I started making art in a "serious" way while I was in college, studying psychology and working in research labs. Trying to write this, I found that I had to look at my resume to remember all the jobs I had during and after school. Everything sort of blurs together into a mostly grey and indistinct working past.

During school I usually worked at least 30 hours a week at a variety of full and part-time, temporary and permanent jobs. Some of them were great and I learned a lot; others were "day jobs" in every sense. An incomplete list of jobs I held during and after college: server, dishwasher, and cook at a café; visitor services staff at a contemporary art museum; afterschool art teacher; events coordinator; degree clearance liaison; resident advocate in a home for the mentally ill; legal secretary; roving temp worker; music club manager; receptionist; night manager at a residence hall; wedding photographer; personal assistant.

After finishing school I worked less and less at steady jobs as grants, stipends, residencies, and teaching started to work out. Some months I make enough money to support myself without working at what I call "job-jobs," some months I don't. Lately I have been doing translation work, some editing and proofreading, and some light journalism. These sorts of things bring in a little extra money every month, and I can schedule them in when it suits me.

Three years ago I moved to Sweden from the United States, and it was part of a big shift in how I deal with money and with art-making. I moved here with my partner; we live together and share our money. He is an artist and musician and we are at about the same point in our careers; we both scratch together money wherever we can, and because some months I do well and other months he does well we are usually fine. We bought an inexpensive apartment and we try to keep our basic costs of living very low.

We had a baby about a year ago and while that has changed things, it hasn't changed much financially. We have juggled our schedules quite a bit this year to be able to take care of him full-time, so neither of us has been able to work on art as much as we would have liked, but we wanted to save our parental leave money for later – for example, when one of us has a residency, the other comes along and uses parental leave to have some income. Our son will be allowed to start day care when he turns one, and because fees are on a sliding scale in Sweden with a very low ceiling even full-time private care will be quite cheap. He is still so small that he doesn't really involve too many expenses; he flies for free and he hasn't asked for any expensive art materials or sports equipment yet. When he gets older we will need a bit more money every month, but for now we are doing fine.

For me, living in Sweden took a lot of pressure off. I have much less spending money here (next to none, really), but basic necessities are paid for through taxes. I have access to good health care, good public transit, good daycares and schools. Seeing so much of my income go to taxes feels all right, even though I can't eat out very often. We plan to be based in Sweden at least for the next few years. I plan to keep going. In my experience, if I just keep going, everything works out all right. Perhaps in the future I will teach more, or I will begin to sell work. In the nearest months and years I will travel a good deal; maybe when my son is older and less portable I will have to find more local solutions. I think it will work out.