The Future – On and Off the Mic

It’s a boring topic and, as a result, not one that musicians – or people from most other professions for that matter – want to spend lots of time thinking or talking about.  But, ignored, it could become a real problem.

If you are a performer, hopefully you have yourself set up as a business.  Whether an LLC, an S-Corp, or some other form of ‘company,’ it’s important to make it formal.  Knowing that it’s a business and setting yourself up as one are two very different things.  But it doesn’t end there.

The topic of today’s blog is investing.  Well, let me clarify.  I’m not a financial advisor, nor do I play one on TV.  I’m not an attorney or a CPA either, so, like any other blog I write, these are all opinions that I put into these writings each week, so today’s is no different.  But I do know that if you’re not thinking about the future and planning for it, financially, there’s going to come a day when you’re going to very much regret it.  And by the way, it won’t just be one day.  It will be the day after and the week after and – the longer you wait – could become the month after and the year after.

Hopefully your career is generating income for you and you have a bank account just for your business.  But in this day and age of little to no interest, you can’t count on your checking or savings account as being your investment plan.

My fear is that the money that’s coming in from live performances or merch sales or sales of your music is all going right back out in the form of luxuries, not necessities.  Sure, you, as a business, have necessary expenses.  They’re the proverbial cost of doing business.

BUT, buying yet another guitar isn’t a must.  Going and buying hundreds of dollars’ worth of new clothes and justifying it as a business expense because you might wear some of it on stage some time isn’t crucial to the operation of your ‘business.’

Total up the receipts from all your “expenses” and then take a long careful look at those that probably weren’t mandatory.  Then go to a financial advisor and say, “What could I have done with that amount of money?”

For openers, you could do more with it than you can with zero.  But more importantly, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.  These folks will always know some way to put your money to work for you.

You might want to perform for years and years and think you’re going to, but, what if I told you that you need to have enough money socked away to get you to the age of 110 years old?  If you right now fear getting (financially) past ten years from now, never mind to the age of 110, you need a pro to help you out.  The good news is that usually these folks don’t charge you a fee.  They get their cut from who they invest with.

I might be writing this on a sunny day in Florida, but when the proverbial rainy day hits, you want to be prepared.