by Sandy Rustin Fleischer

Sandy Rustin Fleischer is a working actress and a mortgage broker with Americorp Funding (www.acfpartners.com) in New York.

From birth to eighteen, a girl needs good parents.
From eighteen to thirty-five, she needs good looks.
From thirty-five to fifty-five, a good personality.
From fifty-five on, she needs good cash.
I’m saving my money.
–Sophie Tucker

Actors are notoriously broke. There are plays, movies, songs, and poems written about the life of the struggling artist. A cliché? Perhaps. A truth? Most definitely.

Actors take jobs as waiters and personal assistants so they can work in cold dark theatres for free. They earn their keep as nannies, carpenters, secretaries and substitute teachers so that they can audition for people who may or may not ever look up from the table. They want to pay the rent, their electric bill and their cell phone, but mainly they want to fulfill their creative soul. Money slowly earned is money quickly spent. Vocal coaching, dance class, sheet music, and vitamin water. That perfect dress that is sure to land her the role. That vibrant blue tie that all auditioning leading men must own. Money in the pockets of actors is simply hard to come by. But does it have to be that way?

I say no.

What if every actor took a fraction of the passion and motivation dedicated to their profession and focused that energy on creating financial security. Would that not in turn directly affect their artistic freedom? I say yes. If you were able to save $1,000/year for 10 years, you would have $10,000. $10,000 wisely invested at age 30 can easily evolve to $100,000 by retirement. Start now.

If you are earning money, whether as a temp or a Broadway star, you are in a position to start thinking about saving wisely. No matter your day job or your current acting resume, your dream to be a professional actor is vivid and unwavering. Make your goal for financial freedom just as steadfast. Help put yourself in the “fiscally secure” category so that when the role of Lennie comes up in “Of Mice and Men” at that no paying, little theatre in Midtown ~ you can jump at the chance without having to go on blood pressure medication. Financial autonomy leads to artistic freedom; a dream at the top of every actor’s wish list.

10 STEPS TO SAVING MONEY (THAT EVEN AN ACTOR CAN DO)

Spend one month tracking your expenses. Start on the first day of next month. Keep a little journal with you at all times. Every time you buy something (cash, check, or credit card), even a cup of coffee, record it. Your journal should be as detailed as the example below:

September 1, 2010

Cup of Coffee, Bagel, and pack of gum: $4.50
Weekly Subway Pass: $24.00
Dance Class: $11
Water Bottle & Apple: $1.75
Repair tap shoes: $7.50
Lunch with Abby: $11.14
Sheet Music Copies: $1.10
Order in Chinese: $12.35
DVD Rental: $5.00

TOTAL: $78.34

After one month is over, total your expenses and average your daily expenses. So, if you learn that you spend $2,200 a month (including rent and bills), then you are spending an average of $73.33/ day.

Take out a highlighter and your journal. Highlight every entry that (in retrospect) you could have done without. Add them all up. Marvel at the number.

Commit to lowering your monthly spending by 5% the following month. So, if you are operating on a $2,200 monthly expense, decide to spend no more than $2,090 the following month. Agree to put that otherwise spent money in a savings account.

Sign the following contract with yourself:

I ­­­­­­­________ swear to myself that I will save $______ by the end of next month.

Open a high earning savings account at the same bank you have an open checking account. Make sure your accounts are linked and that you can access your savings acct from an ATM machine.

Begin to avoid purchasing items that appear highlighted on last month’s list. Make small life changes to help save money. (ie, make coffee at home and use a thermos, refill your water bottle with tap water, buy fruit at the grocery store and take snacks with you, eliminate channels you watch less than once a month from your cable plan, determine how many minutes you really use on your cell phone and make sure your cell phone plan accurately reflects your true needs, etc)

At the end of every week, transfer 5% of last month’s weekly expense into your savings acct. So, if you spent $2,200 last month, this month you should transfer $27.50/week into your new savings acct. Set up an automatic transfer with your bank so that $27.50/week goes into savings without you having to think about it.

Continue to operate on your new budget for 3 months. Then repeat above steps.

Repeat step 8 until you’ve decided that you are operating at your minimum expense ~ while still maintaining a manageable and happy lifestyle. Pat yourself on the back. You are now actively saving money every month. NOW … take the next step.

EARN MORE MONEY. Figure out one way to earn a little extra income each month. Take that extra, unexpected income and stash it away in your savings acct.

These 10 steps are just the beginning … master saving a little every day, and you are on your way to financial security and artistic freedom!

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