fbhjr | Sword troupe comparisons

Phoenix Swords does not make money.
It never really has. Back when we were doing 40 events a year and we had a rent free practice space we cleared a little bit of money. But, never very much.
And, that ended after the first couple of years anyhow.

My wife has the habit of saying "Frank spends money on the sword troupe, but at least he doesn’t have a mistress, a drug habit, a boat or some other way of going through money".

The pay we make does cover our rent and insurance. Most of where we lose money is over travel expenses.
That’s because I don’t like to camp and like to eat. So, when we do a job I’ll get hotel rooms to stay in and eat at reasonable places.
And, I think it unfair for just me, so I’ll do that for everyone on the job.

Last weekend our pay was less than I paid for the two hotel rooms, but not much. (Granted, it turned out we all could have fit in one room and made money, but by the time folks cars had failed it was too late to cancel the other room.)

So, on the multi-hour drive to the show, the question came up of how does the cost of the sword troupe compare to these other things my wife references.

Even our worst years, I’ve only spent about $5000 more than we made, spread over the year. Most years it more like half that.
So, say $300 a month or $75 a week as an average cost to have a sword troupe.

We all agreed that it is almost certainly possible to spend more than $75 a week on drugs if you had a habit. If various police TV shows are to be believed, a lot more. They’re certainly full of folks with briefcases full of money for drugs. Not as clear what the individual users pay, but more than $75 is not had to believe.

A boat? Well it would depend on the boat. I’m sure I could get a canoe for less than that. But, a bigger boat with maintenance, and such, yeah I could see it being more than that.

The mistress was where there was the most discussion. My wife said she thought that one would cost $1000,000 or more a year.
That doesn’t seem realistic to me. The average income in the US is only about $38,000. I think there would be a lot more mistresses out there if you could make that much as one. Or, maybe there are and I’m just out of touch.
Now, I’ve been married for more than 30 years. But, back when my wife and I were only dating, it certainly didn’t cost me anywhere near that amount.
If anything, it saved me money as when we moved in together my costs went down.
But, I guess that’s isn’t how it works with mistresses. My wife says you’d be expected to pay their rent, not get them to take a share of your own.

Robin said that based on her internet search paying for companionship averages about $600 per encounter. So, if you did that once a week it is much closer to that average income number.

But, even that reduced amount would be 10x what I lose on the sword troupe.

So, maybe the sword troupe is a cost savings compared to other things. But, if you added all the other stuff we do and trips we take on to the actual costs, it would be a lot higher.
But, we went places and looked at museums and historical sites before we had the sword troupe, so I don’t think that’s fair.

I don’t know. Maybe I am just out of touch with what things cost…