2023 resolution: Get your finances right.
On the heels of the Great Resignation and the ongoing cost of living crisis, the current financial climate feels like a minefield. Predictions of slow economic growth in the U.S. and a looming global recession might, understandably, make you cautious to make big moves to fund your retirement, invest in the market, or even buy your forever home.
Because personal finance is never one-size-fits-all, we spoke to six experts to ask their must-do advice to start 2023 off with solid financial footing. Their perspectives range across savings, investing, retirement, and even tax planning, but each provides insight into the ways that keeping it simple in the short term can have long-term benefits.
As any parent of young kids knows, juggling work and childcare is hard. And paid childcare is impossibly expensive. Many budget-conscious artist parents who manage to fit their work into school time hours – and avoid babysitters and after school care – simply don’t have that option come summer. Here’s some good news. If you pay to send your child to summer camp so that you can go to work, that camp expense qualifies for the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit. And in March 2021, the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit was expanded. It now allows bigger dependent-care expenses, a higher percentage of them, and more taxpayers qualify to take the credit.
This Q & A between Paddy Johnson of VVrkshop and tax expert Hannah Cole on the Payroll Protection Program loan (PPP loan) explains how it can help artists. You don’t have to run an incorporated business to qualify. This money is a stimulus for you.
Paddy and Hannah talk about loan terms, and our take home message: this is a forgivable loan that could help you. For many people, that could mean more time in the studio, a new body of work, or simply some extra peace of mind. Read the Q & A. Look into the loan if you haven't already. It's an easier application than almost any grant you'll apply for and might be more money too.
Tax expert and artist Hannah Cole discusses all things money with Art Witch Podcast host Zaneta of Brooklyn, New York. They also talk about mindfulness in this nearly hour-long podcast interview.
Hannah speaks about empowerment for creative people (especially for BIPOC people and women) and they talk about smashing the patriarchy. They discuss issues people have with earning and having money and how to change your attitude. What can you accomplish when you are not trying to run from money issues and fear of the IRS?
Hannah talks with Kaylan about when she started out as an artist, her life as an artist, and how her career progressed to a tax expert specializing in helping artists and other creative freelancers. She talks about her career in accounting and what experiences led to her decision to start her own company.
Other topics covered in this hour-long podcast are the factors involved in choosing a type of business and how getting your finances organized gives you more room for creative work.
When I met Dr. Katherine de Vos Devine at a business retreat we bonded immediately. Both I (an artist and tax expert) and de Vos Devine, an intellectual property expert, art historian, and lawyer who works with artists, counsel clients struggling with the same money issues. Though neither of us is a personal finance expert, we address personal finance issues as professionals who help artists manage their businesses. I see artists repeatedly making the same expensive mistakes that could be avoided with some basic knowledge of personal finance. Furthermore, de Vos Devine and I both encounter women artists who lack confidence due to the pressure of harmful art and gender myths about money.