10k/year is perfectly livable, especially since I'm sure at least a few expenses are paid by their sponsors. I live off roughly 13k a year which isn't much more.
Depends on where you live. A small town, 13K is perfectly fine. You live in a major metro and 13K wouldn't give you much to live with,esp if you had a family/car/mortgage/bills.
I live in Ohio and live on less than $8000/year, that's without any roommates, and I'm not in college (I already graduated, with multiple degrees). Envying the lifestyle of someone lucky enough to work at McDonalds sucks, but such is life. It certainly gives you a different perspective on things.
Travis Woo once said on his stream how much he gets per article, I did the math assuming one article/week and that came to about $18,000. Sam Black gets enough from his writing/streaming that he's able to afford all the GP's (which isn't profitable) but going by his stream he seems to have several roommates so his expenses are probably pretty low. I seriously doubt anyone that supports themselves fully off of Magic averages more than 20k/year.
Food, lodging, healthcare, clothing, getting to and from work. Those are just your basic expenses that dont include "fun" stuff so you might not be paying for them, but someone else is paying them for you. $10k isnt enough to live off off unless someone is paying the other $10 grand a year for the other stuff youre not mentioning.
Food, I take it you've never heard of things like 30 cent packs of ramen once a day or $3 frozen pizzas. Lodging well... I have a 15'x10' apartment, I'll just assume you're joking about health care, and there's thrift stores for clothing. No one ever mentioned having money for fun stuff.
I've never been in the top 8 of a GP or been on the Pro Tour but make a comfortable living largely from Magic. $5 entry fees at local stores where the prizes are a box, lots of trading/selling the winnings on eBay, and of course articles make this all happen. The thing is, you have to treat it like a real job. That means several box tournaments a week, and writing your ass off.
I've written for several sites, and pay ranges enormously. I prefer performance based over up-fronts. Why cap your pay when the sky is the limit? Highest paid article was a little over $1,000, however that was an anomaly. I write several short articles a day that average about $35/hr. Compare that to some of the more meticulous several thousand word articles by pros for $300-$500. It's certainly not as glamorous as it sounds, and the pay rate drops off the map when you're playing instead of writing, but I do this because I love it.
I've been on the PT train for two years, and it can be considered a hobby that pays for itself plus some awesome trips with good friends. Sometimes you win a little bit more, but realistically nothing that will be able to replace even a minimum wage job. Even the best players need to at least write a bunch in order to make the ends meet if they want to live solely off Magic.
It's incredibly difficult. I was on the train for maybe a year, did well at several gp's, and had a string of JSS top 8s, but quit after high school only to return a year later. I've taken a much more, relaxing route my 2nd time around. I'll go to a GP or scg open if it's within 3 hours, but that's about it. Maybe I'll try to get back on eventually, but it's pretty enjoyable not having to stress over the traveling nonsense.
I wrote 2 articles for brainburst (several years before it was tcgplayer) and got paid 75 dollars for them iirc.
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Bident Layers B Devotion RG Devotion UW Control Modern:
Jund
UW Control
Combo Pod Legacy: DeathBlade RUG Delver BUG Control
A lot of prospecting mtg pro's can probably live on the college food plan; ramen noodles and other very inexpensive quick-make foods. Are they SUPER unhealthy? You bet....but 99.9999% of mtg players wont care.
As far as travel and lodging; depending on where you are at, where you are going and if you are in a playgroup that travels together it can be done cheaply enough. Things like MEGABUS or Greyhound/Amtrak can get you places cheaper than airfare depending on where you are and where you go. Splitting a car between 4-8 ppl (depending on the car size) can be cheaper than airfare. Another expense saver some can do is having personal/professional relationships that you can utilize to stay at the persons house (family, close friends). Being able to stay at Uncle Johns for a couple days in San Diego can save you a few hundred dollars in hotel costs.
10k/year is perfectly livable, especially since I'm sure at least a few expenses are paid by their sponsors. I live off roughly 13k a year which isn't much more.
You can "live" off nothing a year sleeping under a bridge underpass and eating out of garbage cans. Base survival is not a terribly great metric to go by.
Living off 10K a year is really the bottom of the barrel. Not to mention you are earning less than the dude flipping burgers at McD's. 10k will get you a bad apartment (with roommates) in a bad area, maybe a beat up run down car with bare minimum insurance, and eating Ramen and cereal. And if you get sick, forget it, you sure don't have health insurance at that income level.
There are a lot of people who live at that level, but it's not a great life. There are plenty of books and stories on the working poor, they are great reads.
Pro Magic Player is an oxymoron.
I disagree. You can certainly make a decent living as a pro Magic Player, but you can't make a decent living purely off playing Magic. You have to play and due well in events, you need to write articles for popular websites, you need to try and snag sponsorship deals, most pro players also own/run gaming stores or gamin companies. Playing Magic is only one part of a Pro Players income source.
No one is living any halfway decent lifestyle soley off playing. If you go the full pro lifestyle, which means playing, writing, streaming, sponsorships, and retail, you can probably scratch out a decent living. But it will be much more of a job than just playing MTG all day every day. Actually playing will be a very small part of your income.
Food, I take it you've never heard of things like 30 cent packs of ramen once a day or $3 frozen pizzas. Lodging well... I have a 15'x10' apartment, I'll just assume you're joking about health care, and there's thrift stores for clothing. No one ever mentioned having money for fun stuff.
And eating cheap sodium packages and preservative packed artificial pizza may be fine when you are in your young 20's. Give it a few years and you'll start uncovering the real cost of abusing your body by eating food like that long term.
This is really the downfall of "living cheap". You can do it for a few years, but you will get older, your body becomes less tolerant to being fed **** every day, you're going to develop all sorts of health problems, doing long term damage to your body, and all that catches up with you.
As for joking about health care, it's one of the top bankruptcy causing problems in the country.
Not to mention, are you putting anything away for retirement? What happens when you are 65 years old, you have high blood pressure, heart disease, your back is shot, you have a bum knee, and you have a couple hundred bucks to your name? As the cardfather said, way to many people completely lack and foresight into their future financial needs. If you aren't putting away at least 15% of your income and following a trajectory of higher earning potential over your life, what happens when you are an old man?
Are they SUPER unhealthy? You bet....but 99.9999% of mtg players wont care.
They'll care when they have destroyed their digestive and cardiovascular systems by the time they are 40. I know it's hard to imagine, but you won't be 23 forever.
Sene has it right: MTG can be a hobby that helps pay for itself. To make a decent living off MTG, chances are you are going to have to open a store, which means you are earning your living through retail, not playing MTG.
Food, I take it you've never heard of things like 30 cent packs of ramen once a day or $3 frozen pizzas. Lodging well... I have a 15'x10' apartment, I'll just assume you're joking about health care, and there's thrift stores for clothing. No one ever mentioned having money for fun stuff.
Im not even sure what the healthcare bit means. My gf needed a tooth fixed a year ago and didnt have insurance at the time and it cost like a grand to do whatever she needed done so yeah healthcare is expensive.
You can be homeless without and income and not die. If thats your idea of living then i think this conversation is pretty much over and we can just agree to disagree.
Again if you think eating instant noodles is sustainable for a long period of time then give it a couple of years. I have eaten cup of noodles when i was a kid and its basically like eating a salted cup of dog turds. You dont know any better at the time but once you start getting older, that stuff gets worse and worse for you.
So by all means if living like a homeless person is "living" in your book, then you dont need an income at all.
I live in Ohio and live on less than $8000/year, that's without any roommates, and I'm not in college (I already graduated, with multiple degrees). Envying the lifestyle of someone lucky enough to work at McDonalds sucks, but such is life. It certainly gives you a different perspective on things.
Travis Woo once said on his stream how much he gets per article, I did the math assuming one article/week and that came to about $18,000. Sam Black gets enough from his writing/streaming that he's able to afford all the GP's (which isn't profitable) but going by his stream he seems to have several roommates so his expenses are probably pretty low. I seriously doubt anyone that supports themselves fully off of Magic averages more than 20k/year.
Food, I take it you've never heard of things like 30 cent packs of ramen once a day or $3 frozen pizzas. Lodging well... I have a 15'x10' apartment, I'll just assume you're joking about health care, and there's thrift stores for clothing. No one ever mentioned having money for fun stuff.
So you live on $4 an hour? I think you are leaving out some major points in your life style and assuming everyone has whatever it is that helps you live on 4$ and hour. Are you an illegal immigrant?
I think, even if you only make $10k a year playing magic....you are living playing this game which you love. I wouldn't mind being poor, if my job is a job that I freaking love so damn much! Even if its crap money, it doesn't matter you are probably happy that your "job" is so wonderful =D
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INTO THE RAY OF THE SUN, MARCH OUR HERO, HUNTING THE DARKLORD, REBORN FROM THE BLOOD OF HIS GOD... HIS GOD... THE WARMASTER KRON.
RIDE FOR THE FALL OF HIS POWER FIGHTING THE STORM, THE ROAR OF THE THUNDER, ALLY OF THE SUN AND THE MOON... GREAT SWORDMASTER RULE!
So you live on $4 an hour? I think you are leaving out some major points in your life style and assuming everyone has whatever it is that helps you live on 4$ and hour. Are you an illegal immigrant?
I'm not an illegal immigrant, I don't have a bunch of visible tattoo's and body modifications that make me unemployable, and I'm college educated (multiple degrees even). I just happen to live in a very poor area of the country where jobs in my field don't exist, and I happen to be "overqualified" (they don't want someone with so called opportunity) in the only available jobs which happen to be things like shelf stockers and burger flippers. So the only option is to take work where the owner pays below minimum wage. It's less than $4/hour btw as I work more than 40 hours/week. It's tough to convey tone over text but as I said before, the ones that can get a job at McDonalds are the lucky ones.
The obvious answer to this would be to move, but have you ever tried to move with no money? It can't be done.
There are a lot of people who live at that level, but it's not a great life. There are plenty of books and stories on the working poor, they are great reads.
I will never own a home, have transportation, have health insurance, pay off college, get a vacation, have a living space larger than a jail cell, have a cell phone, cable tv, or be able to retire. That's just the way things are. I will probably never even be able to work a mere 40 hours a week.
And eating cheap sodium packages and preservative packed artificial pizza may be fine when you are in your young 20's. Give it a few years and you'll start uncovering the real cost of abusing your body by eating food like that long term.
This is really the downfall of "living cheap". You can do it for a few years, but you will get older, your body becomes less tolerant to being fed **** every day, you're going to develop all sorts of health problems, doing long term damage to your body, and all that catches up with you.
I never said it was a good or healthy choice, but it's the option that's available. Long term damage vs short term hunger, it's a fairly easy choice.
As for joking about health care, it's one of the top bankruptcy causing problems in the country.
Not to mention, are you putting anything away for retirement? What happens when you are 65 years old, you have high blood pressure, heart disease, your back is shot, you have a bum knee, and you have a couple hundred bucks to your name? As the cardfather said, way to many people completely lack and foresight into their future financial needs. If you aren't putting away at least 15% of your income and following a trajectory of higher earning potential over your life, what happens when you are an old man?
Healthcare is a major issue, not just having coverage but being able to pay the bill if something catastrophic happens. Lots of insurance people do have, doesn't even cover enough for that. I'm at work now (I work for a college as a tutor) and I see fliers for health insurance sitting on tables for people to look at. $120/month for a 1500 deductible and $20k in total coverage. That's way too much for far too little a return. But as I said, unless I get lucky with a job offer somewhere (unlikely as my current job was the only "interview" I've gotten in 3 years of trying) I don't have to worry about it, it's simply something that will never happen. The same goes for retirement, one has to have a decent job in order for retirement to be an option.
You get what you pay for, and on a very low wage you're not paying for much.
To stay on topic though, after paying for the extensive travel costs I have to wonder how many Magic pro's make enough off the game that they're actually profiting enough to live on. I would think the most profitable way to play Magic is to stick to only local/semi local tournaments and write a lot. Alternatively become a really good deck builder and speculate on cards using your deck ideas to bump the price of something.
I would like to believe that you can live off of being just a pro magic player but it just can't be done with how things are set up now. It might be possible a few years from now if Magic becomes more main stream and picks up 3rd party sponsorship.
Could you imagine how much more awesome coverage would be if Pepsi and/or Coke took interest in supporting Magic?
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I'm not an illegal immigrant, I don't have a bunch of visible tattoo's and body modifications that make me unemployable, and I'm college educated (multiple degrees even). I just happen to live in a very poor area of the country where jobs in my field don't exist, and I happen to be "overqualified" (they don't want someone with so called opportunity) in the only available jobs which happen to be things like shelf stockers and burger flippers. So the only option is to take work where the owner pays below minimum wage. It's less than $4/hour btw as I work more than 40 hours/week. It's tough to convey tone over text but as I said before, the ones that can get a job at McDonalds are the lucky ones.
It's difficult on the internet to do without sounding condescending but I just wanted to give some advice that might be helpful to you and others who might be in your situation. Please take it for what it's worth
1. Learn to cook cheaply, beans, lentils, rice, pasta, it's harder to get fresh veges but if you see them on sale you should snap them up. It's infinitely better than eating ramen or frozen pizza (you can still eat those too, just not everyday).
2. Join the military, there are lots of jobs you can do in the military that don't involve killing or being killed and the pay is very good. I was pretty poor when I was a teenager but my time in the military set me up financially to at least put me in the middle class before I ventured out once more into the civilian world.
3. If you don't want to join the military (and plenty of people don't or can't for whatever reason) then your only option is in fact to move. Have you considered teaching english overseas, check out Dave's ESL cafe for postings. They want college educated people (major doesn't really matter) and all the negotiations are pretty much done over the internet and phone as far as I know. Try to get Korea if you can but failing that China is worth a shot.
To stay on topic though, after paying for the extensive travel costs I have to wonder how many Magic pro's make enough off the game that they're actually profiting enough to live on.
Owning a store and getting involved in game design too, didn't MTG players invent Ascension? And I remember a bunch of Japanese Pro players all ran hobby store back home.
I will never own a home, have transportation, have health insurance, pay off college, get a vacation, have a living space larger than a jail cell, have a cell phone, cable tv, or be able to retire. That's just the way things are. I will probably never even be able to work a mere 40 hours a week.
Don't say that. Never is a long time. Unless you are severely disabled, you can always work to improve your lot in life. If you live in a bad area for employment, move somewhere with better prospects. I had to leave family and friends behind and move several states away after college to find gainful employment.
Could you imagine how much more awesome coverage would be if Pepsi and/or Coke took interest in supporting Magic?
MTG doesn't have the audience for that, it would have to get orders of magnitude larger to attract major national sponsers like that. Getting Ultra Pro and KMC and other hobby supply manufacturers would be more likely. Do they sponser today?
I would like to believe that you can live off of being just a pro magic player but it just can't be done with how things are set up now. It might be possible a few years from now if Magic becomes more main stream and picks up 3rd party sponsorship.
It can't be done just by playing. You can do it by branching into retail and the like, but then I guess you start to blur the line of what a Pro MTG player is and a guy who own a retail shop who also plays MTG.
1. Learn to cook cheaply, beans, lentils, rice, pasta, it's harder to get fresh veges but if you see them on sale you should snap them up. It's infinitely better than eating ramen or frozen pizza (you can still eat those too, just not everyday).
.
No, he was telling the guy who said "Eating horribly unhealthy food vs starving" are not his only choices. You can learn to eat very cheaply while not ruining your body with salt, fat, and preservatives.
Most money won by a magic pro player as far as I know is Kai Budde, and from what I know he has a regular job... So the idea of existing only on cashing from playing seems like it's not a realistic goal.
Most money won by a magic pro player as far as I know is Kai Budde, and from what I know he has a regular job... So the idea of existing only on cashing from playing seems like it's not a realistic goal.
Eh, he was a Magic pro 10 years ago, and at that time, that was his job (i.e. he did not have a regular job, as far as I know).
You've obviously never had to subsist on a budget, meat is one of the most expensive foods for your dollar. Beans and lentils provide necessary protein in your diet and are extremely cheap, you should try them you might like them.
No, he was telling the guy who said "Eating horribly unhealthy food vs starving" are not his only choices. You can learn to eat very cheaply while not ruining your body with salt, fat, and preservatives.
Cheers
I'm not actually against salt and fat so much, although living purely on them will kill you sooner or later. The main problem I have with foods like ramen and frozen pizza is that they're made from highly refined wheat and lack essential nutrients that your body needs to function properly, although I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir.
***
Also, I almost forgot to mention - frozen veges are also a good substitute for fresh veges, you can even throw them in the ramen if you want.
You are correct that pulses (the term for that group with beans, lentils, peas, chick peas, fava beans, etc...) have a hefty dose of protein. You however might be unaware that the TYPE of protein chain they have is one of the food substances that has a larger amount of intolerance/allergy (however you want to call it) in the world population. Most people have only a light or no intolerance, but there cases of severe reactions. I for instance can't eat any unless I want to be puking for 1-2 days without being able to eat or drink anything.
Full-grown soy, seitan and tofu (as well as regular meat and fish) have a smaller proteic chain and as such have less cases of intolerance/allergy - but in the case of the first three also much more expensive...
I'd advise caution when telling someone to get a diet heavy in pulses.
Interesting, I've never heard of people being allergic/intolerant of pulses before (within reason of course - people in general have all kinds of allergies). Not that I don't believe you but do you have any links to articles? (wikipedia doesn't seem to mention it)
Also, just to clarify, I'm not a health practitioner or in healthcare or anything like that. My advice was simply based on personal experience and obviously if you're allergic to something you probably shouldn't eat it!
sounds like alot of dudes who dont care about their health or wellbeing in here. gym pass and good food isnt cheap and those necessities to living a normal life. not a shock there are so many large mtg players if people really live off garbage food to try to play magic for a living
sounds like alot of dudes who dont care about their health or wellbeing in here. gym pass and good food isnt cheap and those necessities to living a normal life. not a shock there are so many large mtg players if people really live off garbage food to try to play magic for a living
I wouldn't say a gym membership is required to live a normal life
I work out and love it but it isn't for everyone, just like university and other great things.
sounds like alot of dudes who dont care about their health or wellbeing in here. gym pass and good food isnt cheap and those necessities to living a normal life.
A gym pass? Do they not have sidewalks where you live?
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What's the big deal? You could have played multiple Righteous Avengers for years now.
sounds like alot of dudes who dont care about their health or wellbeing in here. gym pass and good food isnt cheap and those necessities to living a normal life. not a shock there are so many large mtg players if people really live off garbage food to try to play magic for a living
You do realize that you don't need a gym to work out. Also, having healthy good food isn't really expensive, you just need to actually cook it yourself.
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Depends on where you live. A small town, 13K is perfectly fine. You live in a major metro and 13K wouldn't give you much to live with,esp if you had a family/car/mortgage/bills.
Travis Woo once said on his stream how much he gets per article, I did the math assuming one article/week and that came to about $18,000. Sam Black gets enough from his writing/streaming that he's able to afford all the GP's (which isn't profitable) but going by his stream he seems to have several roommates so his expenses are probably pretty low. I seriously doubt anyone that supports themselves fully off of Magic averages more than 20k/year.
Food, I take it you've never heard of things like 30 cent packs of ramen once a day or $3 frozen pizzas. Lodging well... I have a 15'x10' apartment, I'll just assume you're joking about health care, and there's thrift stores for clothing. No one ever mentioned having money for fun stuff.
I've written for several sites, and pay ranges enormously. I prefer performance based over up-fronts. Why cap your pay when the sky is the limit? Highest paid article was a little over $1,000, however that was an anomaly. I write several short articles a day that average about $35/hr. Compare that to some of the more meticulous several thousand word articles by pros for $300-$500. It's certainly not as glamorous as it sounds, and the pay rate drops off the map when you're playing instead of writing, but I do this because I love it.
Boston Magic: The Gathering Examiner - Please read my articles!
I wrote 2 articles for brainburst (several years before it was tcgplayer) and got paid 75 dollars for them iirc.
Bident Layers
B Devotion
RG Devotion
UW Control
Modern:
Jund
UW Control
Combo Pod
Legacy:
DeathBlade
RUG Delver
BUG Control
As far as travel and lodging; depending on where you are at, where you are going and if you are in a playgroup that travels together it can be done cheaply enough. Things like MEGABUS or Greyhound/Amtrak can get you places cheaper than airfare depending on where you are and where you go. Splitting a car between 4-8 ppl (depending on the car size) can be cheaper than airfare. Another expense saver some can do is having personal/professional relationships that you can utilize to stay at the persons house (family, close friends). Being able to stay at Uncle Johns for a couple days in San Diego can save you a few hundred dollars in hotel costs.
WBG Karador GBW
R Daretti R
RG Omnath GR
WRG Modern Burn GRW
WB Modern Tokens BW
DCI Rules Advisor as of 5/18/2015
You can "live" off nothing a year sleeping under a bridge underpass and eating out of garbage cans. Base survival is not a terribly great metric to go by.
Living off 10K a year is really the bottom of the barrel. Not to mention you are earning less than the dude flipping burgers at McD's. 10k will get you a bad apartment (with roommates) in a bad area, maybe a beat up run down car with bare minimum insurance, and eating Ramen and cereal. And if you get sick, forget it, you sure don't have health insurance at that income level.
There are a lot of people who live at that level, but it's not a great life. There are plenty of books and stories on the working poor, they are great reads.
I disagree. You can certainly make a decent living as a pro Magic Player, but you can't make a decent living purely off playing Magic. You have to play and due well in events, you need to write articles for popular websites, you need to try and snag sponsorship deals, most pro players also own/run gaming stores or gamin companies. Playing Magic is only one part of a Pro Players income source.
No one is living any halfway decent lifestyle soley off playing. If you go the full pro lifestyle, which means playing, writing, streaming, sponsorships, and retail, you can probably scratch out a decent living. But it will be much more of a job than just playing MTG all day every day. Actually playing will be a very small part of your income.
And eating cheap sodium packages and preservative packed artificial pizza may be fine when you are in your young 20's. Give it a few years and you'll start uncovering the real cost of abusing your body by eating food like that long term.
This is really the downfall of "living cheap". You can do it for a few years, but you will get older, your body becomes less tolerant to being fed **** every day, you're going to develop all sorts of health problems, doing long term damage to your body, and all that catches up with you.
As for joking about health care, it's one of the top bankruptcy causing problems in the country.
Not to mention, are you putting anything away for retirement? What happens when you are 65 years old, you have high blood pressure, heart disease, your back is shot, you have a bum knee, and you have a couple hundred bucks to your name? As the cardfather said, way to many people completely lack and foresight into their future financial needs. If you aren't putting away at least 15% of your income and following a trajectory of higher earning potential over your life, what happens when you are an old man?
They'll care when they have destroyed their digestive and cardiovascular systems by the time they are 40. I know it's hard to imagine, but you won't be 23 forever.
Sene has it right: MTG can be a hobby that helps pay for itself. To make a decent living off MTG, chances are you are going to have to open a store, which means you are earning your living through retail, not playing MTG.
Im not even sure what the healthcare bit means. My gf needed a tooth fixed a year ago and didnt have insurance at the time and it cost like a grand to do whatever she needed done so yeah healthcare is expensive.
You can be homeless without and income and not die. If thats your idea of living then i think this conversation is pretty much over and we can just agree to disagree.
Again if you think eating instant noodles is sustainable for a long period of time then give it a couple of years. I have eaten cup of noodles when i was a kid and its basically like eating a salted cup of dog turds. You dont know any better at the time but once you start getting older, that stuff gets worse and worse for you.
So by all means if living like a homeless person is "living" in your book, then you dont need an income at all.
So you live on $4 an hour? I think you are leaving out some major points in your life style and assuming everyone has whatever it is that helps you live on 4$ and hour. Are you an illegal immigrant?
I think, even if you only make $10k a year playing magic....you are living playing this game which you love. I wouldn't mind being poor, if my job is a job that I freaking love so damn much! Even if its crap money, it doesn't matter you are probably happy that your "job" is so wonderful =D
RIDE FOR THE FALL OF HIS POWER FIGHTING THE STORM, THE ROAR OF THE THUNDER, ALLY OF THE SUN AND THE MOON... GREAT SWORDMASTER RULE!
I'm not an illegal immigrant, I don't have a bunch of visible tattoo's and body modifications that make me unemployable, and I'm college educated (multiple degrees even). I just happen to live in a very poor area of the country where jobs in my field don't exist, and I happen to be "overqualified" (they don't want someone with so called opportunity) in the only available jobs which happen to be things like shelf stockers and burger flippers. So the only option is to take work where the owner pays below minimum wage. It's less than $4/hour btw as I work more than 40 hours/week. It's tough to convey tone over text but as I said before, the ones that can get a job at McDonalds are the lucky ones.
The obvious answer to this would be to move, but have you ever tried to move with no money? It can't be done.
I will never own a home, have transportation, have health insurance, pay off college, get a vacation, have a living space larger than a jail cell, have a cell phone, cable tv, or be able to retire. That's just the way things are. I will probably never even be able to work a mere 40 hours a week.
I never said it was a good or healthy choice, but it's the option that's available. Long term damage vs short term hunger, it's a fairly easy choice.
Healthcare is a major issue, not just having coverage but being able to pay the bill if something catastrophic happens. Lots of insurance people do have, doesn't even cover enough for that. I'm at work now (I work for a college as a tutor) and I see fliers for health insurance sitting on tables for people to look at. $120/month for a 1500 deductible and $20k in total coverage. That's way too much for far too little a return. But as I said, unless I get lucky with a job offer somewhere (unlikely as my current job was the only "interview" I've gotten in 3 years of trying) I don't have to worry about it, it's simply something that will never happen. The same goes for retirement, one has to have a decent job in order for retirement to be an option.
You get what you pay for, and on a very low wage you're not paying for much.
To stay on topic though, after paying for the extensive travel costs I have to wonder how many Magic pro's make enough off the game that they're actually profiting enough to live on. I would think the most profitable way to play Magic is to stick to only local/semi local tournaments and write a lot. Alternatively become a really good deck builder and speculate on cards using your deck ideas to bump the price of something.
Could you imagine how much more awesome coverage would be if Pepsi and/or Coke took interest in supporting Magic?
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i mean you can do it when you are young but as a career... probably not even the best can sustain it forever.
Kirin's Skyfire Help Desk
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It's difficult on the internet to do without sounding condescending but I just wanted to give some advice that might be helpful to you and others who might be in your situation. Please take it for what it's worth
1. Learn to cook cheaply, beans, lentils, rice, pasta, it's harder to get fresh veges but if you see them on sale you should snap them up. It's infinitely better than eating ramen or frozen pizza (you can still eat those too, just not everyday).
2. Join the military, there are lots of jobs you can do in the military that don't involve killing or being killed and the pay is very good. I was pretty poor when I was a teenager but my time in the military set me up financially to at least put me in the middle class before I ventured out once more into the civilian world.
3. If you don't want to join the military (and plenty of people don't or can't for whatever reason) then your only option is in fact to move. Have you considered teaching english overseas, check out Dave's ESL cafe for postings. They want college educated people (major doesn't really matter) and all the negotiations are pretty much done over the internet and phone as far as I know. Try to get Korea if you can but failing that China is worth a shot.
Owning a store and getting involved in game design too, didn't MTG players invent Ascension? And I remember a bunch of Japanese Pro players all ran hobby store back home.
Don't say that. Never is a long time. Unless you are severely disabled, you can always work to improve your lot in life. If you live in a bad area for employment, move somewhere with better prospects. I had to leave family and friends behind and move several states away after college to find gainful employment.
MTG doesn't have the audience for that, it would have to get orders of magnitude larger to attract major national sponsers like that. Getting Ultra Pro and KMC and other hobby supply manufacturers would be more likely. Do they sponser today?
It can't be done just by playing. You can do it by branching into retail and the like, but then I guess you start to blur the line of what a Pro MTG player is and a guy who own a retail shop who also plays MTG.
lol what? u a hippie or something?
aka Prey Upon
No, he was telling the guy who said "Eating horribly unhealthy food vs starving" are not his only choices. You can learn to eat very cheaply while not ruining your body with salt, fat, and preservatives.
Eh, he was a Magic pro 10 years ago, and at that time, that was his job (i.e. he did not have a regular job, as far as I know).
He quit playing for a living around '04, I think.
You've obviously never had to subsist on a budget, meat is one of the most expensive foods for your dollar. Beans and lentils provide necessary protein in your diet and are extremely cheap, you should try them you might like them.
Cheers
I'm not actually against salt and fat so much, although living purely on them will kill you sooner or later. The main problem I have with foods like ramen and frozen pizza is that they're made from highly refined wheat and lack essential nutrients that your body needs to function properly, although I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir.
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Also, I almost forgot to mention - frozen veges are also a good substitute for fresh veges, you can even throw them in the ramen if you want.
Interesting, I've never heard of people being allergic/intolerant of pulses before (within reason of course - people in general have all kinds of allergies). Not that I don't believe you but do you have any links to articles? (wikipedia doesn't seem to mention it)
Also, just to clarify, I'm not a health practitioner or in healthcare or anything like that. My advice was simply based on personal experience and obviously if you're allergic to something you probably shouldn't eat it!
I wouldn't say a gym membership is required to live a normal life
I work out and love it but it isn't for everyone, just like university and other great things.
13 year olds generally don't have any understand what food costs.
Go buy a bag of dorito's, they're $4, or about half an hour's work.
A gym pass? Do they not have sidewalks where you live?
You do realize that you don't need a gym to work out. Also, having healthy good food isn't really expensive, you just need to actually cook it yourself.