How I actually manage my money as a creator
Let's talk about the part of being a creator nobody posts about: the money. Not making it — keeping it.
When I started, my income was all over the place. One month I'd make a few thousand. The next, maybe a few hundred. And every time money hit my account, it just… disappeared. No plan. No system. Gone.
The problem was never how much I made. It was that my money had nowhere to live.
Money is like water. If you don't give it buckets to land in, it slips right through your fingers.
Step 1: You're a business now — act like one
The day someone pays you for a video, you stop being "just a creator." You're a business. And businesses don't mix everything into one big messy pile.
So I did one simple thing: I split my money into separate buckets. One for taxes. One to pay myself. One to grow.
• Taxes — I set aside about 25–30% of every payment the second it lands. Future-me never gets a scary surprise.
• Pay myself — a set amount that moves to my personal account. This is my "paycheck."
• Grow — what's left funds my tools and the next level.
Step 2: Give every bucket a real home
Buckets only work if they're actually separate. If all your money sits in one account, you will spend the tax money. (Ask me how I know.)
I keep my business banking in SoFi because it lets me make little labeled "vaults" inside savings — so my tax bucket is its own pot I can see and don't touch. It's free to open, the savings earns interest, and I can move money between vaults in a couple taps.
When I'm ready to put money to work for the long term, I use SoFi Invest too, so my banking and investing live in one app instead of five.
Quick honesty note: the SoFi links above are affiliate links — if you open an account through them, I may earn a small bonus at no extra cost to you. I only share tools I actually use myself. And I'm a creator, not a financial advisor — this is what works for me, not personalized advice. Do what's right for you.
Step 3: Automate it so you don't have to think
This is the ADHD-friendly part, and it's my favorite. Once your buckets exist, set them to fill automatically. Every time you get paid, money moves into taxes and savings before you can spend it.
You don't need willpower. You need a system that runs without you.
Start tiny today
Don't overhaul your whole life. Just do this: open one account, make two vaults — "Taxes" and "Pay Myself" — and move a little into each. That's the whole first step.
The creators who keep their money aren't smarter than you. They just gave it buckets first.