Earning a Stable Income and "Survival Pressure"
Hey TC!
I absolutely love competing and am trying to make this "full-time Topcoder" lifestyle work, but lately, I've been feeling that stress and anxiety of "if I don't place high enough, or at all, I can't pay my bills". My definite top priority right now is finding a suitable source of "monthly stable income" that relieves me of this "survival pressure", so I can just focus on learning, getting better and "letting the wins come when they're supposed to" while competing.
I'd love to get a conversation going on if you have ever felt (or currently feel) this pressure and what you do to address it, i.e. side work, strategies, outside the box thinking etc... I think this would be a very helpful and valuable conversation, especially for any new members. Looking forward to the discussion 😁
Comments
How's it going @JustinToribio?
Hope you're leaning and growing here! We'd love an update after all our chats with you. I'm sure your feedback can help other members too.
Have a great week!
@justintoribio - I've been through that quite a bit in the past. The biggest thing that relieves the pressure for me, is to have a "buffer" of at least a few months living expenses saved up. That way I can weather some "hiccups", which are inevitable during any given year. My income always has big ups and downs, so having those savings makes it easy to smooth out the times when income is less than I'd like.
I would also recommend ensuring that you take on stuff with Topcoder that is a fixed payment. Reviewing and copiloting are two that are a guaranteed payment, and tasks like you've done in the past, when they are available.