15May 2017 by Galen
Business Bank Accounts for Streamers

Business Bank Accounts for Streamers

Personal Finances, Running a Business, Taxes
How many of you have business bank accounts? I’ll admit, it wasn’t the first thing on my list of to-do’s when starting my business. It’s not like there was a ton of cash running through it anyways! There also aren’t many differences between a business and personal account so it’s not that scary of a thing to do. However, it’s a smart idea that can both help you run your streaming business and help your mindset. Why There are two major reasons to get a business checking account. The first is that you then can do transactions in your business name instead of your own name. The second is that you’re separating your business and personal finances. That comes with a whole host of benefits. Doing things in the name…
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20Mar 2017 by Galen
How Should Streamers Use a Tax Refund?

How Should Streamers Use a Tax Refund?

Personal Finances, Running a Business, Taxes
If you got a tax refund this year, that’s both good and bad news. It’s good news because you got some extra cash that you can use to grow your stream or keep you up and running. It’s bad news because it means that you gave the IRS an interest free loan last year. Would you really give anyone who isn’t family or a really close friend the benefit of a no interest loan? I highly doubt I would. So how can you best use your tax refund to help you improve your business? Let’s take a look. Invest in Your Business You just got a couple of hundred and maybe even a couple thousand dollars. There’s something that you have had your eye on for improving your stream- perhaps…
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30Jan 2017 by Galen
How Streamers Should Use Extra Money

How Streamers Should Use Extra Money

Personal Finances, Running a Business, Taxes
Ok, so you followed some good advice (hopefully ours with reverse budgeting) and you’ve built up a solid emergency fund. Maybe you’re someone just looking to go full time so you built up enough to give yourself a the runway you need. Or you’re a full time streamer who recognizes that you income is totally based on you so you need to have a buffer in place for illness, unavailability, or just slow times. You've gotten to the point where you have some extra money (yes, it can happen!) so what do you do next with your earnings? Goals The first thing to consider is your goals. Hard to know what to do with your money if you don’t know what it is you want to do! Do you want…
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09Jan 2017 by Galen
Use Reverse Budgeting

Use Reverse Budgeting

Personal Finances, Running a Business
Do you end up feeling like you’re out of money at the end of each month? Are you ever concerned that one major setback might force you to stop streaming? Traditional budgeting works just fine but it focuses too much on the present and not enough on the future. Let’s talk about reverse budgeting. What isn’t reverse budgeting? What is reverse budgeting not? Negative titles are hard… This is pretty simple. Reverse budgeting isn’t your standard budgeting advice. In a traditional budget (which I still think is really useful) you track and categorize all of your expenses. That way, you can see what you’re spending and match it to your income. It’s a big focus on each category- did I spend too much on eating out this month? Too much…
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02Jan 2017 by Galen
Student Loans for Streamers: Basics

Student Loans for Streamers: Basics

Personal Finances
Are you worried that your student loan payments are holding you back from full time streaming? Does your side income mean you have to pay more in student loans? We’re going to go in to the details of different student loan plans to help ease your mind. We also have some tips on ways your streaming might impact your loan repayments. The Ugly Stuff The statistics on student loan debt in the United States are… pretty horrifying. Skip this paragraph if you don’t want the gory stats. American households carry a staggering 1.385 trillion dollars of student loan debt as of October 2016, putting it behind only mortgages as the largest type of household debt. This number grows by over $2,700 per second and if you’re interested in watching it…
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05Dec 2016 by Galen
11 Ratios for Personal & Business Success

11 Ratios for Personal & Business Success

Personal Finances, Running a Business
  We’ve talked about setting up your taxes and running your stream like a business, but how do you measure the health of your household and business finances? Clearly, each of us is different in our responsibilities and things we have to or want to pay for but my goal is to give you some good rules of thumb. It’s important to remember that since these ratios are rules of thumb there might be things in your life that make it so you need to track it slightly differently! Remember, you want to focus on increasing your income and protecting yourself from downsides- this article is a protect your ass article. Liquidity Ratios What's liquidity you ask? It's a measure of how available your money is for you to use,…
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28Nov 2016 by Galen
Managing Uncertain Income

Managing Uncertain Income

Personal Finances
Do you feel like life was a little easier to predict when you were getting a steady paycheck? You knew how much you were going to get and when you were going to get it. You were able to match your expenses to what was coming in. If you’ve moved to full time streaming I’m guessing those days are long gone. So how do you set yourself up to deal with the uncertainty around your income? Most of it comes down to establishing any control you can. We’ve got a couple tips and tricks that should make life a lot easier and help you focus more on streaming and less on managing finances. Track Your Finances First, you should set up your stream like a business. That means track what…
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