My Money Rules as a Creative - #65

Treyton DeVore
January 7, 2023

Welcome to The Loaf - making money & business more approachable for creatives & freelancers

creator crumbs

Money: My 11 Money Rules as a Creative Entrepreneur [article]

Money's meant to be a tool.

But we often let it take over our lives.

It's easy to let money become a hidden centerpiece in your life, influencing nearly every decision.

To help with this, I created a set of guidelines for myself.

These rules keep me on track with decision-making and they reduce the amount of time I spend thinking about money overall.

They aren't perfect, but they work well for me:

Rule 1) If it saves time, spend the money

Rule 2) If it creates a memory, spend the money

Rule 3) Maintain a one year cash reserve

Rule 4) Budget & aim for monthly travel

Rule 5) Insure for security, and nothing more

Rule 6) Invest (or save) at least 10% of income

Rule 7) Always tip at least 25% (aim for double)

Rule 8) Reduce friction, stay organized, & simplify where possible

Rule 9) Avoid non-cash flowing debt

Rule 10) No more than two actively used credit cards

Rule 11) One to rock, one to stock

Read the full breakdown

Further reading: How to write your own money rules

🗓 this week

Friendly money & business reminders for self-employed creatives

Consolidate financial accounts

  • Why? Organization is a key part of managing your money. If you have several bank accounts or old retirement accounts from different employers, consolidating will make everything easier to manage
  • With old retirement accounts, you may be able to roll them over into an IRA so that you only have to manage one account - which can save on fees and paperwork
  • Further reading:  How to consolidate retirement accounts 
  • With bank accounts, I like to have one primary checking and then a couple of savings accounts designated for specific goals
  • For credit cards, I like to keep it simple, stick with one or two primary cards, and that's it

✅ Review your personal (and business) website

  • Why? It's easy to let your website get stale. Making updates and reviewing your copy is boring, but it needs to be done once in awhile
  • Take a few minutes to upload new work to your portfolio
  • Update your "copyright" text in the footer to reflect 2023
  • Review your contact info and social links to make sure they're still accurate
  • I've seen this a lot recently with personal brand websites, but you want to make sure that your site has a  security certificate  or visitors may not be able to access it. This warning will pop up if you don't have a secure site:

..more crumbs

✍🏼 Why naming a project is so important

🎯 Six systems to build a 7-figure creative business

🎥 Watch: College kids launch TV shows on TikTok for less than $5,000

✍🏼 Freelance Finds: Why you should hire a virtual assistant for your freelance business

times square - The Breadheads*

Keep creating,

Treyton DeVore

treytondevore.com​

Get the book for free
A 67-page, easy-to-understand breakdown of what you need to know about managing money as a freelancer or solo creative

Related Posts