Do You Know Where Your Money Goes?

Do you have enough money to concentrate fully on your career? If not, do you know where your money goes?

Why do I ask that question? Because you just might have the money to do those things and might not even realize it! You can only do that, IF, you know where your money goes.

When you need money to do the things you want to do, you have to get creative to find the money you need. But sometimes you don’t have to look very far. I’ve heard actors talk about the fact that they don’t have the money for classes, headshots, to put up a website and in general to just do the things they feel are necessary to promote their career. On the other hand, I see the lifestyle some of them lead and I ask myself, if they don’t already have the money they need.

Something To Make You Think

Think about this. A person who smokes cigarettes, spends on the average, let’s say $8.00 for a pack. If he smokes a pack a day, that’s $240 per month! In a year that’s $2,880! If he smokes a pack every two days that’s still $1,440 per year! Know where your money goes! Let’s take another example, because maybe you don’t smoke.

How about Starbucks! Everyone has their ‘fix’ they need every day, but let’s look at it anyway. Let’s say you spend $3 per day at Starbucks or buying cups of coffee anywhere for that matter. You might spend less or you might spend more if you buy snacks, cakes, muffins, etc. You do that, let’s say 6 mornings per week and maybe once on Saturday when you’re out and about. That’s $18 per week and $72 per month. Multiply that times 11 months and you get $792 per year on coffee! So, am I saying that you shouldn't drink coffee? Of course not. What I'm saying is, how important is it to have that coffee vs getting coffee in some other way that is maybe cheaper. Realize where your money goes.

There are certainly other examples to use, but I think you get the point. What are you spending your money on everyday that you could maybe save on? Do you know where your money goes? I ask that question a lot, because I want you to answer it to yourself.

I ask you Why?

Now I haven’t invited you here to tell you what you should do with your life or your body. I’ve invited you here to make you think. If a person has ‘habits’, costly habits and at the same time doesn’t have the funds to further his career as an actor, the question is why? Why would someone spend so much money on ‘habits’ that may or may not be easy to break, that we may or may not want to break?

For that smoker, how many acting classes could you attend with that money you are using to clog up your lungs every day? Even for the coffee drinker, is there a way to still be able to drink coffee every day and not spend so much money? What if you could cut that $792 in half! For just half that money I could take a technique class for a month! And with the money the smoker of a pack a day spends, I could take two full, three-month long technique classes at the Ward Studio! The first two levels of the Meisner training!

I guess it all comes down to what’s more important to you. If you really want to know where your money goes check out this website link, especially if you want to have some fun with calculations like the ones I just did. The site is dedicated to mortgage and other financial calculators and even has a Starbucks calculator! Go have some fun there. Could be good for your parents too. There is some good information on that site and it sets the stage for you to know where your money goes.

This is what I did

I remember when I made the decision to leave my corporate job to pursue my dream of becoming an entrepreneur, actor, writer and motivational speaker. I had reached one of my first goals in financial terms. I had been successful in saving the money I needed to get to that point; to be able to start my “new life”.

Six months before I left, I had already begun doing something that I had done once many years before. You see, I knew that if I were to stop working to pursue my dream full-time, that I would not be able to just not work for an indefinite period of time. I would have to be very careful about my spending. So, remembering what I did when I first got married, I decided that I needed to keep track in a very detailed way, of my expenditure. I knew that in order to do this accurately, I was going to have to keep track of every single penny I spent. I had to keep my receipts for every bottle of water, ticket, pack of gum, piece of candy, lunch, dinner, drinks, Starbucks, doughnuts, everything! Only in that way would I be able to know exactly what I was spending and on what. This was crucial for me, because without that type of control over my spending, I could risk having to cut short the time I had given to myself in my sabbatical year. It's important to know where your money goes.

I did it over a six-month period. I threw all my receipts into a basket and tallied them into categories at the end of the week.

Try it!

I tell you, if you’ve never done this exercise before, there’s a good probability that you’re in for a surprise. You want to find some extra money? Do this exercise and you’re almost guaranteed to find it. If nothing else, you will start to realize where your money goes and either, why you don't seem to have enough or that you have more than you think you did.

The great thing about it is that from that exercise, you learn where your money goes each month and you learn the things you really need and the things you can do without. You then set your budget and you stick to it! And you will if your goal is important enough to you. Make sure you budget something each month to save also! This savings can be either for your future or for some project you are working on, for headshots, classes or whatever, but get into that habit. And don’t think like some folks do, that just because you can only save such a small amount, say $25 or $50 per month, that it’s not worth it to save! It is and you should. It all adds up!

You Develop A Feeling For Your Spending

For me one of the things that came from keeping such detailed track of my expenditures over a period of several months is that I developed a feeling for what I was spending. Today, I do keep a budget to keep my spending under control and to ensure I stay on track towards my goals, but at the moment, I’m not keeping each and every single receipt for the small things. Having said that, I do have a feeling for how much I’m spending.

For example, if in your budget you allow yourself to be able to go to dinner with friends twice a week and each time you go, you allow yourself to spend $25, then in a week during which you go to dinner three times, you automatically know that you have to cut back in the remaining weeks of the month. Without that feeling of how much you are spending or if you don't know where your money goes, many people get to the end of the month and wonder why they don’t have much money or they might have the feeling they’re spending too much, but not know exactly why.

I can suggest a simple excel spreadsheet in your computer that looks something like this. Put in your formulas so that you automatically get your output once you enter your actual spending numbers.

Rule #1

If in a given month, you don’t spend everything you budgeted, don’t spend it frivolously! Save it and ask yourself how that extra money can contribute to your achieving your goal. Put the money towards that.

You could also use the old-fashioned way of just writing everything down. Take a piece of paper, a notepad and divide it into four columns: Expenditure, budget, actual, difference. In her book The Organized Actor, Leslie Becker has a section on finances. If you follow it, you will definitely know where your money goes. While I’m perfectly capable of setting up my own files and things for my finances and just about anything else I need, her book is a one-stop resource, which I personally find to be very convenient. It has sections about your goals, marketing, an audition log, a log for your finances, budget, taxes, contacts and a calendar. That’s why I use it. I have everything in one spot.

But whatever you do, with all the actors I see around, both new as well as actors who have been at it for a while, I strongly recommend that you constantly know where your money goes by keeping close tabs on your expenses. And like I said, if you do that, you will find some extra money in your expenditures that you might not even realize you had! I repeat, you must know where your money goes!

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Hi Tony
I would like to thank you for helping me with the monologue question I asked in October 2007. I went to the auditions for a Drama course and I am happy to say that I have been accepted as a first-year student at the Tshwane University of Technology. Please keep on sending me those newsletters and let me know where I can find books that will help me in my acting career. Thank you once more. Have a blessed day.
Sincerely
Edward Thaba -South Africa

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Hi,
I was wondering if there is anything established like actingstartup.com in the U.K. because you are amazing and I have learned loads...
Thank You.
Nadine., Newcastle, UK

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Dear Anthony,
Just wanted to thank you for bringing me in to [audition for the video], meet you and chat this Saturday. I was really excited to hear about your working on actingcareerstartup.com and even took a look at it today - it's awesome! You are very well-spoken, knowledgeable and enthusiastic, and it shows through the work that you do! I hope our paths in the industry will cross again and really enjoyed meeting you. Thanks, again and best wishes with your very important work!
Warmly,
Gretchen, NY, NY

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Hey Tony, thanks for the info, yours by far is the most useful, I am 30 years old, and I myself always (secretly) wanted to be an actress, but I never knew where to begin, so thank you. You have given me hope!
Ana C., Tampa, FL

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Hi, I’m John.
You answered a question for me about two weeks ago about how to write my cover letters…I want you to know your advice was helpful. I got called in for a part as an extra in my first movie! It’s not big, but it’s my first one! Thanks for your help!
John, San Diego, CA