#6 MONEY - Interview with Eowyn Levene

This episode's guest is Eowyn Levene. In addition to liking watermelon, she is a self-employed massage therapist in New York City who helps self-employed artists, creatives and healers get out of debt and save more so they can build financial stability and fuel their creative future. Join her community at plumtreemoney.com or tune into her podcast, Creatives Do Money.
We talk about tracking your spending weekly, what holds people back from dealing with their finances and credit cards.

Transcript

Adulting for Artists with Eowyn Levene

Timmie Boose: [00:00:00] Hi, everyone. Thanks for joining Adulting for Artists today. Today I've got a sponsor! Grafing Productions. They are audio visual experts based in Northwest Ohio, and they currently produce a live music program on YouTube every Wednesday and Thursday night from 8:00 to 9:00 PM. So check out Grafing Productions on YouTube!

Entertainment at its finest!

Okay. So today we're going to talk about money, whether you want to or not. Today is the day. We have to face our money situations. I think this might be beneficial for a lot of people and maybe you'll learn a new source to help you out if you need help.

Okay. So my guest today, yeah. Is Eowyn Levene. She is from New York City. She's a watermelon and gardening enthusiast who helps self-employed artists, creatives and healers get out of debt and save more so they can build the financial stability to fuel their creative future. And you can find her at www. plumtreemoney.com.

Thanks for joining the conversation. Here we go.

Timmie Boose: Eowyn Levene. Thanks for being here. And thanks for taking the time out of your day to let us know your insights about money, which a lot of artists, uh, have challenges with. Thanks for being here. 

Eowyn Levene: [00:01:45] So happy to be here, Timmie. Thank you.

Timmie Boose: [00:01:47] You're welcome. I wanted to start out by asking you what made you decide to focus on creatives?

Eowyn Levene: [00:01:57] I use the term pretty loosely and as a catch-all term, because creatives are the people that I'm surrounded with and have always been surrounded with my parents where in the case of my mother and our artists, in the case of my father, they're performing artists, they've been teachers. My dad was also an entrepreneur and is an entrepreneur.

And some of my dearest friends are artists. My husband is a classical musician. So the whole community I'm exposed to through him. They almost all live in the music world and yeah my dearest friends are artists. And my profession for the last eight years has been a massage therapist and I've worked for myself and most of the people I'm closest to in that field are also self-employed.

And I actually lump wellness professionals in with creatives as well. And I mean, we could have a whole conversation about the definition of the word and the fact that actually all human beings are creatives and so on and so forth. But I really had in mind, the people that I know best who are often the ones who come to me, looking for advice about how to handle their money or this or that, or about just decisions they're making in their own small business.

So, previous to my massage career. I, and during it as well, I was in small business administration.  I did bookkeeping, I did logistics,  project management. And so have been tied into that world of managing, you know, all of my current businesses for a long time. 

Timmie Boose: [00:03:44] So what do you think are some of the limiting thoughts and beliefs that creatives and artists type people have about money?

Hmm. This is a rich topic. Um, I think the biggest one is probably something along the lines of money is the root of all evil. And they look around in the world and they see billionaires, or they see politicians being corrupted by money and they see the pure pursuit as money as a real force for destruction in the world.

And understandably so, but I think there's a conflation of the evils of capitalism and the abuse of power with money itself. Um, yeah, I think many of us grow up with that. And if we're someone who has chosen a helping profession or the arts or music or whatever, often we are doing that as not only a choice for something but always also a choice away from something.

Eowyn Levene: [00:04:58] So yeah, choosing not to get a quote-unquote sort of practical degree, that's going to lead to a job and, you know, do that for 20, 30 years. And then move up the ladder and so on and so forth. Of course, people do that within their creative industries as well, but often creatives are moving away from a more conventional focused on financial stability lifestyle.

Another one that comes up when I think about it is simply that rich people are bad and money is corrupting, which is connected to money as the root of all evil. That's sort of the blanket statement, but I, yeah, I just see that over and over again. There's a deemphasis of wanting to deal with personal finance or even business finance, frankly.

Like I think the area that gets the least attention is personal finance, but business finances, one that people sort of. They get pulled into reluctantly as opposed to enthusiastic, they say, okay, how can I organize things for the greatest ease and most efficient management so that I can focus more on my work.

And instead, there's this sort of chaotic environment they're just trying to cope so that they can get back to their work. 

Timmie Boose: [00:06:14] Right. Do you think it seems like a lot of artists think of like having money or trying to make money is selling out?

Eowyn Levene: [00:06:32] For sure. Yeah. Somehow like your principles are towards creativity and expression and, you know, personal fulfillment and really. Those feel like the highest ideals. And so it's almost, if you think money is the root of all evil, and if you think money is corrupting, then of course, like, you know, charging enough for your work or making a decision based on money versus, you know, pure aesthetics or something along those lines  can feel like selling out. But the foundation is this conviction that you know, money is going to be corrupting 

Timmie Boose: [00:07:14] Right I used to get so mad at my mom because she always told me that I should paint fruits and vegetables on furniture to make money. And I was like, I'm not painting strawberries on chairs. Are you kidding me?

Eowyn Levene: [00:07:38] Why did she have that idea? 

Timmie Boose: [00:07:40] I have no idea. She must have, I don't know. She probably went shopping a lot and saw, you know, a lot of people painting on furniture. I was like, so offended. I found that so offensive, but yeah, to me that was like selling out, you know, same as when people paint celebrities. Like if they keep painting pictures of celebrities, I guess if you're doing a portrait, it's one thing to do a portrait, but some people just do celebrities and I'm trying to look at that a little bit differently, but yeah, I always thought that was an easy sell. 

Eowyn Levene: [00:08:16] And what would it like if you had painted fruits and vegetables on furniture and had been a quote-unquote sellout, what would that have meant about you?

Timmie Boose: [00:08:25] It would mean that I was not cool. That's what it would mean. 

Eowyn Levene: [00:08:30] And if you weren't cool, what would that mean?

Timmie Boose: [00:08:35] I don't know. I guess it would mean. I don't know, it just seems kind of old ladyish or something - to paint vegetables on furniture. 

Eowyn Levene: [00:08:48] Yeah. That's an interesting one. The whole question of cool, because I think that ties back into common misconceptions about money, right? That focusing on money is uncool or, you know, spreadsheets are nerdy or personal finance is boring.

You know, the whole, like people just kind of see all these like dollar signs floating by and they just want to run screaming for the hills. And I think this question of being uncool and  I think, I think ultimately it comes down to inclusion. Right? So coolness, like if we think back to high school, coolness is about being part of the in-crowd. It's about having something other people want  - it's about power, but it's also about being part of the whole and being included. And I think that's a pretty powerful drive on our part. Like the fear of other people rejecting us because we're doing something nerdy or boring is big.

Timmie Boose: [00:09:51] Yeah. And I was always in like the music scene, kind of the punk rock type scene, I guess you would say. What would they think of me if I was to be painting strawberries on chairs? I mean, my god, how embarrassing!

Eowyn Levene: [00:10:11] Yeah. And you want to be close to your people and if they're like judging you harshly over something, they might choose not to call you up or include you in things and that's painful. 

Timmie Boose: [00:10:26] And then you start trying to do artwork within that kind of negative cool vein, sometimes that's just as bad, you know? 

Eowyn Levene: [00:10:40] What would that look like? 

Timmie Boose: [00:10:44] I don't know. Maybe you're just always painting really dark subject matter.

I don't know. Like there's a lot of music that's like, you know, heavy and dark and against the grain, you know what I mean?  Not obnoxious, but,  offensive in a way. And there was like a crowd of people that follow that kind of music, and then you feel like you have to follow that crowd. Yeah. And then you could, you know, if you did well in that crowd, you could have a niche and be good within that niche.

But if you don't exactly fit in that niche, That could be bad for you as well. 

Eowyn Levene: [00:11:30] Yeah, definitely. Yeah.  so I'm really at the beginning of my money coaching and education work, and I'm still formulating how I can best help people, but one of the things I knew from the beginning is that I wanted, some kind of an online community and a place for people to congregate because I think that the drive to be part of a group of people and to have commonality with people is totally understandable and right. And if you have a wake-up call and say, okay, something has got to change with how I handle money because maybe there'll be another pandemic or whatever it is that's been that moment where you say enough is enough. I have to do something differently. And so then what, what if that does go against what your peers do and your friends do and so on and so forth, then, you know, part of your work has to seek out others who have similar goals and similar intentions.

So that's one of the things I'm really excited about is just creating that place. 

Timmie Boose: [00:12:34] So what happens in your community? 

Eowyn Levene: [00:12:37] Well, right now, small amounts.

Timmie Boose: [00:12:42] Is it like a forum?

 It's like 

Eowyn Levene: [00:12:46] a Facebook group, plus it's not on Facebook. I was pretty intentional to step away from that platform.

I'm using a program called Mighty Networks and it's yeah, it's like a forum and that people can post articles or comments or questions or whatever, but it, what's the word I'm looking for. It has a lot of diverse options. You can post video and images and links and you can interact with people. You can chat with people privately or the whole group.

And then myself as the host, I can create courses within it. There can be separate communities within it and so on and so forth. And I'm still honestly exploring what it's gonna look like and what I want to offer. It's very much in the beginning stages. Yeah. 

Timmie Boose: [00:13:36] Okay. All right. So, all right, so you talk a lot about tracking expenses to start to get a hold of your finances.

And, um, now I've had times in my life where I've kind of tried to do this, tried to like, I needed to make a budget, you know, and. Oh, my God, it takes me so long just to write down what all my bills are every month. it's like I'm writing them down. It takes me like a whole month to actually get them all written down.

And then I completely forget that I even started tracking that stuff. And I also saw that you said that it's good to handwrite it. Instead of having it on the computer, which I think is great because there are too many things going on on the computer. And any time I can get off the computer, I'll probably get more done.

What kind of tips do you give people to start tracking their finances? And why, why should we track our finances? 

Eowyn Levene: [00:14:43] So awareness is the beginning of change. I mean, awareness, the foundation of everything, right? So awareness is the beginning of change because you have to know what you're doing and you have to know your circumstances before you can make any changes that you might want to make. And like, can you get a decent hold on your finances without these things, without being super granular about tracking income and expenses? Sure. So people that I'm working with and the people I'm speaking to are people who have tried various things and it just hasn't worked. Or, you know, it hasn't worked well enough or to the degree that they hoped.

And so the question is what habits and systems can you learn over time that really just become - I don't mean automatic in the sense of like automating your savings or that kind of thing. That's not a bad thing at all, but it becomes easier like any habit, right. Once a habit is in place, then it sort of runs itself in the background and there's less effort involved.

So there's various things or various ways that you can begin that process of just taking a small action and turning that into a habit. One of the easiest ways of doing that is tracking your expenses and in order to create a budget that's true to your life. So in order to be able to sit down and like, look at it, You know, the money that you have to make a decision about and make the right, most helpful decisions that are based on your life.

Like not some random percentage, like I know that you often will hear 50% to bills, 30% to savings and retirement and 20% discretionary, some like strict things like that. So some strict percentage. So in my opinion, that's not helpful at all. Like your spending plan really needs to be specific to your life and your circumstance - how much debt you have, what your savings goals are, what your income is like.

And just so many things. Yeah. I don't want anyone telling me what I should or should not spend my money on.  I want to make that decision. So if you're really gonna make a spending plan or a budget, That's true to you and your life. You need to know what your expenses are and you need to know specifically, like, what are your recurring expenses, whether that's weekly, monthly or yearly, and you need to do divide those out from your variable expenses - your variable expenses are the ones where you decide how much you're going to spend and when you're going to spend it. So that's like groceries and gas and clothing. So again, often the division is between discretionary and non-discretionary,  when it comes to budgeting, I don't find that super helpful. I want to divide my expenses between those where I have no control over when the expense happens and how much it is - like a utility bill - and those that I have control over because those that I can have control over is where a lot of the freedom lies.

Yes. You can choose to cancel your Netflix. And then you remove one of your fixed expenses. But assuming that you've reviewed your expenses and decided that yes, you really need all the ones that are in place, or you can't lower them at the moment, then your variable expenses, that's where your freedom lies to make some change other than increasing your income.

So. Why was I getting until I got off on my, my expenses, tangent and I forgot tracking, tracking your expenses. So you need to track for ideally three or four months. So you need to just be writing down every time you spend a dollar so that, you can see, all right, here are my recurring expenses. Once you have that recurring expense list that's yours. It's not changing from month to month. And then you want to know what your weekly or monthly average spending is in your variable expense categories. And that becomes the foundation of everything else moving forward. And once you set that, well, budgeting itself becomes so much more easy because I completely understand that if you weren't sure what was going to be spent when that budgeting was a pain in the ass, I get that.

Timmie Boose: [00:18:57] Right. Like yesterday I spent like almost $200 because - there's a store here that's going out of business  - SteinMart. And, I'm like, I better go before they're completely out of business. Cause they're going to have some good deals. 

Eowyn Levene: [00:19:17] What do they sell?

Timmie Boose: [00:19:19] They sell all kinds of clothes. They sell purses, jewelry.

They've got some like bedding, kitchen items, a little bit of everything, really, but they have nice stuff. Hmm. And, um, yeah, I want little bananas there, but everything was 40% off, you know? And I'm like, well, I'll never see this stuff again this cheap, you know? But then now  - this is one thing is that I think, going shopping or doing those kinds of unexpected purchases sometimes is a really great stress reliever.

But then sometimes you can feel guilty about them later. It's kind of a hard thing to balance out, you know what I mean? 

Eowyn Levene: [00:20:13] Yeah. Shopping is a great stress reliever. We get a nice big hit of dopamine when we spend money, which makes us feel better. Like that's just the truth. The guilt afterwards is just, you know, beating yourself over the head for something you can do nothing about right now. So her's to none of us ever feeling guilt about anything ever again, but you know, that takes time and work to get to the point where we can just move ahead without worrying about the past. It's legit like spending the spending is like sex or the internet or TV or food. Like it's something that we self-soothe with.

Timmie Boose: [00:20:54] So when you, like, usually when you set up a budget, you would tell yourself, like, no don't buy anything extra. I mean, one thing I got was a pair of shoes, which I eventually will probably need. 

I mean, I don't think any budget should have no wiggle room for ad hoc spending. and I think that you want to prepare and have money set aside for when you want to buy clothing or when you need to buy clothing.

And I also think that over time, Budgeting helps kind of rewire your brain when it thinks about what to do with the money you have available. So I budget once a week, because of the system that I use, like I only budget for money that's already in the bank. So I don't look ahead and say, okay, a client's gonna pay me for a package in two weeks, which means - you know, I have $4,000 coming in. Okay. What am I going to do with that money? Like, I don't plan that until it hits the bank and I don't plan it until I have moved money into a separate savings account for my tax savings. So then I take that money - and because I'm only planning and using money, that's already in the bank - I need to do that in small increments. I also think at the beginning that budgeting weekly is really helpful. Cause you just get a lot more practice at it and there's a lot more accountability. If you budget monthly, you sit down and you're like, Yes, I will spend my money in ABC ways , and then, you know, three weeks later, you're like, I have no idea what I intended to do and my God, how much have I spent? So if you do it weekly, there's a lot more accountability and practice there. So I still do it weekly. 

If you're doing it weekly, then how do you fit in like the monthly bills? Like the rent and the utilities?

Eowyn Levene: [00:22:45] So you have a list that's organized by date. And when you sit down and plan your spending for the week,  you look at your list of fixed expenses and you're like, okay, so on the 22nd, and then the 24th, I have these two bills and you factor that in.

Timmie Boose: [00:23:00] Oh, okay. So if one week you pay two of the monthly bills, they come out of that week. 

Eowyn Levene: [00:23:06] Yeah. And then for larger expenses like rent. So for most people rent and or health insurance is the largest monthly expense that they'll have or mortgage. You put some money aside each week in preparation for that larger expense. Okay. That's my system. Yeah, but we were talking about clothing expenses and discretionary spending and impulse spending. You can build flexibility in for yourself. You also can use sinking funds. So sinking fund is just where you put savings aside with the intention of spending it in the future.

So for most people that like the most common sinking funds are like saving for a wedding or saving for a down payment of a house. But you can have sinking funds for everything. Like I have a sinking fund for a trip I plan to take in two years, I have a sinking fund for tech in my business. I have a sinking fund for clothing.

Timmie Boose: [00:24:02] So,  what do you do with the sinking money? You put it in a separate

Eowyn Levene: [00:24:05] savings account? Yeah. In some cases it has its own dedicated savings account. And then I have another savings account where multiple sinking funds are building up. When I just track those. So when it comes down to actually needing to spend money or wanting to spend, because like one of your favorite stores is closing, you pull money from that fund.

So you already have set the cash aside for yourself. Otherwise it just goes on the credit card and then you cry a lot when you look at the bill. 

Timmie Boose: [00:24:34] Yeah. I know I told you before that I wanted to talk about credit cards and I suppose the answer is to probably try to use credit cards as little as possible, or if you're going to use them to pay them off as fast as possible. But a lot of times, you know, a lot of people don't do that, including myself. And, uh, I am constantly doing the balance transfer. Like, I will mark a date on a calendar or a year and a half later, like, okay. The annual percentage rate or whatever it is, the percentage rate, the promotional it's called the promotional rate I believe -  the promotional rate ends, you know, a year and a half later. So I'll have that date. Like I've got to do another balance transfer at that date. Otherwise, you know, instead of 0%, I'm going to be charged 15%, but then that also, you know, I find myself not really paying them off. I'm just transferring them from card to card.

Eowyn Levene: [00:25:42] And then do you close the previous card that had the zero balance? Not the zero balance - 0% interest.

Timmie Boose: [00:25:51] I don't think so. No. Should I? 

Eowyn Levene: [00:25:53] I know there's, I mean, there's no should in any of this in all honesty, like there's no right or wrong with any of these things. There's just consequences, but  uh, if you are continually opening and closing credit cards, it can affect your credit score. But  that's a separate topic in itself, but it could be that the credit score isn't that important right now. So people can go years without needing to purchase a car or, you know, get a new lease or purchase a home. So you don't always need your credit score to be amazing. In general, I think if you have a more cohesive financial management in your life, the tendency is your credit score is going to go up just as a result of that. That's just a side note to say - it impacts your credit score and maybe your credit score is, or isn't important to you right now. 

Timmie Boose: [00:26:57] My credit score is pretty good though. It's like, I think it's 760 or something.

Eowyn Levene: [00:27:02] So it sounds like you've been keeping those cards open. 

Timmie Boose: [00:27:06] I guess so, I mean, I pay on them monthly, but yeah, when I transfer the balance over to another card, I guess I just have another card -  I don't permanently close the other one. Yeah. And then maybe that's why I get so much mail.

Eowyn Levene: [00:27:24] You get a lot of offers? 

Timmie Boose: [00:27:25] Oh my God. Yes. I get so much mail about credit cards.

Eowyn Levene: [00:27:32] Well, they like folks. -  those of us with good credit, they really like lending to us because they know we're not high risk. So we get a lot of offers. 

Timmie Boose: [00:27:43] And if you do that balance transfer, they get 3% of the transfer. 

Eowyn Levene: [00:27:49] That's the fee usually? it's been a really long time since I did a balance transfer.

Timmie Boose: [00:27:53] Yes. It's 3%. It's almost always 3%. 

Eowyn Levene: [00:27:58] Which adds up, 

Timmie Boose: [00:27:59] I guess it's worth it to do it though, because if your percentage rate is going to jump from 0% to 15% then you switch to another card, you pay 3% and then it's 0% interest for like a year and a half. Sure. So it seems like a good idea. 

Eowyn Levene: [00:28:25] I mean, that depends on how much, 3% of your balance is. If your balance is 10 grand, then 3% could be a fair amount of money. Yeah. So, I mean, when it comes to balance transfers, it's all about it depends, right? It depends on how much money you're transferring. It depends on what your income situation is and whether you expect you can pay it off or whether you will have good enough credit to be able to take advantage of another 0% offer.

So not all balance transfer offers are 0%. Like when someone has lesser credit. They might actually just pay a low interest rate. 

Timmie Boose: [00:29:01] Oh, I see.

Eowyn Levene: [00:29:02] So the 0% offer is representative of your good credit. 

Timmie Boose: [00:29:07] What about, people who have no credit? Because in my life I have known a lot of artists and musicians and they usually are like roommates of people. They don't usually have an apartment in their name. And a lot of times they don't have cars and  and a lot of times they don't have credit cards  - at all  - because they have no credit. How do those kinds of people - should they get credit? And if so, how do they start? 

Eowyn Levene: [00:29:45] So the should they get credit question again is about what they want for their life. If they want the option to borrow money from someone  - like that's the only reason you would need credit is to borrow money, right? If they want that for their future self, then they could choose to do that. But depending on how you live your life, it's not necessary. If you tend to live your life completely using cash, then having a credit score is not necessary. If you never want to own, it's not necessary. So, I mean, there are some instances - so I'm definitely not an expert on how credit score impacts your day to day financial life. But I do know, for example, like having a good credit score, lowers your car insurance rate and things like that. So there are some small instances where it can impact your life, but if you're not trying to live a life on the books and you're not intending to borrow money in the future, you might not need it. Having said that, none of us can predict the future and, you know, health disasters can come at the most inopportune moments. And maybe you are going to want to have credit in the future as an option. Maybe you have a child or something like that, and just your expenses change dramatically.

So that being said, if you've never had credit before, you can explore getting a student credit card. So those are specifically designed to work with people who've never had credit before. And you just start with really low limits, like $300 or $500 limit, and then you slowly build up your profile. So anything to do with credit worthiness and credit scores is a question of years, like it takes years to build your credit up and it takes years to change it. And so I think the first thing is just to accept that it's not going to happen quickly. And actually, that in itself could be an argument for building up credit in case you need it, because it's not going to happen quickly if there's a sudden event in your life.

Timmie Boose: [00:31:48] Right. Or there's a concert you need to go to and you need to buy like four tickets, I need them today!  They're going to be sold out! I guess that's not going to happen for a while...

Eowyn Levene: [00:32:00] In my experience though, if someone has been living without credit, they have at least some savings, like they've just learned over the years. I mean, it depends on how old they are, but if they've, you know, made it to their thirties or their forties without really using credit, then they're just, they're going to have some cash lying around because you just need it and they will have learned that by then. If they don't, then there is a whole other situation that, you know needs to be taken care of.

But the other thing that is also available is there's something called a secured credit card. So if there's someone who has some savings sitting around, essentially, they just prepay the limit of the credit card - they give the bank a thousand dollars or whatever, and then the card is treated as revolving credit as a credit card but it's secured in the sense that they've already handed over the cash. So the bank doesn't consider them a liability based on their history. And then you can build it up that way. And I would say that, you know, to build it up, you just have to do it carefully. Do it smart. Don't intend to use your credit.

So again, it all comes back to individual choices, but it also comes down to how risk-averse you are or open to taking risks in your life. I know for myself that after I went through a major medical event, I became much less tolerant of risk. So it always depends on our perspective and circumstances.

But if you're looking to build up your credit, what I suggest is just to put a few of your recurring monthly charges, like your Netflix or your graphic design software or whatever it is. So just have, you know, $50 or $60 worth of bills that you're anyway going to be spending in a given month - put those on that credit card and pay it off before the due date each time. And then within a year, you're going to have great credit, but you're not going to have learned to rely on credit cards, which is all fine if life's going well, but it can be challenging if there's a dip in income or life circumstances change. 

Timmie Boose: [00:34:06] Yeah. Or you forget to pay it and they start adding on those crazy fees.

Eowyn Levene: [00:34:12] Yeah. They're hefty. 

Timmie Boose: [00:34:14] They're terrible. They'll usually remove them the first time, but the second time they usually won't do it anymore. Can you tell that I've done this many times?

Eowyn Levene: [00:34:24] Totally and I've been there too. I feel you. 

Timmie Boose: [00:34:29] The whole point is to pay your credit cards off if possible...

Eowyn Levene: [00:34:36] And it is possible. It just, takes work. You know, as I was saying before about developing financial habits and one of the ways you can start that is by tracking your expenses. But yeah, I think it's possible. You just have to put the work in, I mean, one of the reasons I do money coaching is because it's not easy to do this work.

So my main role when I work with people is just to walk through the steps with them to be like, alright, where am I at? What do I want in my life? What do I want my finance system to look like? And how do I get there? And then how do I find the motivation and the wherewithal to actually do the work?

Because at the beginning, like if your money has been all over the place, which mine definitely has been in the past like it's been a long, slow process. It's hard work and it's often not fun work. Like we're faced with aspects of ourselves that we don't love to look at. And so it can be painful and difficult. Yeah. But doable. So all that was just to say that it's doable. 

Timmie Boose: [00:35:42] Right. It's just hard to stay consistent about it I guess. You know, I think the weekly thing, that's a great idea. 

Eowyn Levene: [00:35:50] Yeah, budgeting weekly yeah. There's just, there's less to handle as less time through which to be committed and you just get a lot of practice and I can do my budget in five minutes is what it takes me.

Timmie Boose: [00:36:07] Five minutes?! 

Eowyn Levene: [00:36:07] And then five minutes maybe to make the bank transfers. Yeah. So I look at my calendar. I'm like, all right, what bills are due -  I look at what my intended savings transfers are for the week. I check my business bank account and I look at what payments came in during the week. I crunch those numbers and yeah, five minutes to do the budget -  five minutes to make the bank transfers. That's about it at this point, but I've been doing it for a long time.  It used to take me an hour to sit down and be like, wait, what am I doing here? And, Oh this and oh that.  But it's like anything, right? Like we develop skill and then we forget that we're actually doing parts of the process.

They just become automatic and easy. 

Timmie Boose: [00:36:52] Right. Yeah. I'm going to try to start doing this weekly thing. 

Eowyn Levene: [00:36:57] Yeah. Hit me up if you have questions and I have articles on my blog and support in the community as well for just learning how to do it. I recommend doing a zero based budget, which sounds hard and restrictive, but actually, it's pretty great.

Timmie Boose: [00:37:15] What does that mean? Zero-based budget?

Eowyn Levene: [00:37:17] It means that you make a decision about every dollar available to you every time you budget. So instead of, you know, just looking at your bank account saying, all right, there's $780 in here. Like. What do I, you know, what do I have to pay like a hundred to my utility and go to buy groceries. That's about a hundred a week or whatever. And then that's as much as you do. So with a zero-based budget, you look at that $780 and you say, all right, $300 is staying in my checking account because I always want to have that there in case of unexpected expenses or something else changes. And then I'm going to do that hundred for groceries, a hundred for utilities. And then the rest I'm going to put in the savings account or my tax savings, or I'm going to send it to my Roth IRA or whatever it is - pay $70 on my credit cards. You make a decision about every dollar available to you. It doesn't mean you spend everything, some of it, you leave in your account, so you protect yourself.

But each time you're making a conscious decision and you're referring to your overall goals. Like you look at like, what is my top personal financial goal right now? So in my life, it's a combination of two things. One I'm building out my personal emergency fund. So I have a shared emergency fund with my spouse, Michael.

So we've built that up together. That's as funded as we're going to do it right now. It's about five to six months of expenses, depending on how many noodles we eat.  But I also have been building up my personal emergency fund. So for me, that's about partly my own peace of mind and also accommodating for some emotional baggage left over from childhood where I watched my mother have just no freedom because she had no access to money.

She had no real control over her money. So she had plenty to spend and she could put things on a credit card, but my dad was the one who ultimately made the major financial decisions. And I just saw the impact that it had on my mother's life. And so Michael and I talked about it and, you know, I said, I really feel like I want to start building up savings that are just quote-unquote, mine.

Like, of course, the money's there if we need it for our shared expenses of something like COVID happens. I want to build that up, have it be in my bank account, not a shared bank account. So I've been focusing on that. And then also I'm trying to pay as much as I count on my student loans, which still sit there winking at me.

Timmie Boose: [00:39:42] Oh I hate student loans. I still have some too, I didn't even borrow that much money and I still haven't paid them off.  I think I only owe $1,500. 

Eowyn Levene: [00:39:55] That's amazing. Yeah, that's great. So, I mean, that sounds like something you could totally get rid of if you decided you wanted to. Mine is a whole heck 

Timmie Boose: [00:40:02] of a lot more.

 I know, right. I just have to focus. Well, it's been 20 years, you know, it's been about 20 years and it's kind of terrible that I haven't paid it off by now.. When you put it in forbearance and stuff and you don't pay it, they add interest and that really set me back. Why don't you tell everybody where to find you and tell us about your podcast?

Eowyn Levene: [00:40:31] Yeah, so the podcast is Creative's Do Money. It's a combination of solo episodes with me talking about all aspects of what it means to handle your money. As a solo, small business owner in a creative field. The website is Plumtreemoney.com. Same with Instagram. You can come find me there and people should feel free to message me with questions or tell me how I can help.

And I think I forgot to say that the other part of my podcast is interviews with people like you. So creatives, just talking about money and business and all of the things that come up there. 

Timmie Boose: [00:41:10] Great. Well, thank you for joining us. 

Eowyn Levene: [00:41:13] It's been a pleasure. Thanks, Timmie. 

Timmie Boose: [00:41:15] Good luck with your podcast.

Eowyn Levene: [00:41:17] Likewise, likewise, I'm excited to see what happens for Adulting for Artists. Thanks.

Thanks, everyone. Once again for joining the show, if you are interested in more info from Eowyn, her website is plumtreemoney.com. If you'd like to get a free art quote, I'm giving them out until October 10th. There's not much time. All you have to do is sign up for the AdultingforArtists newsletter, go to AdultingforArtists.com, sign up for the newsletter and you will receive a free art quote that you can print out.

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We need to balance those two, right people? Have a great week.