Would You Trade 4 Hours for One Million Dollars?
“Would you trade four hours for $100,000?” That’s a question I recently asked a class of musicians. Most raised their hand. A few wanted to know what they’d have to do. “Nothing hard or illegal,” I assured. Then the ante was upped. “What about for a million dollars?” Suddenly all hands were reaching high in excitement.
What they didn’t expect—my question wasn’t simply theoretical. Four hours of time could actually lead to a million plus dollars. And the proposed activity is easy. Yet I suspect some of the students won’t be savvy enough to do what was suggested. At least not now. How about you?
Here’s the strategy: Read one book about personal finance.
As musicians, we work tirelessly to develop into outstanding artists. We practice hours each day, get (often multiple) college degrees, study privately, attend master classes, read trade books and magazines, and more. As a result of time and energy devoted over the years, we develop excellence in our field.
Mastering the money game is a lot like music. It takes education, practice, patience, discipline, and a clear plan.
Financial literacy doesn’t mean raking in piles of cash, or becoming filthy rich. (Many people and organizations command huge profits, but aren’t smart with their finances and wind up broke or worse. Just look at the current economic crisis!) It does mean that you have enough to survive, realize your dreams, and retire comfortably someday. Excellence requires attention to earning, spending, and saving. Short and long term planning are essential.
One critical rule about money is that your decisions today will have consequences (positive or negative) in the future. The sooner you begin to make smart choices with your dollars, the better off you will be. Someone who learns to become a master of money in their twenties will have more success than an individual who waits until their thirties…or forties…or fifties..or…yikes!
A good place to start is by reading one book about personal finance. Doing this will probably take around four hours to six hours. And the lessons you learn could result in one million dollars or more by retirement.
One of the students argued that while he’d like to have money, his time would be better spent practicing. “If you want an orchestra gig, you must devote 100% of your efforts to that,” was how he justified his outlook. Taking off even four hours was not an option.
First of all, I guarantee that everyone (even this student) could find four hours to read a book without affecting the results one way or the other of an audition he might theoretically take in several years. Secondly, even if he gets a great paying orchestra job, that doesn’t guarantee financial success. Once again, lots of people earn tons but spend more than they have and find themselves in the doghouse. Third, what if his great paying orchestra job doesn’t pan out? He may have a different financial profile than the one he now imagines. And finally, waiting to be smart about money, even five years, can have huge detrimental ramifications.
Here are a few money books I recommend, but there are many others. Read through the tables of contents to see which ones best match your needs and concerns.
1) 
The Money Book for the Young, Fabulous, and Broke, by Suze Orman. This book focuses specifically on people who graduate from college with mountains of debt and are greeted by a weak job market. Suze Orman is one of the most famous and accessible financial gurus around. She has a TV show on CNBC and appears frequently on Oprah, Larry King, and all kinds of other programs. Her approach to finances is conservative (i.e. don’t spend what you don’t have) and smart. Any of her books are recommended.
2) 
The Millionaire Next Door, by Thomas Stanley and William Danko. In this book, the authors show how many millionaires live well below their means. They don’t buy fancy cars or crazy mansions to impress others. Instead they make conservative, financially sound decisions that lead to financial independence.
3) 
The Automatic Millionaire, by David Bach. This is not a get rich quick book. It can, however, help you achieve financial independence in the long run. Bach suggests investing a fixed percentage of your income into retirement funds, and then living on the remainder of your salary. Many musicians who claim they don’t have enough money to save for the future spend $5+ a day on coffee and a muffin, cigarettes, eating out, or other non-essential activities. Bach calls this the Latte Factor. By investing that money instead, it can accumulate into large amounts over time.
4) 
Your Money or Your Life, by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin. What I love about this book is that it’s not just about accumulating as much greedy wealth as possible. Instead, it helps you establish a healthy relationship with your money. If a purchase doesn’t bring you true fulfillment, it’s probably not worthwhile. Though some of the text is a bit outdated, the basic premises are more relevant than ever.
5) 
The Savvy Musician, by David Cutler. This book, geared directly to musicians, has a full chapter devoted to personal finance. It’s a great primer to get you started.
109 Responses to “Would You Trade 4 Hours for One Million Dollars?”
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DAVID CUTLER balances a varied career as a jazz and classical composer, pianist, educator, arranger, conductor, collaborator, concert producer, author, consultant, speaker and advocate. Dr. Cutler teaches at Duquesne University, where he also serves as Coordinator of Music Entrepreneurship Studies.
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I do believe that in many ways the artist has difficulty in saving their money and have issues overspending in ways that are unecessary. As for myself, my dilemma is not truly based in what I spend, but how to keep track of where the little money that I have goes. Also as a songwriter, I have had trouble grasping the legalities of the “Music Business”. I have just been commissioned to write several songs that include melody and lyrics for a male country singer, and so far I have been doing an excellent job of being professional, and charging a fair fee for my services, but am very nervous about creating a contract, as well as getting all of my work through to ASCAP so that I may collect royalties. Do you recommend any books that help you to make sure you are getting the money you deserve and how to legally create well written contracts between the creator and the client? Also, is there a feasible way to be a contractor and hire other musicians to transcribe your music and help you to record without charging your client an unfeasible amount, as well as keep you from paying too out of pocket?
If you told the orchestra kid that the 4 hours would be spent reading a book by Bach, I bet he would have changed his mind.
…And even if he read both books (Bach and money), his chances with the orchestra would probably be the same, while life enlightenment would rise.
I love the books you recommended. One of the things I started doing long before it was discussed in class, as well as due to the carelessness that I had with my money before hand, was visiting YoungMoney.com. It has a plethora of articles that deal with every kind of money issue. Along with that, I subscribed to a couple of blogs that deal with money and you can get the most from it.
Along that note, I just thought of another way to spend 4 hours to earn that much: online surveys. There are companies out there that will actually compensate you for your honest opinion. Its another way for musicians to make an extra buck and it doesn’t require a lot of time.
Great suggestions! YoungMoney.com is an excellent and highly recommended site.
(PS – Not sure online surveys will earn you a million bucks, but it certainly can provide a form of limited income and provide a break from practicing.)
My problem with reading a book on finance is that it would definitely take me over 4 hours to read let alone comprehend. Also books become outdated and I don’t know enough about finance to begin with to be able to discern which ones are relevant. And furthermore I’m really not keen to make money through investments, which seems to be a main emphasis for achieving financial success.
Dr. Cutler, I believe you put too much emphasis on the four hours. I agree that knowing the ins and outs, even the basics, of financing will allow you to better use money. However, books over one hundred pages, which most books are, that are not novels I think would take more than four hours to read. Suze Orman’s book is four hundred pages long. “The Millionaire Next Door,” which I would also recommend, is two hundred and seventy-two pages and “Your Money or Your Life” flaps in at four hundred pages. Even if one reads a page a minute, which I doubt most people can do, especially of a book without a story, the person will have only read two hundred and forty pages. Books usually take days or even weeks to read depending on their length. So I agree with your concept, but I personally feel that the four-hour enticement does not hold water.
True, 4 hours may not be enough to get through a book. And it certainly won’t be enough time to earn you $1 million.
But if you are willing to spend this amount of time researching the money game, my guess is that you’ll be convinced of its importance. You’ll probably be eager to finish the book, get your finances in order, and start paying regular attention to this issue. Instead of being a blurry issue that’s nice, but peripheral and happenstance, it will become a life priority. Then, and only then, will things start to change…
Great reccomendations, Dave.. I went ahead and ordered one of these. I was even Savvy finding one of these… Found a used copy on Ebay for $5!… Included free shipping!! lol
Molly Rae:
“Also, is there a feasible way to be a contractor and hire other musicians to transcribe your music and help you to record without charging your client an unfeasible amount, as well as keep you from paying too out of pocket?”
Are you seriously asking someone to do your work for you, work that you were commissioned/hired to do?
David Cutler:
“(PS – Not sure online surveys will earn you a million bucks, but it certainly can provide a form of limited income and provide a break from practicing.)”
First of all, you are too pushy when it comes to others’ financial situations. I can understand your suggestions, but I respect the orchestral student’s willpower and discipline to make sacrifices and concentrate on what he wants (this is why he doesn’t break from practicing I assume).
Secondly, we live in a meaningless world, yet we are meaning-seeking creatures. It is our individual opportunity to make our lives as we will. The orchestral student wants to perform, so he needs to put the effort in. It seems that you want to teach, inspire and force your financial strategies on others.
Folks; everything David Cutler says about money is true! You need to listen to him and quit nit-picking! Okay, so it’s more than a 4 hour investment. This is your future! I would also suggest learning how to use the stockmarket through a company such as “Sharebuilder”. They have an entire section of their website devoted to teaching people about buying stocks. Furthermore, the “Dummies” series of books on finances are also excellent. Remember, it is up to you to take care of your financial health!
Mollie Rae,
If you ever come back to this thread and read this, by now you have probably figured out by now what needed to be done to finish the business of your songs. You need to find a book on music publishing. There are tons of such books out there. The key is who owns the song, you or the publisher. If you are creating a work for hire, you don’t own it and the commission is the only money you will ever see for the songs. “Work for hire” are the magic words you want to avoid at all costs. If you are writing for an established publisher, they will have a contract. Have an attorney review it. As far as transcribing, it might not be necessary. All you need to do is round up a bunch of musician friends, teach them the songs (they can make their own charts), then hire a competent recording studio and knock the songs out in a few hours by basically playing live in the studio. Collect your band’s charts at the end of the session in case you need them again.
It’s about time someone exposed the big banks and Wall Street for the manipulating fraudsters that they are. An insider’s club report showed last week why Wall Street never fights fair (and neither we should).
Big banks exposed — May be useful to know why we never get out from under our banker’s thumb..It is sure the big banks dont want us to see this.
If I may add another suggestion to this list, I would highly recommend Dave Ramsey’s “The Total Money Makeover.” It primarily discusses how to get out of debt, but also has many helpful and honest tips on fiscal discipline.
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