As a full-time employee, I occasionally did financial retrospectives, which helped me learn more about my spending behaviour. I successfully implemented changes after that. I did go back to bad habits again, but I believe there was an overall improvement. However, in those moments of “learning about my financial patterns”, there was a reassurance that “the next salary will sort troubled areas out, and I will behave afterwards.”

Today, I analyzed my past two months as a full-time creator and broke my expenses and earnings thus far into categories. I suggest that you do it at least after every few months and learn more about yourself! 

Costs and Earnings so far

I am only in the first two months of my life as a creator; I am still busy establishing myself and have no income. I have not taken jobs in the Cape Town market yet and have focused solely on building my YouTube platform. This means I am eating into my savings and relying on my investments. So here’s what I discovered:

• 19.1% of my expenses went into establishing my creative career. This includes the following:

  • travel costs like fuel, permits, camping, and food

  • A new action camera (I paid half and my friends from work paid half)

  • camera insurance (unavoidable)

  • subscriptions like Adobe, music, etc. (unavoidable)

• Coffee was 1.5% of my expenses, and I am determined to bring it down, I promise! This means more coffee at home.

• Eating out was a 1.2% expense, and I am unhappy with myself.

• A holiday was 1.2% of my expenses, which was unavoidable as I had booked it before my resignation.

I can justify the rest of the expenses, such as household, medical, fuel, education, security, electricity, municipal etc. because life needs to move on. I budgeted for these before my resignation.

The good news is that I made an income from my creative life, although the money hasn’t been received yet, which is 21% of my total expenses in the last two months.

Actions

• First, the two areas that need addressing are coffee and eating out expenses. They might seem small in percentage, but this will add up over many months and add unwanted financial pressure on me.

• I can’t change creative life costs; they will fluctuate, but I won’t buy gear unless it’s a do-or-die situation.

• I will go on holiday, but my partner will cover the expenses. So, if you see me somewhere out of Cape Town on holiday, know it’s not me behind the wallet!

Future Direction

All of the above was expected in one way or another, but now I am “in it.” It’s happening! And I have no salary. It makes me nervous. I have realised that I need to keep working hard and intelligent, and laying the foundation to earn through my creative life is the right approach. For example, I am currently busy creating a photography course. I have successfully created courses in the past and earned through them. There’s more, but I will share about that someday.

I suggest you also develop this habit if you haven’t already done so.

Quote of the week: “Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going." ~Jim Ryun

Video of the week: 5 Free Habits Millionaires Use to Stay Ahead by Nischa

Kind regards

Muji