Friday, June 10, 2016

for the first time in months

At long last, I'll be teaching a KMA course tomorrow. That's seven hours' teaching at W70,000 per hour, or W490,000 gross. Subtract 3.3% tax, and my take-home pay is W473,830. Not bad for a day's work. And it's badly needed: I've had two or three months' worth of KMA courses canceled because of low registration. I'm beginning to suspect that the courses aren't marketed nearly as well as they could be. Result: my heretofore unsinkable budget, battleship though it be, has taken several major hits below the waterline; we're pumping desperately and keeping this fiscal bucket afloat, but navigation has gotten a whole lot harder. I had hoped, for example, to pay off my second major debt this coming August, but that may just have to wait another couple of months.

Somewhere on the horizon, though, my boss at the Golden Goose is thinking of lobbying to get me a higher salary sooner than in August/September. Not sure this is actually going to happen—the boss has promised things before and not delivered—but it's something to hope for. If I can move up another W500,000 a month, that would effectively eliminate any need to keep working at KMA, which would free up my weekends. (Of course, KMA teaching being the enjoyable and lucrative activity it is, I might just stick with it.)

For now, though, it's one day at a time. Tomorrow, I've got KMA, and that's cause for thanks. I'll just keep my fingers crossed in the hopes that there'll be no more cancellations for the rest of the year.


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3 comments:

Charles said...

Every ship is unsinkable until it hits an iceberg.

I've always thought that "sinking" was a bad metaphor, though. Sinking is kind of an all-or-nothing thing--you are either sink or you don't. I think it's more like a rally car: The budget can take some hits and get knocked off course for a bit, but as long as you keep at it and don't drive off a cliff, you'll eventually get to where you want to be, even if it takes a little longer than planned.

Kevin Kim said...

Nah, I think the ship image works fine. It's not all or nothing: it's exactly what I described in my post when I said I've taken on water but am still limping along. We patch the hole while pumping out the water, and then we'll keep on a-chuggin'.

George Carlin said we watch racing for the crashes. You waiting for me to become a flaming ball of wreckage?

Charles said...

Are you kidding me? You know I'm rooting for you!