I heard a phrase the other day that stopped me. An author said, “Oh man, what I wouldn’t buy if I made Selena-Kitt kind of money!”
Yes, I had a pretty good year, in terms of income, in 2011. I sold over half a million books. That translated into a lot of cash. I’m not sure if 2012 is going to top it, but it’s looking as if it’s going to come close. There are times I still look around and wonder how I got here. I also know that life is a wheel, and it turns. Sometimes you’re on the top, and sometimes you’re on the bottom. And this wheel may turn again.
I remind myself of that fact all the time, especially when people find out how much I make. And what I do to make it. Friends, family, neighbors, etc, they’ve all said some variation of:
“HOW much!?”
Usually followed by, “Wow. Writing, huh? I could do that. I’ve always thought of writing a book.”
People still believe that money buys happiness. I can tell you that it really doesn’t. It just buys stuff. Granted, stuff can be nice. Lots of people seem to want to tell me all the things they would buy if they made “that kind of money.” (Of course, I don’t tell them how much the government takes in taxes. That would just be too depressing!)
So just for fun, I thought I would tell you the top ten purchases I’ve made since I’ve been making a living as an erotica writer.
1. A Sybian. This was my first significant purchase when I first started making any real money. I figured, I’d written a whole book about it… I should probably get to finally ride one! It was well worth it!
2. A Kindle of my own. And an iPhone. And an iPad. Not all at once, but gradually, over time.
3. New computers. This was a nice write-off for taxes, and it make writing a lot easier when my computer didn’t crash every hour or so, because it was so over-crammed with stuff!
4. Clothes. I’m not a spoiled, high-maintenance sort of girl, but I did go clothes shopping. Especially lingerie shopping. Oh what fun!
5. Wedding rings. My husband and I only had plain white-gold bands – it was all we could afford when we got married. We decided, for our tenth anniversary, to splurge and buy each other real wedding rings. I now wear two-carats on my ring finger.
6. We went on vacation(s) for the first time since our honeymoon. Took the kids to water parks, went alone to resorts, sent the kiddos to camp in the summer. This is a new-found freedom that still boggles my mind. I haven’t wrapped my head around the idea that I can actually travel, not only the states, but out of the country! Maybe next year…
7. Bought a car. And a truck. We have never bought new, and still haven’t. They were both used vehicles. But our previous ones were over 15 years old, both of them very run down (over 100,000 miles on each) and on their last legs. It was amazing to have a vehicle where all the doors opened with no rust spots on the sides!
8. Bought a house. This was a huge purchase, the biggest I’ve made yet. We live in the middle of nowhere and we love it!
9. Furnished the house. Which was almost as fun as picking the house out!
10. Paid it forward. I have found this is my favorite thing to do with money. I bought my elderly mother a car (hers was older and in worse shape than ours!) I gave money to relatives who needed it. I gave money to friends whose children needed organ transplants or medical care they couldn’t afford. I sent friends and neighbors and even online friends random gifts, just because they said they liked/wanted something. My daughter’s friend had a newborn baby and couldn’t afford his hospital pictures (they have a real photographer – the pictures were gorgeous) and so I bought them for her. For me, that’s been the closest I’ve come to money actually buying me some happy!
So…what would you buy or do if you had “Selena-Kitt kind of money?”
Selena Kitt
Erotic Fiction You Won’t Forget
www.selenakitt.com