We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Anna D and Adam. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Anna D and Adam below.
Anna D and Adam, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’ve love to hear an interesting investment story – what was one of the best or worst investments you’ve made? (Note, these responses are only intended as entertainment and shouldn’t be construed as investment advice)
The best investment that we have made is to learn about money. For the first 14 years of our relationship, we thought we were doing money “right”. We had a 401k, Roth IRAs, life insurance and had a financial advisor. And for those 14 years we were constantly in debt (non-house related). In 2020 we were fed up and really took the time to learn about money. There had to be a better way than being $36,000 in the hole. Once we had a new plan in place, we crawled out of that hole and worked towards building our first ever 6-month emergency fund. All the while, we were also learning about the stock market and how to invest. We’re not saying we’re perfect but the only thing we owe is our mortgage (which we’re finally able to pay extra on).
And here’s the thing: money can sound boring and complicated. I (Anna) know this because I am an artist and have always hid behind the excuse “I’m right brained, I don’t do numbers”. But, numbers are exciting – ESPECIALLY when you owe nothing to anyone and can pay for an emergency in cash. My friends, it’s absolutely worth the short term lifestyle sacrifices you’ll make. It’s also worth knowing where you’re going financially so that you can intentionally allocate those hard earned dollars you brought in!
Anna D and Adam, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Hello! We’re Anna D and Adam, vloggers living in Colorado. After the pandemic shut everything down in March of 2020, we decided to make more time to explore our own state. This was in part for our own mental wellbeing and in part because we’d been living in Colorado for over 5 years and had barely hiked more than 10 different trails. We were married on Valentine’s Day 2010 in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Travel has always been something that we both love and have done quite a bit of in the 17 years we’ve been together. Anna is a photographer and Adam is a video creator. Prior to the pandemic, we were both living quite separate lives – we were just trying to get by with no real life goal to focus on. Work just kept piling on and soon we were living to work. Right before everything shut down, we realized we had only been snowboarding 3 times on a very expensive ski pass. Something had to change – and it did. Being quarantined gave us plenty of time to reflect and think. After several morning hikes, we decided to combine our talents into a fun little pandemic project. We thought that it would be fun to bring travel content to people who were stuck at home. Now, this vlog has permeated so much of our being and we love it because it holds us accountable to living for more than our day jobs.
The main creative work we provide is video content on our YouTube channel. Our secondary creative works are providing stock video footage to various agencies, selling photography prints and (very soon) travel blog content on our website.
We are most proud of how far our video work has come since we started with our action cameras and cellphones. Adam has spent countless hours learning about video creation (and fighting) with his old computer to render out vlogs. If you read about our money journey then this next sentence will make sense. Because we were able to get out of debt and start saving, we were able to upgrade our camera and laptop to be able to produce content more professionally and efficiently.
The most important takeaway we want you to have is that you can start from wherever you are. You don’t need fancy equipment, you don’t need to know everything and you don’t need to have huge chunks of time to bring your creative ideas to life. Most of the times, these constraints are what help to make creative works great. Don’t let the “don’ts” stop you from doing.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
As with all creative works we only see the end product. In today’s world, we look at something for a few seconds before moving on. When we’re scrolling through Instagram and “double tap” on that photo of an eagle and move on to keep this same routine for the next and next photo, we’re not fully appreciating that HOURS that it took for that eagle photo to be made. For example, the photographer had to do research on where there have been eagle sightings, had to drive there and walk around (they may not even find the eagle on that trip! This happened to me – Anna – on a Pika photography expedition), they have to sit and wait (often for hours) for the eagle, then capture the photo and then return home and edit it (which is not as simple as applying a filter on your phone). The best way to support creatives and artists is to be selective of the creatives that most resonate with you and spend time interacting with their work and sharing it on social media. This is the free way.
The paid way is to find a creative you really like and invest in their work financially.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
We like this question because people who see themselves as “non-creatives” often do not believe they are creative – and that is incorrect. Every single person is creative and creativity is not just reserved for right-brained skills. Creativity is your own unique ability to work through a problem and solve it. Art is a problem that needs to be solved. For example, “I wish to create this moving video reel about Colorado”. What needs to happen in order to bring that into existence? We need to jot down what that means to us first and foremost, then we need to do some research, then we need to create a story board, then a shot list, soundtrack list, then go take videos, then come back and put all the pieces together into a body of work that truly embodies our original vision. The next example, “I need to organize my documents in a way that is useful for me.” How would you work through that problem? That is creativity and the beautiful thing is that your answer will be totally different from ours but it will still achieve the same end result: finding a system that works for us.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.annadandadam.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annadandadam/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AnnaDandAdam
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/AnnaDandAdam
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/AnnaDandAdam
Image Credits
Anna D and Adam
Suggest a Story: CanvasRebel is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.