- [Narrator] I work as a model, content creator,
and wardrobe stylist.
I'm 36 years old living in Jersey City
and I make about $100,000 a year.
Last year, I made $30,000.
This year, I actually tripled that.
And I think just because a lot of people
are on their phones way more during the pandemic,
my line of work sort of just skyrocketed.
I have 14.8 thousand followers on Instagram.
I think it would be surprising to most people that,
even though I have a smaller following on Instagram,
there's so much money to be made.
I charge $1,000 per one Instagram post with one image.
I have about $55,000 in savings, 1600 in a Roth IRA
and other investments.
So that's in cryptocurrency and also a mutual fund.
I have zero credit cards and one debit card.
I used to be in a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot
of credit card debt, roughly around $30,000.
I had no way to get out until I found
this nonprofit organization where they take
your credit cards, they reduce all of your APR finance rates
and you get out of the program in five years
and so I'm completely out of all of that credit card debt.
After taxes, my take home is about $7,000 a month.
$1,500 a month goes to rent, $615 a month goes
to car payments and car insurance, $112 goes to utilities.
I spend $200 on monthly subscriptions.
That leaves around $4,573 a month to spend.
Here's my last debit card statement.
My most frequent purchase is definitely clothes.
The reason why I purchase so many clothes
is because I do a lot of fashion hauls and try-ons
on Instagram and YouTube.
I probably return about 50 to 75% of the clothes that I buy.
I spent $37 at The Gap, $51.74 at Nasty Gal,
$39.99 at Abercrombie and Fitch,
$43.24 at Nordstrom Rack and $99.90 at American Eagle.
A lot of people think that being an influencer is cool
because you get a lot of free stuff, a lot of free clothing,
a lot of free gear.
But free does not mean money and I need to pay my bills,
so it's really not sustainable
unless you have other sources of income.
The next charge is $11.68 and $4.21 at Sweetgreen.
I spent $43.48 on Thai food.
I do not go out to eat very often.
I spent $167.56 at Whole Foods,
$51.49 at Trader Joe's and $63.84 at Key Foods.
I was diagnosed with celiac back in 2015,
which makes eating out
and shopping for groceries very difficult.
So I tend to go to not only one grocery store,
I go to three, sometimes four,
to get all the things that I need.
I spent $19.95 on Casting Networks.
Casting Networks is an online service
for models and actors to self-submit.
I submit probably up to 20 to 30 times a day.
And for therapy, I spent $25.
Self-care is really important to me
and I typically spend $85 on a manicure every three weeks.
But it's super important because it's part of my business.
I have to have, generally speaking, nude colored nails
when I go to set, when I'm booked for modeling gigs.
I spent $135.82 cents at the SLS South Beach Miami Hotel.
I had gone down to Miami to help out a friend
and her boyfriend for a basketball tournament
and then I spent a couple extra days at the SLS by myself.
I spent $180 on a pair of amazing Dolce Vita boots.
I would never have ever spent this much money
on a pair of boots before, but now that I feel
like I'm living a little bit differently,
I decided to splurge and it is all about self-care
in my book.
I put $500 a month into my Roth IRA.
While I had some extra free time during the pandemic,
I started following some feminist financial women
and they completely inspired me
and I just dove right in into wanting to learn
as much as possible about the industry
and I started investing.
I invested $500 this month on Coinbase.
I invested $900 in Bitcoin and it's currently at $1,701.97.
I don't plan on pulling out anytime soon.
I think that this is a long-term investment for me.
$150 on Venmo. That was for a gift for my photographer.
$49.95 on a monthly Fabletics subscription.
I no longer pay that monthly subscription
because I now work with them
and they give me free clothing every month.
I spent $20.51 cents on renters insurance.
$10.66 cents on Amazon.
I am a huge dork at heart and I belong
to an amazing book club full of amazing women.
I will buy my books off of Amazon,
but I try to buy hardcover books and I try to buy them used.
I spend about $25 a month on getting my laundry done.
Because I don't have a washer and dryer in my apartment,
I take it to get it done every three to four weeks.
$58.16 on an Edible Arrangement.
This was for my sister-in-law's birthday. It was a gift.
$25 on Starbucks.
Buying coffee is definitely a treat for me,
It's not something that I spend money on often.
I spent $115.14 on health insurance.
So I essentially didn't have health insurance
for probably five or six years.
What made me get health insurance is probably my mother.
$212.18 at Walmart.
They have really, really, really good clothing.
It's really important for me
to become even more financially literate
because nobody taught me about any of this stuff,
I've completely taught myself.
I just feel like the finance world has been something
that men have sort of ruled and ran
and we can be independent, financially.
We as women just need to be more in control
of not only our finances, but our bodies,
and everything else.