he did dirty work for 9-12 weeks. In this time he would save enough money to pay his tuition for the coming year and even paid his car off.
Person 3 was a sculpture artist. She would get scraps from a metal shop in town for her various sculpture works. The owner liked her work so much that he offered to pay her $30 an hour to work part time in his shop.
Don’t Give Up
Artist life exists heavily of setting goals and enduring the pain of the journey. Its not always pleasant, but setting a goal like this is exemplary of the goals you’ll be setting/achieving the rest of your career!
I hope this has been inspiring more than anything. Look forward to lots of upbeat inspiration that will help you grow as an artist and achieve your dreams.
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