I think if you look at a lot of the most successful Celtic music acts, you see many more musicians who have done well financially. None of them are filthy rich, but they do own their own nice homes, and make enough money to support their families, including providing them with health insurance, retirement income, vacation money, and the ability to pay for their children's education, the same way the rest of us do.

Don't do what the majority have done Matt, and set your sets low. The point someone made above, about so many folk musicians now needing benefit gigs to pay for their health care, is well taken. So is the fact that nowadays, there aren't that many spouses/partners who are willing to have all the home responsibilities and financial burdens dumped on them by their "creative" other half. Nor should they have to put up with it. It is one thing to have both people working, so perhaps the health insurance is covered by the person with a job that provides it. But many creative couples don't have that option, so then you are looking at buying your own health insurance. I don't know if the unions still do that for musicians. I know the National Writers Union has had a hell of a time in recent years providing that for it's members.

It is tricky to do this right, but I know quite a few Irish and Scots musicians who are doing very well. One duo I know of literally earned the money to pay cash for their houses (of course, they needed some serious remodeling, but that isn't the point) from two tours of the US and Canada, six months apart. You have to lay out that cash when you've got it though (as someone also pointed out above). Paddy Maloney of the Chieftains, just as a for instance, has a beautiful home in Ireland, edcuated his kids well, etc. but worked at all of that for many years. He didn't instantly have the dream home he has now--he and his wife worked at it for many, many years.

Of course, many people begrudge the Chieftains their success, and blame them for everything they can think of, like having to pay royalties to perform traditional songs in pubs that the Chieftains recorded on their albums. Which is totally false, but that doesn't stop the begrudgers from whining about it.

There is nothing noble about making the choice to be a professional musician, whatever genre, and then limiting your income potential just to appease your begrudger critics. The noble thing to do is to fight like hell to do what a lot of traditional and trad/roots Celtic acts have done, which is to raise the bar of professionalism for trad/folk music to put it on a par with other creative fields. And yes, that means the house payment, the college fund, the health insurance, the retirement accounts, etc etc.

Nothing burns me up more than comfortable, middle class folk and trad music enthusiasts setting the bar low, and then demonizing musicians with high standards for themselves doing their music more professionally as a career that will support them and their family at the same standard of living that teachers and accountants have, rather than setting their sights low and earning just enough to get by.

Your loved ones deserve much better than that. And I know more than a handful of professional musicians who went through a lot of heartbreak losing their 1st partners/families to learn that they owe just as much to their loved ones as their do their creative work.