Let's Talk Money 💸 : A 31 year old's joint income went from $109K to $200K

Welcome to Let's Talk Money, a newsletter dedicated to showing creative entrepreneurs what's actually happening behind the scenes of their peer's businesses.

As a reminder, this newsletter will only stay alive for as long as I receive entries. I won't ask your name, business name, or email when you submit so if you want to share what's happening behind the scenes fill this out. 

Let's get into this week’s entry: 

What do you specialize in: Brand Strategy

How long have you been in business? 3 Years

Age: 31

Location: Nashville

Debt: House—Not sure of the total left on the loan but my mortgage is around $850/mo

Saving: ~ 20k

Degrees: Bachelor of Science in Art Management

Do you have a partner, family, or anyone else that helps you financially? 

A husband

If you do have someone that helps you financially, what does that look like for you? Our total family income in 2022 will be about 200k. In 2021, it was around 109k. 

We share a bank account and budget each week using our favorite budgeting app (You Need a Budget). Last year, he made about 2x as much as I did, so a lot of his income covered bigger bills (house, his car note, etc), and the rest we budget out into miscellaneous categories and savings. 

For my income, I cover all of my expenses first before distributing into the family income. Typically, we're distributing around $1k every other week from my income and around $2k from his income every other week. 

We're also diverting a lot of our income to long term savings like IRAs, HSA, etc.

Do you have anyone you need to care for? Children, pets, family members, etc. If so, how many? 

Two small dogs who are the light of my life.

Are you full-time or part-time in your business? Do you have another job along with this one? 

I'm full-time and also do some miscellaneous stuff on the side just for fun—teaching spin classes and selling artwork on Etsy. I could take it or leave it—definitely not in it for the money.

What was your revenue last year (before taxes)? 

59k

How much did you bring home after taxes & expenses last year (profit)?

44k

What's your average monthly revenue? How much of that do you actually pay yourself?

 Avg Monthly Revenue: ~$5k; Pay myself ~$3,500

How many employees/contractors do you have including yourself? What do they do?

None; I run a separate creative collective where I contract with people and we build brands as a team, but otherwise any work I'm doing is on me.

How much do you pay your contractors or employees? 

N/A

What are your services and their average price? 

Brand Strategy starts at $2k; Brand Identity starts at $1500; Monthly Design Retainers start at $1200

How many clients do you take on during a month? 

I have one retainer client that I've had since 2020; Otherwise I'm usually managing about 3-4 additional clients at different capacities throughout the month. My minimum project length is 6 weeks, so when I'm off-boarding one client, I'm usually starting another.

How many hours are you working per week?

35ish

How often do you take time off during the year? Does this affect your income? 

I take about 3 full weeks of vacation a year. It doesn't affect my income because my retainers are monthly and my projects are booked out through my time off (I'll just extend the project length).

In the last month, what type of expenses did you have and what did they cost? 

Business Expenses: 

• Email Software: $19

• Social Software: $50

• Phone - $78

• Health Insurance - $400

• Misc. Software - $100

 Family expenses (Combined income) 

• Mortgage: $850

• Car Note: $500

• Car Insurance: $120

• Utilities, etc: $300

• Donations: $400

• Subscriptions: $175

• Misc. Expenses (dining out, bars, groceries, etc): $2,000

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