Post 5 - March 16, 2020
Day 5…
What to do?
I don’t have a lot of answers here. Like a lot of people, we have very little income at the moment. What income we actually have is from Michael’s residuals. That means a lot of checks for $0.21 for an airing of a Law and Order episode in some random market. So, basically, I’m going to say that we are at zero income. I know that a lot of you are in exactly the same boat.
Practically, it is a good idea to go through all of your auto-pay and auto-renew payments and stop them. Put your gym membership on hold for 4 weeks. The gym is not a great idea in terms of gathering at the moment anyway. It is awash in surfaces that can accumulate germs. Work out at home. Or in the park. I’m guessing we all have various bands and hand weights that we bought in a fit of “now or never” and put in the back of the closet. Now is a perfect time to drag those out! There are lots of on-line classes too.
Magazine subscriptions. $49.00 for Vanity Fair? Not until I have some money coming in. How many streaming services do you pay monthly fees for? Do you watch ALL of them? Let’s see how long all of our hair gets (and what color it all really is!).
New York is closing all bars and restaurants. We are all going to become better cooks. (and save a boat-load of money) Try not to overbuy perishable food. Veggies only last for a certain amount of time. Buy what you are actually going to eat. Make sure that you have enough non-perishable food (canned goods, grains, protein sources) to allow you to stay home for a couple of weeks. You need SOME toilet paper but not ALL of the toilet paper. My sister did an Outward Bound-type of survival course back in the day and learned how to use pinecones and rocks… just sayin’. (Please don’t everyone rush to the park…).
For those in the Biz who are truly up against it, there is a spectacular resource called The Actor’s Fund (https://actorsfund.org/). We all may be fine to pay April but then what about May? Some may not be fine to pay April. The Actor’s Fund is there to help. You know all of the help you have given BC/EFA in raising all of that money all of these years? Many millions of that went to The Actor’s Fund. They are there to help us out in times like these. There is a safety net in place please use it.
Get up in the morning, take a shower, make your bed, get dressed. Do the dishes. Throw out the garbage. Do all of that for YOU. It is extremely hard not to get paralyzed by all of this. Keep it all moving!
Take a virtual class. Focus on what you need to improve your life for the future. There are LOADS of free online classes - Here’s a link to just a small selection from Ivy League schools (https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/here-are-380-ivy-league-courses-you-can-take-online-right-now-for-free-9b3ffcbd7b8c/?fbclid=IwAR0W38aiVznYP6dNs7duMbx9yUhW7Ch2dGVJb4G8VxSFUwHoGYTg3ccqThA)
Clean out your storage unit and start selling extra stuff on eBay. (This is actually what I am doing). The stuff that doesn’t sell, donate to Housing Works and take the tax deduction. If you are paying for your storage area then all the better - clean it out and stop paying for it.
Do I have the suggestion that is going to magically give you the money to pay your rent if you don’t have it? Absolutely not. You have to know that you aren’t alone, though. Not by any stretch of the imagination. There are thousands of us in exactly the same boat. It’s like we are in an earthquake right now. The ground beneath our feet is moving. Everything is changing and evolving in a radical way by the hour. You can’t deal with the after-effects of the earthquake until the ground actually stops moving. You have to ride it out and THEN deal with what to do. We are still shaking - it’s not done yet. Ride it out.
You need something right now? Please contact the Actor’s Fund. They are honestly there to help. If they can’t help, they have amazing resources to point you in the direction of someone who can. Don’t gut your IRAs or retirement funds. It’s a short-term solution that you will regret later. The stock market just halted trading for the third time. Let them be.
Our national government is floundering. They aren’t prepared for this. State and local are a bit more on it. Listen to the experts and not the politicians. Use common sense.
Breathe.
We will all get through this. How? Not a blessed clue, but I know we will.
“the natural condition is one of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster. strangely enough it all works out in the end... it's a mystery.” - Tom Stoppard