Running a Business, Filmmaking, and Debt-Free Living #142

Join us for an inspiring journey with Ashley as he transforms from financial hardship during the COVID-19 pandemic to an entrepreneur in the film industry by 2023. Once reliant on credit cards and balance transfers, Ashley's story illustrates how powerful a switch of plan and mindset can be! Today, he owns a successful limited company and enjoys a freelance career in film, and we're thrilled to have him on the Podcast.

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Transcript

financially, I wasn't ready. I hadn't finished paying my debts. I hadn't developed my emergency fund yet. I hadn't quite got everything in place. But I just took the plunge and I just had to go at that moment. I just, that was it.
you've tuned in to the art of money and communication podcast. My name is Joshua. And this is the place where you can come on Wednesdays to hear inspiring financial stories from everyday normal people just like you. And just like me. Now we have Ashley on the podcast today, who is a listener of the BOD has been listening since March time, and maybe through every single episode had some correspondence between us on Instagram. I've got a great financial story telling us about how he's overcome debt. working as a freelancer transitioning from implied life. Enjoy this episode. Ashley, thank you so much for coming on the art of money communication podcast, really, really looking forward to this conversation today, because I have another guest in a good couple of weeks. So tell us a little bit about yourself where you're from and a little bit about what you do as well. My name is Ashley. I come from Manchester. Originally, I went to Union High Wycombe. So it's a Buckinghamshire New University, study film production there, then that was 2017. I graduated. So I've been trying to work in film production since then, took on videography, jobs, video editing jobs. And so now post COVID, I found myself as a freelancer full time doing both of those things do videography, and working my way into film and TV, which is very difficult. That's great. And how's the industry? Have you found it changed a lot since 2017? I imagine it's, I get the sense that it's a essentially the moves very quickly, technology changes, right? I'll be honest, it in 2017, I was only just finding my feet. So I think this is the thing, basically, by the end of 2019, that was just starting to pick up a little bit of work. It was it was the ball was finally rolling and the penny dropped as how to get the work. And then obviously, after 2019, it all went south didn't it, you know, felt like I was just learning what I needed to do. And then basically feels like this massive two year gap where I wasn't doing any of that stuff.
And then last year, I decided to go for it again and put both feet in and try and just get whatever work I could. And it's the first time in my life that I decided to actually go full time freelance so actually did manage to get on some of the bigger jobs, some of the BBC jobs, Netflix, Amazon, things like that. So I could actually experience what was being done, the kind of technology that people were using now, of the way things are monitored now. And things are done wirelessly as there was a time where a lot of what I do so to explain on set is a camera system is we're often looking after monitors for people to watch for the director to see script supervisor to see and all the rest of the crew. And back in the day, you might just set up a couple of big old monitors, and everybody has to crowd around that, you know, but now we've got all of these little wireless devices that almost so many people can even just go on the phone and watch it on the phone. That's very modern age, I would say you went to university COVID happens and that really muddied the waters so to say, and it's the same for a lot of my fellow colleagues or opera singers. COVID it really disrupts the flow. So when you leave college you have that momentum, you have your your industry contacts, and they can get you get your gigs and get you moving. And for that to be taken away is a big was a big shock for people and that momentum was lost a little bit. How did you cope with that? How do you said that you you found yourself some opportunities? How did you go about doing it? To answer the question? How did I cope? Not very well, I will say when when COVID kind of hit so at the time, I was at a three day a week, part time job editing for a couple of other managers TV channels. So I would make little promos and trailers that tell you what's coming up.
So that was that was a nice little safety net. And then the rest of the time I would freelance I would find bits of video work where I could.
And altogether it was quite a comfortable Lincoln pretty much within days, you know, everything's just getting canceled. I mean, you know yourself. That's, that's kind of how it went down. So I managed to survive a little bit with that three day a week job, it was enough to keep me going well, I was living with my partner at the time.
I think she got furloughed, actually, but she'd quite luckily just got into a management position shortly before further so she had a pay increase. And then further, it was amazing for her but
we're at these two different ends where I think she was bored out of her head. Whereas I was just like, I wish I was not having to work through this, you know, but I did see the opposite side. It wasn't a pleasant experience. I think for a lot of people to find themselves but just nothing to do and nowhere to go all the time. So I can see both sides of that one.
yeah
yeah,
right
yeah
for some people, it just didn't seem to make much of a difference. And that, to me, it's a completely different world. I've spoken to some people since then, particularly. And so at the moment, even though I freelance, I have a little temp job that I go to every now and again, a couple of days a month, over the winter, when it's quiet, I'll do more days. But anyway, the people that work there, because it's, it's a private hospital. So when COVID happened for them,
although they didn't have patients, as such, the admin work was still being done, on people were just employed, and they just went to work like normal. So the whole of COVID, they just carried on getting a wage they carried on go into work. And they carried on being able to pay the mortgage and things like that, you know, so it was, it was for them, I think, to be able to understand my side of things, where I just kind of lost everything.
It it's a massive polarity, really, you know, and it's hard to understand each other in the moment when it happens. It's very easy to to see all of the negative points, but I'm definitely someone and this is actually ties into your story as we'll get into. But I think those experiences will stay with you and actually motivate you to find solutions. Whereas perhaps the people that coasted through because they didn't go through that they won't, they won't graph they wanted the temp job, they won't find solutions. And I always think there's something to be learned from that. So let's let's talk a little bit about your, your personal finance outlook before COVID. So you were you're in university, did you? Do you have any you aware of money? Did you have any personal finance habits at that point, I spent most of my 20s just being terrible with money in general. I went to uni quite late when I was going to uni I was 24.
But I moved out when I was about 1920. Looking back that seems so young now to then just move into with with a girlfriend that I was with then and just take on a house together, I had a car I would drive to work just be a proper adult, basically. But
looking back, it seems very young. And it's the proofs in the pudding really, I did didn't quite get it right, I didn't quite have my money in the right places. My car insurance was astronomical. I couldn't afford it for sure. And so what I would do is I would use like not percent purchase cards to buy the insurance. Inevitably, the next year when it's due, I've not paid enough of it off. And now I'll get a balance transfer card, transfer that over. But then also the new insurance and then it just bit year by year started to build up
to the point where funnily enough, I've never really paid interest on credit cards besides the transfer fee when I've shifted it. But
yeah, I was talking to someone today. And they were saying so like, how many balance transfers have you actually done. And I was like, I've actually just been doing this for 10 years. That's, that's what I did.
It's a crazy way to manage money, but it kept me out of interest. But it didn't, I'd never got ahead for all that time. I just never got ahead. I didn't really get to save any money. And I didn't spend money on silly things. I didn't go on holidays, I didn't buy fancy cars or clothes. I lived quite small. But it still wasn't enough. You know,
when it came to uni, it was quite a relief because I got my student loan and my student grant and I think I even applied for from the unit like a bursary or scholarship, one at one or two. So I got a bit of extra boost from there. And I was like, This is great. I've got all this this, a lot of it free money.
But it really was kind of essentially just paying for me to exist at that time.
Because when I moved to uni, I went with my first girlfriend who I was who have originally moved out with we went to unit together, except she went to do acting somewhere else and I went to do film production.
But because we were a couple we couldn't do I couldn't do student accommodation. And we couldn't do how shares really it was really difficult to find a house share. But we managed to get really lucky in working to find and anybody who's from Wickham or knows who knows that 800 pound a month for a two bedroom flat. It's amazing.
We got very lucky got Gumtree of all places which have been
Right.
It's unbelievable Sammy. I was doing the due diligence looking through Rightmove and all the normal channels and you know, my girlfriend had seen this one through Gumtree.
And I was like, This sounds really dodgy, you know? You're in Princess on Gumtree.
But we said, let's check it out. And to be honest, it was a really nice guy. He wasn't much older than us. And I think he'd come from quite a well off family anyway. But he was basically going out to Dubai to train to train football teams over there. Well, I think it was kids football or something that I was teaching football. Anyway, so he just wanted someone to basically pay his mortgage while he was away.
And that was fine for Well, we were living there, that was okay. But then it came to my third year of uni. And we, me and my girlfriend at that time went separate ways.
But that left, I was still at uni. So that left me staying in the flat, still kind of in contracts.
Paying it for myself, which, you know, pay in Japan to move between two people is quite manageable, but on your own as a student. It Yeah, I was, I don't know how I managed to when I think back to it. Now, I probably would have ended each month because I was working a bit as well, I probably would have had about 12 1300 a month total. And by the time my rents gone out and the council and all the bills, I think I had maybe 100 pound left to live on. And I don't know how I did it. But somehow Claude through that.
But I think that's probably why I didn't have savings, then it's probably why my credit cards sort of stepped up a little bit.
So when it came time to graduate uni, it was a case of right. That's work work, pay off as much debt as I can if I can.
But even then it was it was still a struggle ended up sharing.
I met a new girlfriend and we're sharing a house with another flatmate. So it was three of us share in a flat, which brought my costs down considerably.
So I was able to get a little bit ahead. And then we moved into our house together eventually, which was the one we ended up in COVID. And if you follow in the story so far, I've moved around about six times in five years, and it was just way too much.
So yeah, by the time COVID was coming around, I'm starting to pick up the pace, my debts come down, my incomes reasonable, I hadn't really properly started saving because I've just been hammering the debt instead.
So when COVID did happen, and I lost a lot of that work, and then further down the line me and that girlfriend went separate ways.
great luck, really.
Again, I ended up in that house on my own.
With a slightly higher rent than the flat was an a much smaller income. So what little savings I did have disappeared. The credit cards I've relied on a little bit more for a short amount of time.
And even my car decided to betray me my car that I had at the time I had it for six years and the head gasket, when would you so I ended up having to buy another car in the middle of lockdown with no real money. So I borrowed some money from family to help get the new one. Because I kind of needed it to be able to get around for the jobs for the filming work. It's not something
this is maybe where I could have thought of things differently. I thought you know what, maybe I can leave the car and try and find some just edit from home.
But you know, it wasn't, it wasn't within my brainwave, it wasn't in my thought patterns. To do that to change things my instinct was to try and carry on with what I was trying to do in the first place.
So yeah, and I think eventually I did move out of that place and I decided I will just come home.
So I moved back in with my parents because it just seemed like the most sensible financial decision to make at the time.
A year after having that car that one blew up as well the head gasket went on that one. And even to this day, that's that's two years ago now I'm still paying for that car and I don't even have it on that. So pain still paying it off painful. It's It's horribly painful. So I'm paying for that and also my my new car which is great.
So the plan was when I came home the plan was okay get a full time job. Just forget the freelance stuff for now just just do a normal job. And it was a work from home job and it was quite good. I kind of did get a bit of a lifeline for some friends who worked for this company that to do with eSports industry.
So I was working at home which saved me a lot of money and it was a decent enough income. So I worked for them for about a year. And again I just hammered what I had down to very little was quite happy with how that was going can be quite comfortable to live in that place where it's it's a zero 0% Balance Transfer. I can make this work rationalize. And I've got some some friends out there that that live by this mentality and have been doing
winging it for 1015 years. And you can get stuck in that that cycle because you feel 100% Yes, you are reliant on your income, but you are. It's not that you're living paycheck to paycheck. But it's it's month to month in a way, but you can just, you can make it work somehow. And you're still able to have those, those luxury. So for you was the car or living in a nice apartment, whatever it was, you could still make that work. But one wrong turn. And then you're you're under pressure a little bit. And I'm intrigued to know, what was it that that made you want to switch things up? A little bit it was there. The last straw? So to say at some point?
Is this the decision to go for? Yeah, or just to say, right, I'm fed up of having the credit cards, I want to pay off the debt, what made you want to attack the debt like that all go freelance. It was it was I was I was fed up of it. And I just thought, you know, as long as I'm living with my parents and my overheads low, there's really no excuse to eliminate that debt. It's it should disappear. Because
I did want to save money. And I wanted to get into my own house. Again, the plan was to have the full time job and then go rent my own place again,
which I could afford with that particular job, especially moving up north as well, it was a little bit cheaper.
So but I didn't want to do that, without having paid the debt off.
That was the mentality, essentially, I just did not want to move out of my parents house until I had all that debt paid off. And was relatively comfortable with a bit of savings it easy moving back to your parents or did that was that somewhat of a cycle? I imagine people struggle with that. Because you've had your freedom. And then to go right? I'm going to make this step now. But it's in order to get ahead all. Maybe you get along with your parents, you go oh, it was fine. Tell me a little bit more about that.
Yeah, and it's a really good point, actually, because you're right, it's not an easy thing to do. And especially, I mean, I'm 32 now. So I was 30 when I moved back. And it wasn't an easy decision to make. I know a few people who've done it actually. And it's been quite comforting, because a lot of people in my industry
that I speak to have said the same Do you know, when they would find themselves living on the road and all the work disappeared, they kind of just gave up and went to the parents because they couldn't see another route really.
So it was quite comforting to find a lot of people have done it, but even still, psychologically, it doesn't feel nice, you know, it doesn't feel nice that you're going back to relying on somebody again, you know, there's still a lot of things that I've learned through coming through that hardship. And a lot of it was learning to really just pay off my debts and put that money aside, properly. But it also spurred me on to then start looking at finance books, and listening to finance podcasts. And, you know, watching people that came across the Dave Ramsey on YouTube, and manifesto was probably the one of the first
that I looked into. And
it was the constant sort of listening to that sort of advice and the, and the finance guide, it sort of kept me on track, in a way. It was like, it was almost like it became a mantra that even though I wasn't happy, really with where I was at, I could see the goal ahead. And I think that was really important for me to be able to stick on track and hit those targets and, and every time I threw 567 100 pounds away onto a credit card to pay off. It hurt a little bit. But at the same time, I mean, it hurt a lot, really. But at the same time, I could see the end of the line, I could see the light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak. It's a bit cliche, but it's true. It gives you that little bit of hope. Once you've dealt with that little bit of pain, you can actually see further ahead again, and you think you know what if I just keep doing this, maybe not even in a year, I'll be where I want to be and that's that can only be a good day, my wife says a similar thing. So when the first of the month comes around as a direct debit that goes out to the investment payments, and she says, Oh, that hurts. That hurts. But I have to say yeah, no, it's just going to another account. This This is money that's that's for you for future you. It's not as if it's disappearing. But it's the same. It's interesting. It's the same psychology and it's the same for paying off debt isn't it even though it hurts it's for the greater good and sometimes we have to think about the bigger picture rather than that the immediate emotions were smart. It's hard, isn't it? Yeah.
So exactly that and it's actually what you just said then it's thinking of future you that is basically what again, spurred me on. I can't remember where I read that it may have been I was reading a book by Vex king I think it was called Good Vibes good life. And it may have been him that said it or maybe saw somebody else but a lot of his attitudes to life inspired me a little bit and that that idea of looking after future you is kind of what kept me going because it's hard to explain.
input you know, present me may not have been happy and present me wanted to go and buy things to make myself happy or do things to make myself happier
in that moment, but future me would have been looking back and going so you know what I could have done with that money, because I need that now. So it's like a little bit of a conversation with future you where you've got to remember future you need present you to get on it and and get your stuff together, we have a really hard time of for present me thinking of future but there's a real disassociation between trying to put yourselves in the shoes of you in the future. Because you haven't been there. You don't know what it's going to be like. So it's much more comfortable. But I I so admire that you had the foresight to come up with this plan and you started, you got your shovel, he started digging, I think that's that's, that's amazing. It just goes to show that with the with the right knowledge with the right tools, you can you can achieve stuff, which is which is great. Now, this is normally the part of the podcast, where I encourage you to go to the show notes or a whole host of referral codes. But I've run into somewhat of an administrative nightmare. Because every time I want to add a new referral code, I have to manually go for every single podcast episode to add it. So I've added a new plan, I'm going to create a Google Doc, that means whenever there's an update, you're going to see the latest version, why I didn't think of this earlier. Don't ask me. And something like I'm going to add a new one. It's ID mobile, because I've switched to ID mobile recently, you remember that I was with three mobile, I was paying around 16 pounds a month, right? That's 192 pounds a year, I switched to ID mobile, fantastic. I got the first six months for four pounds 50, which is 27 quid. And then beyond that, it's nine pounds a month totaling 81 pounds. And that is a saving per year of 111 quid plus through ID mobile, you get free data roaming in any EU country, which is very boring because I travel a lot. But also I also got three.
I can never say this. Three free months of Apple Music and Apple TV as well. And if you refer someone yourself, you get like 30 pounds curry vouchers or something like that. So anyway, basically, all of these referral codes are sweet deals. So go to the Google Doc, check them out and sign up for something if you're a bit of a money saver. Check it out and be savvy. Now let's go back to the episode. Now I want to talk a little bit about you found this this fixed income job full time employment, but then you decided to go self employed so I speak about a lot about self employment on the podcast purely selfishly because I'm self employed. But I'm intrigued what what was enticing about being self employed for you what made you take the jump, ever since I came out of uni, the whole reason I went to uni is because I wanted to work in the film industry. I wanted to do videography. And I wanted to work for myself, I never was comfortable in a job.
There's something about me that just doesn't. It doesn't appreciate routine at that, you know, it doesn't appreciate the same sort of sameness, I guess.
And I ended up cheating. I would always I think the longest time I had a job was three years and I would change it up every every now and again because I just I just had to do something else. I couldn't bear just that same job all the time.
And with freelance work, I had a taste of it doing it part time.
And I loved the fact that almost every week I was doing something different I was traveling somewhere else I was meeting different people. And it's it's that's a tricky one that I might have to come to later is how you need to humble yourself from that a little bit as well.
But I this is what it is the motivation was that I'd gotten a taste of the freelance life and the bit of freedom because there is freedom but you know yourself it's also restrictive in its own way you've got the freedom to do what you want and say no to whatever jobs you want but you can only afford to say no to so many jobs. You know and if you want to go on holiday, you got to kind of save twice the money because you got to you know you don't get holiday pay and you'll lose out on money while you're not being there. The grass the grass is always greener right and I can remember so when I lived in Germany for for a couple of years and I was in an applied position there and I was constantly crave house I want to get out I want to get out I want to experience the Freelancer world. I miss it. I miss it because I had been Freelancer before that. And as soon as I became freelancer, I went oh, this is great. But I do miss that that that structure. I do miss that regular it was it was very nice that payment coming every month and knowing what it was like and so the grass is always greener, but I resonate with what you say because I think there is something creative and freeing about being self employed. You can go where the wind takes you and you're in a different place.
So every every day, every week, if that's what you choose, I think for those who are inclined that way, it's very rewarding. You know, I think if if if you don't like, not knowing where your money's come from, if you really feel uncomfortable under those conditions, and having to hustle pretty much every day for the next paycheck. It's it's not a comfortable life for anybody, but there's a lot of people who just really are not okay with that. Whereas this, there's others, you know, like myself, who I quite enjoy, I quite enjoy that hustle, it is stressful. And I do find that you just don't stop thinking, you know, your mind is just constantly going, but
after doing it for the last year or so, I don't think I'd ever go back. And I've said this a few times, I could never see myself going back to a full time job. It just, I love this too much. You know, as difficult as it is, I love it far too much. And I think, to come full circle answer that question, the kicker that really did get me to go was that, particularly after COVID, I saw a lot of people, as we know, not doing any work anymore, the work just seemed to disappear. But at some point last year, it seemed like everybody that I knew was suddenly really busy again. And I was like, great, well, I want a piece of that. I want to do what you're doing. I don't want to be here because you know, in the job that I was doing. Unfortunately, a lot of it was based at home, which didn't, it didn't suit me. And
from a health perspective, I have spinal scoliosis, which for the most part isn't that big of a deal. But the worst thing I can do for it is to sit at a desk or work at a desk at any point.
And no matter what kind of exercise I did, and I definitely didn't want to be on painkillers forever, no standing desk standing up while you work. All of these little things, you know, trying to find the right chair.
None of it really helps, I would spend all day just becoming more and more in pain, and uncomfortable as the day went on, to the point where I'm struggling to focus on my work anymore. And then you spend the evening just trying to recover from that, only to do it the next day. And the best thing I've ever done for my back really is to just leave desk work and just go out in the field.
I'm in much better health than I ever have been. And I think for anybody who's lived with any kind of chronic pain, you'll know that it has its effect on your mental health as well.
So all of that time stuck indoors during a job I wasn't 100% dedicated to plus being in pain the whole time. It was like no, I've got to get out. And at the time that I decided to go out.
Find financially I wasn't ready, I hadn't finished paying my debts. I hadn't developed my emergency fund yet. I hadn't quite got everything in place. But
I just took the plunge and I just had to go at that moment. I just that was it I was doing. So I gave him a month's notice and just went and
you know, I think that was in the March. I left sometime in the March maybe. And then April, the May I found myself completely booked up, which was amazing. And then and then I had nothing. Yeah, you know, for quite a quite a while I had nothing. You know, I thought I was doing great. I thought this is it. I've done it. And then yeah, then nothing came around. And it was a lot of nothing. And when you I think for people who take time off, a lot of people that work full time, they might think it must be great to have quite a bit of time off. It is if you choose it and you know you're going to go back to work after that. If you are going day by day not even knowing if you'll ever work again and you don't have any money to enjoy. So quite can be quite demoralizing content can be quite demoralizing if you have if you have a gap. And I don't know what it's like in your industry. But when I when I've had a gap in my diary or whether certainly other musicians you feel like you have to justify it or say this is this is why the gap is there. Or people become quite neurotic about explaining why the gap is there was reality is it's a part of any freelancers career, you're gonna have gaps, it's just how it goes. And how you deal with those gaps. It's very important. And I've I find myself so today I've had a really productive day. Done a lot of side hustle work, I've just feeling very productive today. Last week though, our man felt like I was absolutely useless. I achieved nothing and you're, you're constantly towing this line of what's my purpose and then someone gives you a purpose in in a job or it could just be a days contract and you go great. And you you really go for it, but I'm always quite sad actually when I finish a project and I have a gap coming up because I got our man you know, it's back to trying to find where the purpose is rather than someone handing it to you. But I like finding it as well. Yeah, and it's it's funny that you say that as well because I think I mentioned