I spent a big part of last night reading a book — some mind candy, a psych mystery by J. Kellerman called “Therapy”.

I’ve been driving myself batty over money lately, and it was a cheap evening.

Without boring you about my personal finances, I have a problem lots of folks have when they own their own business.  I make the money, but it doesn’t always come in on my timetable.  there are really tight months and then there are months when I’m flush and this is one of several months in a row that have been tight.

Part of that is my own fault.  I screw around and do other things when I should be working.  I blog when I should bill, for example.

I’m not very good at the business side of my business.  I hate sending out bills because that’s boring.

So, anyway, i’m thinking about how many people out there must have the same problem I do.  Folks who work on commission, own their own home computer-based business, anyone who doesn’t have a steady paycheck.  I’m thinking that the norm — a steady paycheck — isn’t the norm now the way it once was.  We’re a service based economy and there are fewer and fewer factory-type jobs where you show up 9-5 and punch a clock.

What with April 15 showing up any day now, folks are worried about paying taxes and the IRS gets preferential treatment because they are the biggest and baddest ass creditor you can have this side of the knee breaking Mafia.

My clients are busy getting the tax man off their backs instead of paying me and they might also just not have received a bill from me since I’m so bad at sending them out.

Even though I’m smart enough to know better, I also make the problem worse during the months when I’m flush because I should set some of the money back for these rainy days and what I do is run out and treat myself because it’s been so tight during the past few slim months.

Again, I don’t think I’m the only one.  I think I’m in a growing minority.

But it sure feels damn lonely and guilty when I’m looking at the pile of bills and it’s the middle of the month and I can’t pay them all and I’m worried sick about my credit and my flaws and I get overwhelmed and feel helpless and powerless and … and … I WANT MY MOMMY!!!

Damn hard to type the blog when you’re sobbing uncontrollably and having a temper tantrum.

So, anyway, it’s a problem and I’m struggling with it, but the reason why I’m writing about it is this:  if this is a problem for me and I’m not the only one and there’s lots of folks out there like me, it’s also an economic opportunity for someone.

I believe there’s a need and a demand for a flexible credit system that takes into account people who make pretty good money, just not on a schedule.  I believe the beancounters will never think of a solution to this because they are just too linear in their thinking.

I don’t pretend to be a good enough business person to figure this out, but someone will.  I just want to get in on the ground floor since I think it’s a very big opportunity.

Credit for the childish and stupid but basically honest person.  Where’s Adam Smith’s Hand of God making the capital markets fair when you really need it?  Probably the same place it went in the late 19th Century during the age of the Robber Barons.

Come to think of it, with the billionaires piling up and the poor getting poorer, this just may be the second coming of the Robber Baron era.

Damn that William Jennings Bryan.  Here we are being crucified on crosses of Eastern Banker silver and the bastard is dead and gone.  The robber barons launched a period of imperialism by America (the Spanish-American war and “big stick” diplomacy in south and Central America).  All that was to divert us at home from the fact that Carnegie was killing workers at the Homestead Steel mills.  Eventually, we got Wilson and the progressive era.

Damn, I hate knowing my history and seeing it be repeated.

TTFN