Financial Stability for Actors

Financial stability for actors. If you've decided to be an actor, odds are that the income is very unstable. We sometimes don't know when we're going to get our next paycheck from acting. So, almost everybody has a day job, a sustaining job, something that they have to do in order to live. And there's no shame in that. It's a wonderful thing when people come to me and they say, "Shannon, I'm all in. I quit my job. Can you get it back?" You can still be allin and have a good paying day job or a badly paying day job, but you're going to need a job to sustain everything that you need in this business. So, make sure that you've got a source of income other than acting. Also, if you're a SAG actor, they have an opportunity now for you to get your residuals deposited directly in to your account, your banking account. So, I highly recommend that you don't have to sign the three cent checks anymore, which I would do cuz I know the value of a penny as well as a dollar. There are two ways of making sure that you have more money. Earning more money or saving, not spending money. So, a lot of times I see an actor gets a good paying job or they get their first residual check and they want to go spend, spend, spend. Well, there's so many books on financial literacy. Maybe giving yourself a small treat as a reward, but saving that money, putting it aside for when you're not employed is so important. Being cautious with your resources. I know some headshot photographers that are wonderful and very expensive. Are they worth it? Yes. But if you don't have the money, that's not worth it. shoot with somebody who's more in your price range until you can afford the people who might be more expensive. Also, reals, real companies, I have met people who spent upward over $8,000 on a reel to help them get other acting work. If you've got it and you want to spend it, fine. But you don't have to spend that much. You can do a self- tape setup at home. You can create a very inexpensive reel. Does not have to be a self-produced short film. If you want to produce your own short film, again, fantastic. You're going to learn a lot about budgeting and about producing and where you want your money to go. Being smart and cautious with your resources, very important. Because creativity needs stability. Creativity, it's so hard to allow yourself to be free if you are desperate. If every job that you audition for, you have to get, I have to get, I have to get, you probably not going to do very good auditions because your objective has been totally turned around. So, the more that you can be an artist, hope that the audition lands for that job, but just that you've done a good job in your audition, that casting director will remember you, and when you're right for something, will get you that job. But if you're coming from a place of desperation, I have to get this job. I've never seen an actor turn in a great audition when they are desperate for work. Unfortunately, there's no shame in getting support. If you're somebody who is supported financially from your parents and they're blessed to be able to do that, fantastic. Thank them for their support. I wouldn't spend crazily or lavishly, but you can use that support. If you've got a spouse or a partner or a friend who wants to help and support you, that's okay, too. Again, no shame in that. And if you don't have somebody to support you, then you understand how to do this on your own. We have for instance at the studio we have scholarships for students or we have mostly work study. We have key students who get a big discount on classes in exchange for working at the studio. That's only available to current students. But once you're in the studio that is always an option. So you can look at other ways of hopefully being able to balance that. Maybe you have a friend who's got a lot of computer equipment and maybe there's something that you can do for them, exchanging services in order to help get your acting career funded and going, but there's expenses. The the casting websites cost money. Unfortunately, you as the actor pay for a lot of what goes on in this business. And I'm grateful to you because that's how I make my living, but so do so many other people. So you don't you'd go broke if you paid all the people who want everything and all the money. But eventually hopefully it's an investment. It's an investment in your future. If you're making money from acting, some of the money that you spend on some of these head shot, reals, classes, publicists can be deductible, but don't be foolish. Don't, this is also partly the mom and me, don't go out and get the most expensive brand new fancy car. Get good transportation. get something you want. But remember, you might not have a job for a long time after the job that you have. And that doesn't mean that you are not a talented actor. I know many wonderful actors who work work work and then they go months without working, years without working. Sometimes they're getting residuals, sometimes they're not. feels like the business is not quite as lucrative as it used to be in the old days. You're going to pay SAG after dues. You're going to pay for your health insurance if you were lucky enough to be able to earn enough to qualify for that. The more stable you can be, I'm going to come back to this again. The less desperate, the more creative you can be, the more you can risk failure because brilliance comes when you're risking failure. But most of the time, if we're desperate, we're not going to risk failure. We have to get this job. Avoid any managers, agents, any reps who want you to give them money. That's number one red flag. I've said it in other videos, but you'd be surprised if they are pushing only one headshot photographer, only one acting class, only one way to get a real together. Really be careful. Again, everybody's trying to get money from the poor actor. And also, speaking of poor actor, it's kind of fun sometimes to be frugal. My students all know that I will not pay for valet parking. I've got to have super cute shoes on in a really sketch neighborhood and be really far away to pay somebody to park my car when it's something I can do for myself. Even though I have a very nice expensive car because I grew up really poor and that's part of my character. It's part of who I am that I have to check myself that sometimes I'm a little too frugal. But you can gify it. You can try to find ways of saving money. Did you know that um IMDb Pro will give you a discount if you're a SAG after member? There's a way to save some money because I was trying to save money and I canceled it and there went all my photos disappeared. So I learned how to still spend the money but save a little bit of it. Sometimes like with me the frugality might continue. doesn't have to. It's it's again no judgment, but it is kind of fun to see in the places and the ways in which you can save money. So, speaking of financial stability, do you know how much it helps me for you to subscribe and tell a friend and ask them to subscribe? It would mean a lot to me. So, I will see you next week. And when you are ready to take a class, whether it's online or in person, our online classes are much less expensive. So, it is quite a savings if you want to join us online. And I will see you next week. Like, comment, subscribe. Yeah, but if they're going to fly me first class, I'll take it. I'm not going to pay for it, but I'll take it if somebody else is. [music]