Little By Little...
I'm moving away from giving billionaires my money and data
Yesterday, I spent a few hours signing up for and configuring Fastmail as an alternative to Gmail. Right now, I use Gmail to check all my email. That includes my personal Gmail address, my “Elsie Gilmore, the author” email address, and two email addresses for my web development business. (Plus, all the old email addresses that forward to those addresses.)
I will likely end up paying $60/year to use Fastmail, but it has contacts and a calendar just like Gmail. It's pretty slick, and I think I'll be happy with it. Unfortunately, I can't get rid of my Gmail address altogether because it's how I log into my Android phone and a bunch of websites. (Plus, lots of people have that address.) But I can move mostly away from it. My new Fastmail email address is elsiegilmore@sent.com.
One thing it doesn't have is a widget for my phone. I use the calendar widget so I can see, without opening the app, what events I have coming up that day. But I can still have that open on my computer.
The next thing I'm looking to replace is Google Drive (for which I pay $100/year). I'll keep the unpaid version because I do use it to collaborate with clients, but for my own purpose (which is what I pay the $100/year for), I'll find something not owned by Google. Options are Dropbox, which is about $120/year for 2TB of space, and it works well with Fastmail. For $15/mo, Box has unlimited storage, but I don't need that per se. There's also Sync, a service out of Canada that offers 2TB of space for $96/year. I was leaning toward DropBox, but one of the owners (Drew Houston) is a billionaire, made so because the valuation of DropBox topped $10 billion. So… maybe I'll try Sync.
If we all divested from using businesses owned by billionaires, we could really get their attention and remove some of their power.
📑 Project Updates
Writing
I had set a goal to join the Author’s Guild this year, so I did that this month. To become a full member, you have to earn at least $5000 as an author in the previous 18 months. However, you can also become an associate member (which I did) if you make at least $500. My Substack alone qualifies me for the associate membership.
My intention is to seek community in my career, and this is one of the ways I hope to do that. Here’s my member profile.
Along with the online community, the Author’s Guild has regional chapters, including one in Tampa. They also offer discounts on various insurance products. (Although I just had to book an appointment with their affiliate in APRIL to talk about it.)
I probably should’ve waited to do this as my attention this year will NOT be on writing, but it was something I earned and wanted to do. Who knows what opportunities it could open up.
If you haven’t checked out my first book, please give it a look. If you've bought and read it, please leave me a 5-star review on Amazon!
💲 Getting a Mortgage
I had called a mortgage broker, and she told me to email her, but I’ve emailed her three times now with no response. So, that’s annoying. I’m trying to find out exactly what my income needs to show to get a $150k mortgage. Like, just tell me what I’ve got to do, lady! She flat out told me that I just have to make it “look" like I make enough for this mortgage until after the mortgage closes. I'm sure wealthy people do shit like this all the time with their mansions.
I’m going to try to reach out to this mortgage broker again, and if she still doesn’t respond, I’m going to contact someone else at her company because I think they have a program for low-income buyers (which I’m technically not, but that’s how they see me). Although, to be fair, the incomes are so much higher up there, that I am on the cusp of being low-income there. It's kind of crazy.
🏡 Buying a House
There was a really adorable, small, efficient house for sale in Watervliet, NY, which is just across the Hudson from Troy. I’ve been reading up on the area, and apparently, it’s a nice, working-class neighborhood. I wouldn’t be any further from the farmers market in Troy than I am right now from the St. Petersburg farmers market. I was considering contacting the owners of the property to see if they would do owner financing. It’s winter, and houses don’t move much during this time, so they might be open to it. But then the house went pending. Of course.
I remain optimistic that the right thing will be for sale at the right time.
🚶♀️ Losing 10 Pounds
I eat pretty well, and I’m not a big snacker, so losing weight is just about adding in exercise. The first week of the year, I did great! I walked/biked 16.51 miles. The second week was not so good… only 6.39 miles of walking. This week, I’m already at 6.9 miles on Wednesday morning, so the week is starting off great.
I lost 1.5 pounds right away, which got me a pound below what I consider my “max weight.” This is the most I’ve ever weighed and a weight at which I stop feeling “comfortable.” Losing weight at this age is so much more frustrating, and the extra weight is never where you want it. I'm going to keep doing as much as I can.
Getting more exercise is also great for my cholesterol, so this is a win/win/win for me. If I just keep moving (for the rest of my life), I will stay healthy.
💰 Making More Money
I’m working on several avenues for this. Obviously, I’m trying to get more web development clients (both for monthly maintenance/security subscriptions and for full-build projects). But I’m also looking at opportunities on LinkedIn. Some are for contract work, but I’m also keeping an open mind toward W2 work.
What’s cool about LinkedIn is that when it shows me job openings, it tells me how many alumni from the colleges I attended work at that business. That gives me a very slight “in” (particularly if those folks are good employees, of course).
I’ve only applied to one so far, but it was with an organization I really like. Judging by others’ experiences, I expect a lot of rejection and ghosting. We’ll see!
Most of the web development leads that are sent to me from LinkedIn are not reasonable. Unfortunately, there's no way to filter them. Many want a brand-new 30+ page WordPress website built in two weeks. There will always be someone who will work cheaper and faster than me but not better. I'm not a generic website factory. I'm a boutique development company that acts as a business partner to discerning business owners and non-profit leaders who want a relationship with the developer that takes care of their important business asset.
⏰️ Currently
💊 Trying to figure out how to manage extra muscle pain I've had lately.
🦋 Feeling determined to transform my life this year in so many ways.
💻 Excited to have made an appointment for the “counseling” part of the NACA process.