Due to some changes in the household, Low End Mac needs to get rid of one big debt fast. The business, such as it is, owes the IRS just under $7,000, and our monthly payment is $250. In recent months, donations have been short of our budget, and I’ve made some adjustments. The biggest thing to benefit the budget would be to pay off the IRS within the next month or two – and that’s the focus of our Big Fund Raiser.
We have done big ones a couple times in the past, and supporters have come through when we’ve faced a crisis. You are part of the reason Low End Mac has survived the dot-com collapse, my first divorce, the huge drops in income from displaying ads, and me losing my full time job last summer and having to take one earning about 40% less.
The top three budget items have been:
- IRS, $250 per month
- life insurance, $191 per month
- upgrade/repair/software fund, $100 per month
When income falls short, the upgrade fund is the first thing to go, so I’m taking it out of the budget. I’m cancelling the life insurance, which made sense when the business was taking in $40,000 or more per year but no longer does. That cuts what had been an $800 monthly budget and funding goal by nearly $300. We’ll simplify and call it $500, which is a very attainable goal.
If we can pay off the IRS, that will cut another $250 from the monthly budget for Low End Mac, and I know we’ll take in more than that from our supporters. Anything above and beyond $250 can be used for upgrades, repairs, software, equipment purchases, etc.
How Will We Get There?
I floated the idea of the Big Fund Raiser over the weekend, and as of December 6 we have already surpassed our $500 goal for the month. We have received a $100 donation, five $50 donations, five in the $20-30 range, and others ranging from $4 upward.
Not factoring in PayPal fees, we have received $538 as of December 6. Of that amount, approximately $23 goes to PayPal for handling fees. [As of January 9, we have received $4,873 – 61% of our goal. Thank you!]
How Big Is That Goal?
To cover the December and January budgets, which are set at $250 with the assumption that we will be able to pay off the IRS in January, we need to receive $7,500 after PayPal fees.
My estimate is that PayPal fees will total over $300, so our goal for December and January is being set at $8,000 to make sure we can make our December IRS payment and have enough to pay it in full in January 2017.
Low End Mac exists to serve the needs of Mac users, iDevice users, and also provides some support for Android, Windows, Chrome, Linux, and other low-end platforms. Our primary focus is on Macs that can be upgraded, and that will continue even as Apple moves away from upgradable hardware.
If Low End Mac has helped you better understand your Mac, buy or sell a Mac, upgrade a Mac, or otherwise benefit you, please help us out by clicking on the Donate button on the right or below. If we can do this, it will give us a truly low-end budget and secure our future.
Thank you!
Dan Knight, publisher of Low End Mac since April 1997
Short link: https://goo.gl/lyTJUd
It is very unfortunate to see this happening, and as soon as pay day comes around I plan on donating. LEM has helped me learn how to use these old macs in the past 5 or so years that I have been reading. I really hope that this is not signaling the end of an era. Every time I pick up a vintage mac, I come to this site and read everything I can about the computer, and I don’t know what I would do without this resource.
The end of the era will be when there are no longer any Macs still working that can be upgraded. I doubt that will happen in my lifetime!