Starting Savings for Strippers
This is a long post, so grab a notebook and some water :)
When I first started dancing, I had a hard time making goals and saving money bc I would blow it all, but I’ve come a long way since then so I thought I would share some tips for u baby strippers or even not so baby strippers out there who can’t stop spending your money and want to build savings. Too many times have I seen girls making bank only to injure themselves or have some kind of crisis and end up living with their moms or being homeless for a few months because they did not have savings and could not afford to take the time off needed to recover and have a place to live at the same time.
I’m writing this not only as a reminder to myself to stay true to my goals, but for anyone else who has had a hard time with saving.
Part 1: Prioritizing your income, importance of savings
OK, to start, make a list of all the things you need. This is your top priority, your basic life needs. These things are bills, debt, food, savings, internet, phone, etc. Now, calculate how much those things cost per month. Add them all together. If you don’t know, guess. If you want to go hard, save your receipts for food and gas for a month and add them up. I thought I spent around $500 on food per month and $400 on gas, but when I looked at the receipts I had, it actually only came to around $300 and $120 respectively.
Bills and debt. Rent, electric, phone, car insurance, student loans, etc. These are things that would make my life more complicated if I did not get them done on time every month. Think of taking care of these things first as a gift to yourself, instead of an obligation. You are giving yourself the gift of peace and an easy mind. You are giving yourself shelter, access to the modern world, you are investing in your safety and well being by making these your number one priorities every month.
Basic life necessities. Food, gas, savings. These are things that you want to make a priority right along side bills and debt, but don’t prioritize expensive, organic food or nice clothing above having a roof over your head. A frozen meal or two and a thrift store sweater will keep you alive just as much as that $6.99 bag of kale or $300 Nordstrom sweater will, which can wait until after you’ve paid your rent and other priority bills.
Necessary luxuries. Internet, gym, tanning. These are things that, for me, go hand in hand with living well and comfortably, but are not exactly necessary and can be cut off in emergencies. These are not priorities and come after you take care of the things listed above. If you have to choose between tanning and putting gas in your car, then it’s better to choose gas and be sad and pale instead :)
Now that you have written a list of your basic life needs per month, add up the cost of the things on your list. This is your monthly total for your bills. Divide this by 4 and you have your minimum weekly goal. I personally only make goals per week, but do what works for you. This is important to know, because you need to know how much you are comfortable saving per shift in order to still live comfortably and not feel strained to pay your basic life needs every month. The percentage that you put towards savings is going to be different for everyone depending on what you average at work, and what you make per week. I started out with 20% savings, but I am currently doing between 20% and 90% depending on what I make that night and how over or under I am from my weekly goal.
You need savings because you need an emergency fund (and if you want to take this job seriously, you need to have investments and an IRA, but this is about savings), and you are going to have to pay quarterly taxes. There is nothing more important than having emergency savings. Emergency savings is the most important investment you can have if you do not have anything to fall back on, and especially if you are living night-to-night off your stripper income as so many girls do. You WILL need it at some point and you will thank yourself for it. Make this a priority FIRST if you do not have an emergency fund yet. Before paying debt. You need savings.
An emergency fund should be (minimum) 1 months priorities/ needs/ necessities (everything listed above). Ideally, your emergency fund is a year’s worth of expenses.
Saving a percentage of your money each shift also allows you to have money to pay quarterly taxes on your income and allows you to save for future investments.
Ok, now that you the importance of savings, let’s try to make saving something that, if you are like me, satisfies your need for self indulgence.
Part 2: Rewarding yourself
Now that you know how much you need to make per week in order to live comfortably and save, we can get into working and rewarding yourself. My favorite part of being a responsible adult (lol) is rewarding myself.
What I do, is I make a list of things that I want, and reward myself based on what goals I accomplish. I reward myself w something small for going in to work everyday, like getting a Starbucks drink. I reward myself w something nicer for achieving my weekly goals, like getting my nails done or buying an outfit or taking a day or two off.
Anything that is treating yourself, basically, don’t treat yourself until you’ve gotten something done.
What I do is, before every shift, I write down what goals I am working towards for the week. Goals include not only bills, but things I want to get for myself like saving for a car or surgeries or investing or a vacation. And after every shift, I allot the money that I made into those categories (including savings).
Write your goals for the week before each shift everyday so they are fresh in your mind. I write mine down in my work journal that I keep for every day that I work. After the money goes towards my priorities for the week, I get to choose a reward for myself. Depending on what bills I pay and what gets done, I choose a reward or two (or three).
The most important part of creating savings is not spending your money. This means keeping yourself busy. By making more money. This has been a huge learning process for me with depression because sometimes I just can’t go in to work and I want to treat myself with shopping or going out to eat to make myself feel better even though I haven’t reached my goals yet. The way I push through this is by self-managing my depression in my own ways that work for me, and focusing again on my goals when I feel better.
It’s important to make your goals the most important thing in your mind, and the way you do that is by making yourself do it. It works the same as anything you want done, you just make yourself do it. Look at your goals each day. Get ready for work. Go in. Don’t think too hard about anything except what you want to achieve. Try working for 15 days straight just to see what happens when you do it. It’s actually a lot of fun and sooo rewarding looking at what you accomplished after that 15 days. I keep a work journal for this reason, to look back and see how far I came in two weeks. It’s not as daunting as it sounds.
I hope this helped someone, and I hope it makes sense. It’s more of a post about how to motivate yourself to start saving and get yourself up out of the water when you feel like you are drowning a bit. If you have any questions or is something isn’t clear, feel free to ask :)
