Hi. If this is your first time here, welcome. My name is Chris Ming, I’m a Hollywood assistant. And your bosses are full of shit.
You’re probably like, “uh, yeah, I already know that. I’ve been with [insert CAA, WME, UTA, ICM, Anonymous, Circle, Industry, major studio, mini-major studio, network, cable, production company, etc.] for the last two years. My boss is a complete asshole.”
Right! Except I’m not talking about your boss’s personality. I’m saying they’re lying, and more specifically, they’re lying about money. They’re lying if they ever said:
- “You have to look the part. Buy the right clothes, drive the right car, look the right way.”
- “Work hard now. The money will come later.”
- “You’re young, why are you thinking about a 401K?”
- “You’re healthy, you don’t need health insurance.”
- “Don’t worry someday you’ll be able to pay for it.”
Why Your Bosses Lie To You
Don’t take it personally. They think they’re right, because they used to be. They were on the rise in times when there was so much money in Hollywood you couldn’t sneeze without hitting a producer with some sort of overall deal. All it took was a script and an element and you’d see your MoW on air a year later. All before the Internet, which Changed Everything. Before the Writer’s Strike, the housing market collapsed in 2008 and the Recession of 2009, which Changed Everything Again. The combination of improved healthcare and less financial security means people are living longer, retiring later, and those opportunities to move up (and make that fabled paycheck your bosses promise you will fix everything) are scarce.
The very idea that there’s a paycheck with enough zeros that it can fix everything is flawed, but sometimes that’s difficult to realize in Los Angeles, surrounded by people who believe buying material shit makes you happy, that newer (new clothes, new car, new spouse) is always better, and that everyone aspires to live like the Kardashians.
Where does that leave you? You going to run around, whining and bitching, like, “boo-fucking-hoo, life is so unfair, I work so hard and make such little money, nobody acknowledges me, waaah waaah”?
Welcome To Fighting Broke
Nope. You’ve stumbled across Fighting Broke, and I’m going to show you that we’re playing a new game, one that the bosses of yesteryear don’t ever realize is going on. This game is played by different set of rules:
- Buying material things doesn’t create happiness. Not being tethered to a paycheck, and spending time with people we love, does.
- There is no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. If we want the reward later, we need to spend less and save more now.
- Every dollar saved is a dollar we’re going to put to work for ourselves.
Here are some places to get started
- If you’re looking to move to LA – start with the Moving to Los Angeles Series
- If you want tactics on how to start saving money right away, try: How to Cut Cable, Make Time, and Save $10,030 or How Hollywood Makes Us Slaves to the Paycheck
- If you want a quick primer on saving money – How to Start Saving and Investing
- If you’re a struggling Hollywood assistant – Introducing the Zen Assistant
- If you want to see exactly where my money flows each month – The Monthly Expense Report Series
- If you’re a rockstar and just want to start with the first post ever, click here
For the ambitious, you can start with the first post and work to the present.
I’m developing some awesome content with lots of crunchy tactics and new strategies to think about how we earn and spend our money. Please help me out by subscribing to the email list to the right, and by letting me know if there’s anything you want me to cover. I really appreciate it.