My finances are slowly improving. While I am not out of the woods yet, I feel more optimistic now that I can get my situation under control.

https://i.imgur.com/SzW2JEr.jpg

Following the advice of other steemians was a good idea. Also I got ambitious and worked hard to reach $100 per day of work (5x per week) no matter what. 

The end result is that the money is coming in a bit more now. It is good to see articles selling on constantcontent.com because I never know ahead of time what will sell. Those payouts add up quick, usually $30 or more for each sale.... just had two more sales today!

Also I published my first article for Bitcoin Canada!! I get paid 2-3x more per word for this than I do for Constant Content or TB, so that's awesome. Looking forward to doing more work with them. [Here's the article btw](http://www.bitcoincanada.org/tether-executes-hard-fork-to-retrieve-30m-in-stolen-funds-what-does-this-mean-for-the-cryptocurrency-space/).

<h3>Freelance Journalism</h3>

I need to reach out to more editors about writing articles for their sites. Publishing several articles per day under a tight budget isn’t easy, therefore I might be a good resource for them.

As I mentioned in the last paragraph of the previous section, I got my first article approved for Bitcoin Canada. That is **awesome** because it's exactly the kind of gig I want: freelance writing for a real news site, getting a real byline. If I can get a few more writing engagements like that, I will be in a way better place financially.

Progress is good. The next step is to reach out to more people... I will do that this week, hopefully early in the week.

<h3>Finances Right Now</h3>

I am still very low on the actual money in my bank accounts, At least I am earning more and survived another month of rent, which is the important thing. Hopefully I can build more of a cash buffer before January.

Here are the finances:

ASSETS:

Checking Account #1: $0
Checking Account #2: $70
Checking Account #3: $0
Steem Liquid Wallet: $30

Savings Account #1: $10
Steem Power: 1,550 SP // ~$1,700

DEBTS:

Money Owed to my Dad: ~$12,000
PayPal Credit: $6,450 (still behind on this payment)
Short Term Steem Loan: $600 (paying this off in installments now, $75 per week)

<h3>Short Term Goals</h3>

My short term goal is to have $100 as a minimum buffer in all my accounts. That means I need to do it for three checking accounts and a savings account. 

It’s important to keep some liquid cash around. That way you never have to wonder if your account is going to decline a purchase, which is the worst. I’d also like to catch up on my PayPal Credit payment which I am still behind on… now it is time to work on that.

If I keep making progress and moving my total amount of debt down, I will win. That is all there is to it.

I’ll post another update within the next week.

<center>https://i.imgur.com/hgkeIwR.jpg?3</center>