Where do You get your Disposable Income?

heyas;

okay, so im cheap. a big tip for me is like 20 ells. i try to keep my income above my outflow, and i'm just not raking in the dough enough to be able to toss out 100 or 500 ell tips (though i would like to be able to). is it just because i'm young? im over 120 days, so i feel as if im out of the newbie stage, anyway.

so i was wondering... is it just because i haven't had a chance to establish a business or a big shop or a really large inventory of items for sale?

or could it be that i just haven't been around long enough to finally have bought every avatar and cool thing that i want, so i just get my weekly 300 ells and it sits around and accumulates until i have money to toss around? guess im still in the 'omg, i want that' shopping spree mode, hm? ;)

I fund SL using my RL entertainment budget, as it is entertainment for me. How much I spend usually is dictated by what other forms of entertainment I have in a given month. I tend to do a lot of different things in the summer, so I spend less on SL.

my credit card

Your paragraph 3 sums it up for me Bloodsong
I kinda slowing up on the buying so my stipends cover my tips.
I tried a job a while back but income was so low I valued my time more. Unfortunately I don't have the time or creative flair to be a content creator but heck! I don't mind just being a tourist

I live in a little town without much to do, especially in the colder months, so SL and WoW get varying chunks of my entertainment funds. I'm a consumer, not a creator, so the money has to come from outside the game. *shrug*

lol

Yeah same thing here. Been SLing for 6 months now and starting to wander if I can do more. I’ve considered looking for a SL job, or trying more building or scripting. But it always ends up feeling like WORK. So my funds come out of a CC.
I have been eyeing some rental property. That might be my next BIG purchase. Or possible trying…sleep?

With a little luck, a little effort, and a little good timing, you can definately make your SL spending money playing some solo games like Zyngo, Quince, etc.

I'm not trolling for a discussion on casinos, just offering something that has worked for me in the past.

Most of the time Visa pays for my SL spending and I pay Visa from my entertainment budget.

That's how I fund SL too, Brenda.

So, Bloodsong, I'm sort of a "normal" person in the work force who might, say, take a vacation to Hawaii, which wouldn't be unusual in RL. But if, this season, I choose to spend that money on SL instead, that's a S*** LOAD of Linden dollars, and would make me look like Bill Gates in-world.

So don't feel like you're lacking in SL skills or creativity just because you don't have a big wallet in SL. Many people are "funneling" income from outside.

It makes you wonder whether RL wealthy people aren't funneling money from some crazy bigger world outside of RL, and RL is their SL? How many times have I looked around in RL and asked, "Where do these people get their disposable income?"

American Express very generously fund SL for me...but I expect there'll probably be a catch, I should maybe read the small print on the agreement form...

Well, I funded my first month with a credit card and a good friend who helped get me going. By the end of my second month I was working and pretty much breaking even. Third month and several job switches later, I have more income than outcome. It's not big heaps of Ls but it covers my in game expenses and a bit more. Unless I hang out on SLX or here looking at new products, then I kind of lose control of my purse. Luckily (for me) I don't impulse buy as often as I did. I make notes of things, go back a week later and check it out and see if I still feel the same way about it.

Watch out there aren't 2 big dumb looking avatars named Vinnie2236677445 and 446 at your door lookin to "Collect"

JUst right-click on them and select the freeze avatar option, then AR them. Problem solved.

But the OP was asking (and I am also quite curious) HOW you do it? What is your skill, what jobs do you do?

I'm in the computer and media business, so SL goes on my "internet charges, R&D" line and hence on myt credit card. Ultimately, the government pays, in that i don't give them the money I earned that pays for SL, and they ask for less tax.

But it never actually FEELS like that...

In terms of how much I spent on SL by contrast with other online systems for entertainment, SL is a cheap deal; if it wasn't, Id make a hell of a lot more fuss about the unreliability - though that seems to have caused sufficient numbers of people and corporates to leave that the system is a) civilised and b) usable again!

We do the same. We have a media corporation and SL is server rental for us with creation tools. We write it off like IBM does as marketing (for our RL film work) and for R&D. I also teach cause I love building and want people to get the most of their SL experience. The money is far less than I make in RL but I love doing it. So much more money flows into SL from RL than will ever go the other way...I doubt we will ever even break even.
The part I don't write off as biz expense is from our entertainment budget.

My money is essentially what I've made with my store...although I don't spend nearly as much now as I used to since I pretty much make anything I want instead of buying it. My building friends also hook me up from time to time.

I pretty much only buy what I really need and can't/don't want to take the time to make...like teleporters and other funky-yet-useful items. I also spend that extra money on land and paying my tier fees.

and camping?

I run a small army of campbots for my spending money.

My first 4 months in SL, i paid with my credit card. I am sure I spent thousands, but I've never been brave enough to add it all up. Then last Feburary I couldn't find a certain thing I wanted, so I made myself one. That's blossomed into a rather nice SL business. So I'm now able to leave my CC in my wallet.

My disposable comes entirely from my sales/payment for services at this point. When I started, it came from buying Lindens.

Mari

I'm another who funds sl from rl.

I work all day, no net access. last thing I want to do is come on here of an evening and sim another bloody job.

My spending has tailed off though. In the first couple of weeks I spent a load (hit the 50US$ limit for first 14 days). But I went a bit mad, plus I bought a 2k skin, and furnished a house (twice!, learnt to check prims BEFORE buying the hard way). Now I probably spend 10 - 20 US$ a week max. When you convert that to £, its a couple of pints in a typical pub.

I have thought about working here, but doing what? I only get a couple of hours a day, and I spend that in im hell talking to friends usually. I don't have the time to earn enought to make working worthwhile.

commision from writing scripts. it's extremely slow work so unless you enjoy doing it it's not recommended, the completion rush is nice though, then the rush as you realize people are enjoying your work.

I got friends who spoil the hell out of me

Use to sell shit.. but I don't spend much L$ so I don't really need much.

Well, I did the dreaded dancer thing off and on. If you can emote and be very decent at being descriptive, you can get some really good tips. You don't have to be a nordic goddess to dance and make good money. I pulled in 500-1K for a couple hours of listening to music and shifting dances and clicking off clothes.

Now I do customer service, teaching and troubleshooting for one of the gadget shops in world. I do private teleport network set ups and maintenance. Plus I do beta testing for several builders in world.

Being people oriented and a good communicator makes it a lot easier for customer interaction, especially when walking someone thru the steps to set something up or figure out why it's not working and what to do to correct it.