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hello this is Taylor a year ago I left
my consulting job the corporate world
and income stability to become a
full-time YouTuber and I have learned a
lot over the last year and so in this
video we're going to cover everything I
have learned specifically about making
money as a content creator one year into
my full-time Journey now I've always
been transparent with my finances on
this channel I just don't think it
should be as taboo of a subject as it is
and my hope is that this video will be
helpful to some of you who are just
starting as a creator or really to
anyone who's looking to level up their
personal finance game in general so
we're going to be chatting real numbers
they're going to be up here behind the
scenes details and how Creator money
actually works and a lot of it might
surprise you so if Financial
transparency sounds good to you too give
this video a thumbs up subscribe and
let's get into it okay you'll never take
100% of the consultant out of me so
let's keep this organized and throw in
some arts and crafts because it's fun so
first we'll talk about my income a quick
overview of my revenue streams and about
how much they pay then we'll dive deep
into a regular income as a Creator
specifically how I budget and
financially plan and how I invest with a
regular income after that I'll tell you
exactly how I track and project my
Revenue as a Creator which is especially
important for a few reasons that we'll
cover then we'll go over some of my
expenses as a Creator plus a word on
cost of living in big cities as you can
probably tell I'm not in my usual city
of New York I'm in La the other big one
followed by health insurance and
retirement accounts as a Creator fun
creator taxes which are a lot more
complex and finally longevity as a
Creator now let's jump in and go back to
our third grade arts and crafts so how
do I as a Creator even make money well
the slices of my income pie are pretty
simple right now there aren't that many
of them my total revenue in the last
year was comprised 77% from Brand deals
AKA sponsorships 19% from YouTube ad
revenue and about 4% from contract
Consulting and affiliate Revenue heavily
concentrated here I know more on that
later quick overview of what each of
these are so brand deals are the parts
of my videos where I take about a minute
in the middle of the video to tell you
about a specific brand so like when
YouTubers say now I'd like to take take
a minute to thank today's sponsor so and
so I try to make my more fun than that
but that's a brand deal and how much
should they pay well it's dependent on a
lot of things so the brand itself the
Creator and the niche that they're in
how engaged Their audience is what type
of video the sponsorship actually goes
into but a very rough rule of thumb is
that on the low end a brand might pay
about $20 per thousand views that a
video is expected to get and on the high
end they can pay around $100 per 1,000
views the lower end typically will come
from more lifestyle-based Brands if I
had to generalize while the higher end
will skew more towards business finance
banking SAS companies but there are lots
of exceptions for sure and again it's
dependent on a lot of things so back of
the envelope math for a video that's
expected to get 100,000 views the brand
is probably paying the Creator anywhere
from $2,000 to $10,000 for that brand
deal now ad revenue is the check that I
get from YouTube every month for the ads
that play at the beginning middle or end
of my videos but Taylor what if I have
YouTube premium so I watch ad free do
you still make money for me brilliant a
lot of people ask me that yes I do part
of the fee that you pay for YouTube
premium every month gets distributed to
the creators that you watch Good
Question keep them coming and how much
does AD Revenue P again depends on a lot
of things the Creator's Niche Their
audience demographics among other things
but the low range is $1 to5 for videos
that skew more lifestyle and
entertainment and on the higher end 15
to30 plus dollars per thousand views for
videos that skew more personal finance
in business so again for a video with
100,000 views quick maths that can be
anywhere from 100 to $500 for these
lower range videos and $1,500 and beyond
for the higher range contract Consulting
is something I started recently and I've
actually been doing it for my former
consulting firm on a project that's
about the Creator economy plus another
small Consulting project I did for
YouTube about 6 months ago and then
affiliate revenue is the small amount of
commission that I might make if you
purchase something through one of my
affiliate links or if you become a paid
member of something that I recommend for
example epidemic sound which I've been
using for years I get a little Kickback
from those referrals affiliate revenue
is just a teeny tiny portion of my
Revenue but a huge portion of some other
creators that I know it really just
depends on what your business model is
for an even more indepth breakdown on
how these revenue streams work and how
they're calculated I put all of that in
this video but I will remind you at the
end about that okay now that we have the
overview of my revenue streams laid out
let's chat about probably my biggest
learning of all which is how to navigate
irregular income when it comes to
budgeting Financial Planning and
investing this is probably the theme you
guys asked me about the most when I put
a question box up on my Instagram follow
me there to be part of these in the
future so what do I even mean by
irregular income well in the past when I
used to get paid once every 2 weeks for
the same exact amount for my consulting
job I now get paid very sporadically
luckily one of my revenue streams does
have a regular payment schedule and
that's ad Revenue it comes in once a
month but the amount differs depending
on how many views I got that month and
ad rates brand deals though so very
lumpy I call a regular income lumpy
because sometimes I'll get three brand
deal paychecks in one month and then
sometimes I'll go 3 months without a
brand deal paycheck and this is
obviously dependent on how many brand
deals I take on and the Brand's payment
schedule almost all brands that I've
worked with pay on a net 30-day basis so
when a video goes live I usually get
paid for that sponsorship 30 days later
some Brands pay even faster some pay
slower but 30 is what I've seen the most
so how do I prepare and budget for such
irregular income because it's pretty
unusual and dare I say unideal to have
77% of my income coming in at such lumpy
chunky intervals so I'll tell you what I
do and then I'll tell you what I think
you probably should do if you're a
Creator or really anyone with irregular
income so what I do believe it or not is
much more of an art than a science I
have a general sense of my expenses
every month I pay
$3,175 per month in rent a lot I know
we're going to cover the cost of living
in New York more in a bit and with
everything else like food subscriptions
utilities memberships extra stuff like
clothes or various Amazon purchases
that's about another $2,500 per month so
my total monthly spend comes out to
about $5,700 per month give or take so
annualized that's
$68,400
yeah sounds like a lot huh uh-huh now a
popular budgeting rule is 52 2030 where
50% of your post tax income goes towards
your needs so like rent food stuff you
need 20% goes to your savings and
Investments and 30% goes towards your
wants stuff you want but don't
technically need this is more of a
science and the reason that mine is more
of an art is because I'm in a fortunate
position where this number is much
higher for me as in I save a lot more
than 20% of my income and these two
numbers my needs and my want are lower
and it's for that reason that I kind of
budget based on Vibes but actually I
keep close track of all of my dollars
coming in I always have a projection of
what my annualized Revenue will be and
we'll talk about how I calculate that in
just a little bit and I know my expenses
so if my income is above a certain limit
where I'm able to invest most of it and
I'm being responsible for the most part
with my expenses then I don't really
need to stress about hitting these 50 20
30 quotas something else I do to feel
comfortable taking this more artistic
approach is to always keep in mind big
expenses that I might have coming up so
I'm used to paying rent every month and
for all that other stuff but here's one
that got me in a pickle at the beginning
of last year estimated quarterly taxes
oh taxes yes yes we'll have a whole
section on taxes so just hold your
horses I'm just using this as an example
so estimated taxes is a big expense for
me as a creator that I pay every quarter
so at the beginning of last year I
wasn't really thinking about it because
it was my first year having to pay them
and I had actually just taken out a lot
of my liquid assets to invest the tax
payment day rolled around and I was like
oh I should have a bigger buffer there
it all worked out but this is an example
of a lesson that I learned that then
became part of my financial planning
which is to keep a bigger buffer of
assets that I might need to pay off a
bigger expense such as quarterly
estimated taxes liquid and by liquid I
mean easily accessible do you also keep
a few months worth of expenses handy yes
exactly so in addition to that extra
buffer that I keep for bigger expenses I
also try to keep no less than 3 months
of expenses liquid because of my
irregular income since I don't totally
know when my next paycheck is going to
come I don't want to run the risk of not
having enough on hand which is
definitely a downside of Creator income
because that extra liquidity could be in
Investments if I had more predictability
so that is how I budget with a regular
income what I think you should do
depends on who who you are and what your
situation is if you're a higher earner I
think it depends on if you're the type
of person that always seems to have
holes in your pockets like money just
falls right through in which case I
think taking a more structured approach
like this could be helpful if you're
like me where you don't have holes in
your pockets and you kind of know
exactly is where your money is going
each month I think you can afford to
take this more flexible artistic
approach if that works for you but if
you're working to get your finances on
track or you're in the early stages of
building Financial stability I think
that a structured approach such as this
one would behoove anybody then you can
really kind of keep track and see areas
where you might be able to pull back a
little bit or areas where you can
Splurge for what my opinion is worth I
think that 30% for once is too high
Taylor's budgeting rule would flip these
two because I'm all about building your
wealth and making your money work for
you and I know I sound like my parents
but if you start investing more at a
younger age compound interests will do
wonders for you bear with me but here's
a quick example if you start investing
$1,000 per month at age 22 so right
after graduating college let's say
assuming a 7% annual rate of return
that'll be worth almost $3.3 Million by
the time you're 65 and we can plug in
lots of different numbers to that
calculation but the point is that time
in the market beats timing the market as
they say speaking of which this is a
nice segue into our next section which
is investing as a creator with a regular
income so going back to that amount that
I said I like to keep easily accessible
about months of expenses plus the buffer
that's also how I decide when to invest
and how much so when I go above that
amount I'll pull out extra to invest and
if I go below that amount because I
haven't had a brand deal payment in a
while then I'll just hold off in
investing and let my pot grow for a
while longer from these other revenue
streams like ad Revenue contract
Consulting Etc whereas in the past when
I was in Consulting I had automatic
withdrawals come out of my checking and
into my investment account every single
month because I had regular paychecks
this is a strategy called dollar cost
averaging which is where you invest a
fixed amount of money at regular
intervals of time regardless of the
stock price so while I no longer invest
fixed amounts of money nor at regular
intervals of time I do still invest
regularly and typically much larger
chunks so it's kind of similar to dollar
cost averaging in that I ignore Market
timing and just focused on buying
consistently over time and what do you
invest in well pretty much as it's
always been since I first first started
investing 80% is in ETFs and mutual
funds that track the S&P 500 and 20% is
in individual equities but as I'm
getting older and anticipating some
bigger purchases within my 5year Horizon
I'm starting to think about diversifying
Beyond just stocks wait spill the tea
what else are you investing in well I've
actually been interested in real estate
investing for a really long time wait
you're buying property in New York City
in this economy well the econom is
actually really great right now but no
I've been researching the fundrise
flagship fund it's a lot more accessible
than traditional real estate investing
Define accessible because that sounds
expensive that's why it's great you can
start with $10 $100 or $10,000 and gain
access to a 1.1 billion doll portfolio
of real estate including over 4,700
rental homes and Industrial properties
okay cool but is it complicated it
sounds kind of complicated no it takes
less than 5 minutes to set up an account
and become a real estate investor and
this helps with diver ver ifying your
portfolio exactly private real estate
typically isn't nearly as volatile as
stocks so it can help balance out your
portfolio plus you get exposure to real
estate without having to you know become
a landlord Taylor you're always putting
me on the best things if you want to
check it out you can get started
clicking the link in my description and
thank you to fundrise Flagship fund for
sponsoring this little chat and my final
investment as a creator with irregular
income is actually something i' would
recommend to anybody even if you have
steady paychecks but this is not
Financial advice so so remember how I
mentioned that it's kind of a shame that
my 3 months of expenses plus the buffer
are liquid rather than sitting in
Investments where they can be generating
a return well something I finally
started doing was investing my liquid
assets in a money market fund so whether
you choose a high yield savings account
or a money market fund this either one
of these is so much better than just
having your cash sit in a checking
account that generates basically zero
return and that's what I did for way too
long it's basically akin to keeping your
money under your mattress so this might
sound kind of complicated but it's
really not money market funds are just
mutual funds that invest in lowrisk
short-term Securities and as of late
they're offering between 4 to 5% annual
yield 4 to 5% for comparison typical
checking accounts offer between 0 and
.1% high yield savings accounts are also
a great option and they've been offering
about the same annual yield as money
market funds as a blade so put simply a
money market fund is a great place to
park cash or funds that you don't need
red second but that you want accessible
within 1 to two days so like an
emergency fund or money to pay off your
bills or to pay for quarterly estimated
taxes because it generates a little bit
of return the reason I chose to park my
cash in a money market fund versus
opening up a high old savings account is
because I already have a Schwab account
where I'm regularly transferring cash
from my checking account into my
investment account and so now I just
invest some of that cash in a money
market fund
specifically SWV XX versus opening up a
whole new high old savings account which
isn't hard but I don't know this felt
like fewer steps moving on to tracking
my Revenue this is fun so remember how
earlier I mentioned that part of my
financial planning is having an
annualized Revenue projection I think
this is really important for any Creator
or contract worker or anyone with a
regular income to do so you can actually
do some financial planning so the way
that I project my annual revenue is by
using a run rate which is a metric used
to project future returns based on
current results it's actually really
simple and very helpful but it does have
its limitations which we will talk about
but here's how it works I take the
amount of money that I have earned up
until that point in the year divided by
how many days have already passed to get
how much money I made on average each
day and then I multiply that by 365 to
get my annual projection easy example
let's say I make $10,000 in the month of
January divide that by 30 days I know
it's 31 days but to 30 to keep it simple
that is
$333 per day then if I multiply that by
365 days my annual projection there
would be about
$120,000 per year so the Run rate
assumes that I will continue to make
this same amount each month which
introduces its obvious first limitation
which is that it doesn't really account
for variability at least not in the
short term so what I mean is people with
a regular income might make a killing
one month and then make $0 the next
month so short term data might be
misleading it's less of a problem once 6
months has passed for example because
you're getting a more accurate
representation of what that whole year
will look like and it's for that reason
that I also mentally adjust my run rate
if I make a killing at the beginning of
the year or if things are going super
slow because it'll kind of skew the
results if that makes sense this
literally happened to me last year I
signed like three brand deals in the
month of January and this number was
looking nice and juicy but it didn't
turn out quite as nice and juicy I was
thinking of ways to adjust my
calculation to account for that
variability and so I took a look at
seasonality in my earnings and what I
found is actually kind of funny so you
often hear that highest spend on
Advertising is in Q4 because it's around
the holidays and that's when consumers
are spending the most money so I did
heat mapping in my spreadsheet to see if
I could spot any Trend like that like
times of the year where I'm making the
most or making less and this is what I
found so these are dummy numbers this is
just an example this is not real but
this would be an example of totally
spotting a trend through heat mapping
AKA making more during fall and winter
months and then things really slowing
down through the spring and summer my
income heat mapping looks like this
there is literally no pattern even still
I think it's a fun feature to include in
my spreadsheet and maybe one day there
will be a trend so that's how I track my
Revenue in one column I have all of my
brand deal dollars and then my ad
revenue and my contract Consulting and
affiliate revenue and then I have my run
rate projection number front and center
so I always have a sense of what I'm
going to make make by the end of the
year which again I kind of mentally
adjust if it's only been a few months
now a lot of you guys asked me to dig
deeper into my expenses as a Creator
camera lights computer what the cost of
each video is and within the context of
living in New York city where the cost
of living is literally insane how to
navigate that so let's tackle these
questions first my production costs as a
Creator are unusually low I have
absolutely bought some gear over the
years I bought a big fancy turbocharged
computer to make my life a lot easier
when I'm editing my videos but to this
day I film everything on my iPhone
seriously that blows away other creators
more than anyone I use these Road
Wireless goto microphones that I've had
for years at this point shout out in the
comments if you remember what video I
bought them in and then I'm using a kind
of shitty $29 tripod from Amazon right
now everything I do use is linked in the
description but it's not much you'll see
now it depends what type of videos you
make if you want to make really
cinematic Vlogs it probably makes sense
to invest in a camera in more gear but
since day one I have always said that I
am a lean deal team Finance joke but to
this day I'm a one-woman show I've never
hired anyone I do all of my own ideation
scripting filming editing as you can
probably tell I mean I'm in a standing
in a parking lot it is my time that I
trade which is worth a lot let's not
discount that but you know it's my job
so I hope it gives some of you some hope
that you don't need a ton of money or
gear to start a YouTube channel quite
the contrary if you have a phone with
internet connection and ideas that's all
you need to start now where my expenses
are not low pretty much everything else
my co-working space is $254 per month I
pay $160 per month for my workout
classes I live in one of the most
expensive cities in the entire world and
some of you asked me on Instagram about
budgeting for where you live and what
your goals are and I have thoughts on
this so when it comes to being a creator
and this really goes for any profession
in addition to the crazy costs that come
with living in a big city you should
also consider the benefits prime example
New York City is as much of a character
on my YouTube channel as I am you can
almost argue that me living in New York
is a business expense I have met so many
friends and other creators from living
here and the networking opportunities
and the meetups are plentiful and then
on a personal level the energy and
motivation that I feel from living here
it's a their discussion but my point is
that living in a city doesn't only come
with the annoyingly High Cost of Living
but also a potential return on
investment for the opportunities that it
might bring of course you still have to
budget and plan accordingly for it I
wouldn't recommend going into debt to
move to New York but my point is try to
take a more holistic analysis that's my
thought moving on to a big topic for us
self-employed folk funding my own
retirement and health insurance what fun
so these are some of the the benefits
that I gave up when leaving the
corporate world the health insurance
part is annoying because my consulting
firm had gold standard health insurance
but the retirement accounts have been
fun so starting with health insurance
when I left my consulting job I started
paying for my own specifically I went
online to New York state of health
evaluated the different plans and chose
a high deductible plan that really just
covers the bare minimum because I am a
healthy person and don't anticipate too
many doctor's visits so it really just
serves to protect me from going bankrupt
if something catastrophic happened but
it is annoying to pay for I'm not going
to lie it's hundreds of dollars per
month and without exaggeration it's
probably my least favorite part of
leaving corporate but that's probably a
good place to be if the thing I miss the
most is the health insurance and I
didn't even use my gold standard health
insurance that much I just liked knowing
that I had it as for retirement accounts
I still max out my Roth IRA every single
year and there are other tax advantage
accounts for self- employed people I
didn't end up funding any of them in
this past year but hopefully this time a
year from now I will have an update for
you on that but to tie a bow on this
very riveting topic a lot of you asked
me to touch on the stress of managing my
own retirement the health insurance part
again is annoying but when it comes to
the retirement Vehicles yes I do miss
out on the 401K match which is a typical
thing that a lot of corporate jobs will
offer you and that you should take
advantage of if you have it cuz that is
literally free money but my income is
higher now and my increased Investments
make up for it that's kind of how I see
it it doesn't cause me too much stress
personally okay tell me why I'm kind of
excited to talk about taxes it was
perhaps my most asked about specific
topic and it's become kind of a big part
of my life because Creator taxes are
definitely more complex than regular
jobs and so I've learned a lot about it
over the last year so let's talk about
it quarterly estimated taxes business
write-offs and having an accountant
versus doing it myself so in a regular
job I keep doing the air quotes but a W2
job as we would classify it here in the
US you can elect for your employer to
withhold part of your paycheck each
month to send to the government in taxes
so come tax day you've probably already
paid everything that you owe to the
government in taxes and then you can
file them yourself in 20 minutes using
Turbo Tax or the likes not the case for
creators I make what is called $10.99
income in the US which is income earned
as an independent contractor so
Freelancers creators anyone who gets
paid for special one-off projects makes
$10.99 income and this includes ad
Revenue that I get from YouTube even
though it's a huge corporation that you
might expect to withhold part of those
paychecks they don't they do for their
corporate employees obviously so now I
get to do that myself and it's not just
one big payment at the end of the year
it's quarterly so you've heard me
reference quarterly estimated taxes
earlier in the video These are taxes
that I pay every single quarter based on
how much I estimate I will earn by the
end of the year and the reason it's
every quarter is for the same reason
that regular jobs will withhold part of
your paycheck to pay to the government
in taxes it's so the government
maintains a steady flow of Revenue and
so the taxpayer doesn't have to pay this
huge lump sum at the end of the year
which kind of makes sense so let's say I
get paid for a brand deal in January and
I pocket the full amount without paying
any taxes on it yet feels great for me
but Uncle Sam doesn't want to wait until
tax day April 15th of the following year
to receive his cut of that for my
non-americans Uncle Sam is the
personification of the United States
federal government so I pay my portion
to Uncle Sam every quarter we already
talked about how I budget for this I
just make sure to have a buffer easily
accessible to pay for that now a fun
topic and a benefit of Creator earnings
are write-offs or business expenses this
includes things like camera gear which
we already discussed I have none video
editing software legal and Professional
Services hired to help your business
website hosting costs office supplies
used to run your business there are a
lot of them I actually found a great
resource on Creator write offs that I
will link in the description now this
all sounds like fun and games but what
does it even mean to write something off
it means that it lowers your taxable
income by the amount of the business
expense so let's say I make $100 in a
year and spend $30 on a camera for my
business then I only have to pay taxes
on $70 of my income so while write offs
are nice to have I do see some people
fall in the Trap of spending more than
they normally would because it's a
business write off so yes it helps lower
your taxable income a little bit and it
does lessen the sting of some expenses
but if it's not a purch that you would
have made otherwise you're not coming
out on top so be aware of the write-off
trap as I call it and finally a lot of
questions about whether I use an
accountant to file my taxes yes I do
even though I do feel like I have a
pretty good hold on the various
components and I do keep close track of
every dollar coming in for reporting
purposes Creator taxes is still a pretty
complex process in my opinion I worked
with 13 different brands last year even
more if you count the ones that I
received affiliate revenue from like
Amazon so it's a lot to track so I
happily pay a trained professional to
file for me and I can also ask him
questions throughout the year as needed
and last but not least let's talk about
longevity as a content creator one of
the main criticisms that I hear about
this career is you know how long can you
keep that up so many channels inevitably
kind of die or the Creator falls off and
stops getting views yada yada and it's
true it is incredibly rare to make this
a living for years on end and so I have
looked at creators who have managed to
do it and I spotted two consistent
things across all of them the first
thing they all do in some shape or form
is continuously provide value this is
how literally any business works you
provide value in some way shape or form
for the customers time and or money so
in the case of a content creator if you
can manage to provide value whether
you're literally teaching something my
mind goes towards Finance creative who
have been around for a while or you're
providing value through entertainment I
think of more personality based people
channels or anything in between creators
who have made this their career for
years continue to provide value on their
channel for a long time which then
allows them to be set up really well for
the second thing that I've noticed they
all do which is diversify I am such a
broken record on diversifying and I'm
one to freaking talk look at my income
it couldn't be more concentrated if I
tried and sure in theory it's not
necessarily a bad thing to have so much
of your in come coming from one source
as long as things are going well but I
just think that it's inherently risky to
have so many of your eggs in one basket
because it's true who knows when the
brand deals will fall through even if
you do continue to provide value you
know the market could slump and Brands
could completely slash their marketing
budgets so what I have seen Mega
successful creators do to increase their
lifespan in this industry is diversify
the revenue stream into other avenues
things like starting their own product
launching a course starting a membership
subscription model of sorts and then
they already have a start from this
audience that they have grown over the
years Emma Chamberlain has her coffee
brand Ali abdal has several different
courses and a book that he wrote my fam
just launched a clothing line that is
killing it so back to me I know I've
been saying this for a long time but I
really do have plans to diversify my
revenue streams over the next 12 months
to take some of the pressure off of that
brand deal section consider this your
reminder for the more in-depth breakdown
on how some of the revenue streams are
calculated and as always if you found
this video helpful please give it a
thumbs up and subscribe I'd really
appreciate it and I can promise that I
will put more and more work into these
videos over the next year so thank you
for being here and until next time
turtle out this is my attempt to do a
perfect circle I'm not even left-handed
I'm using a string well that part I can
fill in myself how about that oh yeah
baby that's not that
bad
sweet LA
PD I didn't ask you anything
yeah oh yeah
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