Smutlancer Monthly Income Report: July 2019
The summer has been a time of unplanned rest (much needed) and navigating new financial realities in my personal life (like insurance premiums that double and rent that’s higher than a mortgage). Business has picked up in the last few weeks — from existing and new clients — so I’ll be curious to see what happens in the fall. For now, here’s what July’s income looked like.
July 2019 Income
July income is primarily based on work completed in June. I bill clients on the last day of every month, and they have 10 days to pay. Affiliate sales tend to pay quarterly, but some pay monthly. I break down my freelance writing between vanilla and sex content because I want to show what’s possible in either category.
- Freelance Writing
- Vanilla Content: $1100.00
- Sex/Adult Content: $5435.00
- Affiliate Sales: $86.19
- Podcast Sponsorship: $100.00
- Sponsored Blog Posts: —
- Website Sponsorship: —
- Banner Ads: —
- Book Sales: $12.88
- Patreon: $362.45
- Consulting: —
- Donations: —
- Bonus (from client): —
- Product Sales: $108.95
Total Income: $7,205.47 (up $859.07 from June)
July 2019 Expenses
Some expenses are monthly, some quarterly, and some annual. Taxes are something I save for monthly to be paid quarterly. A few annual expenses came due this past month, plus we spent a little extra on tools for YouTube videos.
- Web Hosting: $42.98
- Domain Renewals: $74.89
- Podcast Hosting: $32.00
- Canva: —
- Buffer: $10.00
- InLinkz: $2.99 (linky tool for Masturbation Monday)
- Blog Contributors: —
- Taxes: $1000.00
- Payment Fees (PayPal, Stripe): $218.31
- Shipping/Postage: $35.49
- Tech Support: $60.00
- DepositPhotos (stock photo): — $29.00
- MailerLite (email newsletter): $15.00
- Rafflecopter: $13.00
- TubeBuddy (YouTube tool): $69.12 (annual)
- Tube Arsenal (video intro tool): $13.00
Total Expenses: $1,615.78 (up $9.33 from June)
I wish I could keep all my expenses that steady each month. And there’s a good chance we’re going to take a hit soon on taxes. Even with our savvy tax accountant and her kinky math skills, we may not have saved enough.
July 2019 Net Income: $5,589.69 (↑ $849.74 from June)
Would I like an even higher income? Of course I would. Am I satisfied with this? Definitely. The pace at which I worked in June/July felt easy to maintain and left me time for myself and for all my blogs, podcasts, and video-making.
As far as income from my own creations, I’m trying to get smarter about it and focus my efforts. For Loving BDSM, that means going all in on video and downloadable products (eventually — as soon as I write them). Here on Smutlancer, I’m focusing on the Smutlancers Community on Patreon. It’s growing slowly, but it’s been a rewarding endeavor. I feel like I’m legitimately helping other people, and I get to work with Molly Moore which is always a plus.
I don’t see client work every going away completely, but I hope that in a few years it’s a smaller portion of my income. Only time (and effort) will tell.
Is renting your home a temporary thing, or will it be ongoing? I ask because: if you sold your condo, then purchase a new home, there are federal tax advantages because it’s considered investment. If you made money on your condo (on paper — hopefully you kept all your receipts for work done on it while you lived there) and do NOT re-invest in real estate (i.e., buy a different dwelling), you’ll be stuck with capital gains taxes, which… Yes, that definitely means taking a hit on taxes.
Your insurance – if it’s health insurance you’re talking about – is tax deductible as a business expense since you’re self employed. Just FYI, since a lot of people don’t know that. 🙂
(I’m self-employed too, and my income – while steady – is piecemeal, so I have become a rather skilled tax wrangler. If you ever want to chat about it, shoot me an email. I’m happy to share what I’ve learned and to learn anything you have to share!) (Or just to vent — it can be quite frustrating!)
Renting is temporary. We intend to buy again next spring. This was how we got here without accidentally buying something we would end up hating.
And yes, it’s our health insurance. Our subsidy went WAY down once we updated our income so we pay more out of pocket. Our tax person is handling all of those fine details on not paying too much. We’ve set ourselves up as an LLC, S Corp which she says will save us thousands on our taxes, but I’m still waiting to see what that looks like in practice.
And thank you. I may take you up on the offer sometime. 🙂