According to google analytics only about 2,000 people read this blog on a monthly basis, which means that about 10% of you are also sending me emails asking how the bleeping hell I afford to do what I do.

Fair enough. Point taken. Everyone can relax now, as I have written a blog post.

In fact, I’ve decided to start a monthly(ish) series called Freewheel Finance, with the hope of clearing up some of the confusion and proving that it is actually possible to be a freelance athlete/writer and travel the world while simultaneously feeding oneself and [generally speaking] paying bills on time.

Back in November, a reader emailed me requesting that I write a blog post about “how I make ends meet on the road,” which made me realize two things. A) People are super curious about this and B) my blog makes it look like I have my shit together WAY better than I actually do.

I think my response to this email was something along the lines of “if I manage to pay my credit card bill at the end of this month without going into debt, then I will most certainly write that blog post because if I pull that off I might actually be qualified to tell other people things about money and while I’m at it I should just add some fancy initials to the end of my name like Syd Schulz, F.F.W., for fucking financial wizard.”

Spoiler alert — I paid off my credit card bill for that month and for the three subsequent months. And this year, I’m on track to actually make something close to a living wage. So I guess it’s time to write that blog post.

The theme of this particular blog post is “faking it until you make it” and how that works from a financial perspective. I know at least three of my relatives are cringing at this statement, but hear me out. I’m not saying goof off and pretend you know what you’re doing until a big pile of money falls into your lap — I’m talking about intentional, mindful faking. I’m talking about doing what you want to be doing, doing it well and doing it the way you want to do it — even if you’re not getting paid. Yes, I’m telling you to work for free. I know, I know, haters gonna hate, probably big time, but here’s the thing — if you want to build a living out of doing what you love, and you expect to get paid for it, you have to prove to people that you can do it well — or, in some cases, that there is a real need for what you do.

(In case you’re thinking I’m crazy, I didn’t pull this whole “work for free until you get paid” thing out of the ether — listen to this guy’s TED talk.)

2014 was my trial year. I told myself that if I ended up broke and destitute and borrowing money from my parents after a year I would go get a real job. But for one year I was going to throw all my energy into doing the things I wanted to do — traveling, racing bikes, writing — and see what happened. Here’s a brief summary of how I survived 2014. It’s not very glamorous or impressive. In fact, it’s a little bit pathetic. But remember, it was all about “faking it.”

I started the year with about $6,000 in savings from my college job. I signed up for a new credit card, which got me 30,000 American Airlines miles and my flights to New Zealand and South America. My savings lasted through early June. From then on I survived on a few freelance writing gigs (around $2,000), the money from selling off a lot of bike equipment and other possessions (another $2,000) and a generous loan from the Bank of Boyfriend ($1,400 thanks Macky I love you!). For most of this time I either lived in a van/tent, at Macky’s parents’ house or at my parents’ house. By scrounging, hoarding money and spending every cent I made before it even landed in my bank account, I was able to afford plane tickets to Italy and Thailand. When I wasn’t traveling or begging for freelance gigs to pay off my credit card bill, I was doing the following things, largely without financial compensation:

– Writing a lot of blog posts
– Figuring out social media and social marketing and building a following on twitter/instagram/facebook
– Riding my bike A LOT
– Networking with sponsors and making new connections in the bike/outdoor industries
– Representing sponsors in exchange for free (and sometimes discounted) gear
– Writing blog posts, posting social media updates and taking photos for sponsors
– Racing my bike nearly every weekend for an entire summer

It was brutal. It was stressful. It was easily the best year of my life.

And it paid off…

In 2014, I earned $200 riding my bike (and spent don’t-even-ask-how-much on bikes). 2015 will put me just shy of $7,000.
In 2014, I made about $2,000 as a freelance writer. In 2015, through a combination of freelance writing, social media consulting and copywriting, I should make around $9,000.

So no, I’m not rolling in it. I’m still spending every dollar that comes into my account (usually before it gets there. More on living “ahead of the curve” in a future post). I still spend the latter half of every month wondering when I’m going to get paid and if it will make it in time for me to pay my CC bill. My income has gone up, but so have my expenses (hello, Enduro World Series), and I’ll probably be selling off a lot more bike stuff to try to close that gap. Oh, and I’m still going to be doing a lot of work that I’m not getting paid for, because I’m still trying to build a career out of nothing, and it’s a bike-racer-eat-bike-racer kinda world out there.

This strategy requires a certain amount of financial and emotional risk. Good bye stability, hello roller-coaster. I get not everybody wants to live like that. But I would also argue that, in the long term, the “build-your-own-career” plan is no less risky than a lot of the options recent college grads are facing in 2015. Throw all your energy and time into a corporate job that you hate and that may dry up by the time you turn 25? Make minimum wage bussing tables while you spend all your time (and money) trying to get interviews for dream jobs that 10,000 other qualified people are applying to? Spend [another] $50,000 on grad school? Or spend a few years scraping together freelance work, working remotely, living on next-to-nothing and create your own job doing what you love?

Obviously I’m biased, but I’m really not judging anyone — all of these decisions are fine choices given today’s over-saturated and hyper-competitive job market. But the important thing to realize is that they’re all risky [i.e. I’m not actually crazier than you]. Maybe in 1975 you could get a master’s degree and be guaranteed a lifetime of employment, but it’s not 1975 anymore, and all three of these options are equally likely to blow up in your face (and also equally likely to work out great).

This isn’t a “get-rich-quick” plan. In fact, it isn’t a “get-rich-ever” plan. My goal is not to make heaps of money, but rather to have heaps of fun, ride lots of bikes, have lots of adventures and be fulfilled by what I’m doing. But I’m not nearly as big of a dirtbag as some of you may think I am. I do have career plans; they’re just a tad unconventional.

So, for everyone who’s been dying to know how I’ve been “making it,” you now have the truth. I’ve been faking it hard, and now I’m sorta making it.

If you make a living doing what you love, leave a comment — I’d love to hear your strategy. And let me know if there are any particular topics you’d like me to cover in a future post!