Matt Allen, 44, lives in Costa Mesa. This transcript is based on a conversation with Allen, and has been edited for clarity and length.
Allen: I think “making it” for me, a lot of it is lifestyle-based. I get to make my days look like what I want them to look like, most days. So that for me means if the waves are good, I'm going surfing, and I'll get my work done later on.
I do fine art, and I sell that art online and in-person at different events [and] in galleries. I also do freelance illustration, and I do art direction for a local surf shop.
I feel like I can count on my very baseline, I’m probably gonna make at least $3,000 a month. That would be the roughest it would get, and it doesn’t get that rough usually. Good months can be four to five times as much money coming in, and the average is somewhere in the middle. I always have other things coming in. For instance, I just received an order from my gallery for $10,000 in art.
And it's just me. I'm not taking care of anybody else, I don't have a car payment, and my mortgage is reasonable.
I was able to put a decent down payment down on my condo when I bought it because my parents helped me out a little bit. I would still be “making it” if I didn't have my home — if I didn't have my condo. I think I'd be living in the same way, I just would live with a roommate.
I say that I won the life lottery, a lot of times. I had a really stable family situation all the way through. My parents stayed married, and it was a healthy environment to grow up in. Like, I am a white dude in Orange County. The path has been smooth for me in a lot of ways. Not always. I mean, there's ways that life isn't, but I got a good starting point, and I appreciate that.
So “making it” isn't always having a big house on a hill and having a family. At one time, I thought that “making it” would be having a family and kids. It's something that still would be awesome, but it's not required.
When I started appreciating the good things about the life that I have, and stopped wanting the things that I don't have — that's how you have peace in life.