My Money Rules as a Creative - #65

January 7, 2023

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

creator crumbs

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

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: