VO-BB - 19 YEARS OLD!

[Moosevoice]

I'm not an LLC. I DO have a separate bank account that my job payments all go to.
Wondering how much to pay myself, and when?
There's a booth purchase coming up soon but other than that there's no foreseeable expenses coming up.
We could use some of my voice income for household expenses as this money is just sitting there.
What's a good rule of thumb?
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www.moosevoice.com

[Bob Bergen]

Hire a good financial planner for this. No one can (nor should) really answer this for you without knowing your numbers and portfolio.

[Moosevoice]

Yeah, we have one but wanted to get a general rule of thumb. I'll ping my FA
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www.moosevoice.com

[Bruce]

Captain Obvious here....

When you have a regular weekly or biweekly salary it's "easy" to set up a plan for regular expenses, special expenses, and your near term and distant future needs. However, if you're totally freelance your income can really surge and drop, and that makes planning tricky. The basic thing to do is take every incoming dollar, spend it on the bills, and then everything else goes into a decision pile. That can be your savings account(s). Then choose what further imaginary "piles" that money goes into -- and one of those has to be the emergency fund for when your work and receipts slow down. Eventually you will come up with an "average" set of income and expense amounts, but as a freelance that can change in a flash.

Most of all, find the discipline to stow away excess funds for that "rainy day" and your "bright future".

B
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VO-BB Member #31 Enlisted June, 2005

I'm not a Zoo, but over the years I've played one on radio/TV. .

[todd ellis]

Not answering for you --- but for me ...

I'm not a CPA, but I do have one. Unless you are incorporated in some way - all the money is the same (no matter how many checking accounts you have) - it's all yours, and taxed as such. I am an S-Corp. The corporation pays me a monthly salary from which FICA/Medicare/etc, etc ... are deducted. That's MY money. All the rest belongs to the corporation. The corporation pays me rent and pays for business related expenses. The only thing the IRS says about a "salary" is that is must be "reasonable". So far, nobody has been willing to tell me what that number is. But believe me, if it's too low, they'll let you know in a letter you don't want to get.

Taxes are paid quarterly based on the previous year's income, which is a huge issue when working freelance and years go up & down, sometimes, dramatically. So it's a tightrope between paying enough but not paying too much. At least for me - I like to hold on to as much of my money as possible.
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"i know philip banks": todd ellis
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