June 14, 2022 • 13 mins
Sahirenys returns to the Money Moves podcast for another Ask me Anything episode. In this episode, she talks about all the things you should keep in mind when being an independent contractor.
Guest IG: @poisedfinancelifestyle
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey Money Movers, Welcome back to Money Moves, the daily
podcast determined to give you the keys to the Kingdom
of financial stability, wealth and abundance. Hey Money Movers, I'm
Tanya Sam and welcome to another episode of Ask Me
(00:22):
Anything with Syrense Pierce. Syrense is a financial educator and
the creator of High five Banking method as well as
the host of Ask Me Anything about Money with Greenwood
Studios Money Movers. Let's welcome the Queen of answering financial questions,
Syrense Pierce, to the podcast. Hi Syrenise, Hey, thank you
so much for having me back. Excited. Thank you for
(00:45):
coming on the show. It's always lovely to have you back.
And I have more people from the Greenwood family come
on the show and help make our money move. So Syrense,
in this segment of Ask Me Anything, we are going
to focus on money management for the self employed. The
gig economy has taken off. People are bringing in multiple
streams of incomes from multiple types of jobs, whether it's
(01:07):
their main profession or side hustles on the side, and
we want to make sure that they are armed with
all of the educational tools and tips to help them
make their money move. So I'm excited about this and
I'm excited about this conversation. All right, says, Let's kick
it off with my first question. A lot of Gen
zs and millennials have entered the gig economy, and many
have even started businesses during the pandemic. What's your biggest
(01:31):
financial tip when it comes to helping them manage these
multiple streams of income and their finances. This is a
great question and one of the main things that I
want to share with a lot of people who are
entering gig economy, self employment or entrepreneurship, how do you
want to call it, is to start viewing yourself as
a business, because you are the business, and you have
(01:52):
to start managing your finances accordingly. This means separating your
personal finances from your business finances. You do not want
to come angle those two, especially when it comes to
tax time. And what a lot of people don't realize
is that when you're self employed, you actually owe quarterly taxes.
It's not the same as if you were working at
nine to five. Things are changing, so you have to
(02:13):
modify your financial goals and how you manage your finances.
Another tip that I really think it's important to share,
is that you want to be clear on how much
you actually have to make and what your minimum cost
of a living is. For a lot of people, they
feel like they have to make a ridiculous amount of
money and that's just their goal that they want to
get to. That's great, but don't overwhelm yourself. If you
(02:36):
only have to bring in let's say, three thousand dollars
or four thousand dollars to pay all of your bills
when you're first starting out, give yourself that great, so
you can reduce your stress and really focus on moving
your business forward. Oh that's great. Okay. So you're talking
about separating our business finances from our private finances. Okay,
(02:57):
So let's say, for example, I'm a hairdresser, Um, but
I'm in school and I'm becoming a nurse. So there's
sort of two streams of income there. How do I
know which part to put where? Like, I'm hairdressing on
the side and do my homegirl's hair. She pays me
in cash, Like, how do I separate those? Well, if
you're gonna be using you know, your side hustle as
just like under the table thing, then of course you
(03:19):
can put that with your regular um checking account. But
if you're gonna be starting like a legit business and
LLC you're gonna be selling products, you're gonna be you know,
taking it to the next level, you want to make
sure you have a business checking account and a business
savings account because again, you have to prepare yourself for
quarterly taxes if it's going to be above the table.
And also, you know, you have to start really considering
(03:42):
if you have multiple people paying you, you want to
keep track of how these people that are paying you
through different services. You know, you want to have one
checking account where you can collect all of that income
to really see how much money your side hustle is
actually bringing in and then start organizing and dividing it accordingly,
you know. And I think this is a good point,
like as we talked about these side hustles, because oftentimes
(04:03):
people are delivering for Postmates or giving food or Uber
and you know, being very cognizant of your gas expenditures,
you know, the car maintenance, Like you need to really
break it down to figure out am I making enough
to cover my you know, expenses that I'm racking up
for this and so it really is it's a job, yes,
(04:24):
and also seeing if your business is profitable. You know
a lot of times we do these businesses, but just
starting it up is an investment and you have to
be very clear with that. When it comes to your
taxes as well. You know, they want to know how
much your gas expenses were, how much you're investing into
your business, if you had to buy a new computer,
or higher out freelancers to help you with your business.
(04:46):
These are all tax seductible things, so you want to
make sure you're documenting them accordingly and not complete, you know,
commingling them with you going out to starbugs and writing
roxtries for the house. When you're combining it, you know,
it kind of takes away that liability that you have
as a business owner versus just a regular individual. Okay,
(05:06):
So my next question when it comes to keeping our
business and personal finances separate, how many bank accounts should
someone have? Who should someone have? Number one? And is
there any penalty to having too many bank accounts? Well,
I was actually and the Clever Girl Finance books I
Hustle Guide, where you know, there's a lot of great
tips for people who are starting to their small business
(05:30):
economy whichever one it is. And one of the main
things that I shared was that you want to make
sure you have at least three bank accounts if you
are self employed, one checking account for your incoming and
outcoming expenses, one savings account for your taxes. Like I said,
it comes out on a quarterly basis, and the I
r S does not play any games. They want their
money on time. And the last things account could be
(05:51):
for your sinking fund to reinvest in your business. This
is something that a lot of people want to do.
They always say, I want to reinvest in my business.
I want to buy, you know, a new Mike, I
want to buy um, you know, things for our business
to help me make more money. But they don't ever
do it because you know, life gets in the way.
They forget. And by having a sinking fund, this allows
(06:11):
you to put money aside for those annual expenses or
for a fees that you might have to pay. I know,
if you have an LLC, you have to pay the
the LLC fee, and in California it's like eight hundred dollars.
You know, you gotta have to save up for that,
depending on what data you're living in. So these are
all little things that you have to start being a
little bit more aware of, especially if you're gonna be,
you know, really taking this side gig to the next level. Right, Okay,
(06:35):
the sinking fund. I love the way that sounds. Um,
tell me more about this. So this is money that
you sort of put aside. It's not your savings account
because we're talking about your business accounts here, but um,
it's basically how you can reinvest into your business. So
you mentioned Okay, at some point I'm gonna need to
get an LLC UM. What are some other things that
I should think of to put into that particular pot.
(06:56):
Also a few things that there's there is going to
be a savings account. It's gonna be a business savings account.
It's not going to be like a regular savings account
under just your regular name. It's going to be under
your business name for example. A few other things that
you might have to consider is, you know, the the
annual membership for quick Book self employment and you can
track and do all your accounting if you have a
(07:16):
c P a UM. You know, for my husband and
me and our business, you know, we have programs that
we have to pay for, like, uh, for god, what
it's called right now. But you know, every business has
different expenses and that's the reality. You know, if you
have a tech business, if you have a beauty business,
you might need to buy new combs, new products and
(07:37):
really really invest in, you know, different things that are
going to help you and your clientele grow. So I
think it's important to you know, save up for these
things slowly. You don't have to burn out, you know,
a thousand dollars for a new laptop if you can
save a hundred dollars every single month and just make
it a goal that you are going to be buying
a new laptop. And again, it is gonna be written
off as a tax you know benefit, but you you know,
(08:00):
the tax perk is not for free. You still have
to pay for upfront. And it's something that a lot
of people forget. And when you're running a small business,
it's really easy to um to get into debt, to
be honest with you, So this is kind of like
a little cheat code to avoid getting into high interest
credit card debt. And I think that's such a great
thing because oftentimes people will be like, I'm starting a
(08:21):
business and you know, I believe in myself and I've
got to go hard and I'm making these investments into
myself and to my business. And the narrative is if
you don't believe, who else will. But you've got to
be very smart and sort of diligent in making sure
that you don't overinvest for the return that you have. Yes,
taking calculated risks, Yeah, calculated risks. I love that because
(08:42):
they would have to pay an overage in taxes. Can
you talk about that? Is that? Is that a myth?
Or is that true? I think sometimes our mindset of
how we view taxes and making more money is kind
of like a limited um space. It's not really in
a way and of abundance. We have to realize when
comes to the tax code. Our tax code is progressive.
(09:03):
So the first ten thousand is being taxed at a
certain tax percentage, the next ten thousand another one, so
that keeps on increasing. So if you're used to making
let's say eighty thousand dollars as a nurse, and then
you're making a hundred thousand, the next is going to
be taxed only at a different at the higher tax rate.
That's the one that people are more concerned about. But
(09:24):
the other eighty thousand that's gonna be tax like your
regular tax breckort that you're already used to. You're already
comfortable with those numbers. But the other income that you're making,
the increased bonuses, you know, working on the side, traveling nurses,
things of that nature. When you're making more money, that's
the amount of money that's going to be taxed at
the next tax level. And it's not as dramatic as
(09:44):
sometimes people make it seem. So I don't think that
people should be worried about making more money. I would say,
be aware that you have to, you know, pay more
taxes because of this increase of income, but also start
thinking about how can you benefit from this income. Can
you push more money towards your four one k and
that right there reduces your income And right now, you
(10:06):
know your four one K you can put up to
twenty dollars. So if you're like, you know what, I
don't want to pay extra taxes, let me take this
K that I ain't just made extra and put it
towards my four one K and actually focus on money
on helping me, you know, retire early or you know,
fund my future so I don't have to work for
a hundred years. Okay, sorry, is that is brilliant because
(10:29):
I do think that oftentimes, especially in our community, people
operate from this mindset of like lack or you know,
especially a lack of abundance. But there's many many ways
to get around that. And especially in the nursing community,
we used to hear that all the time. Don't work
too much. You know, you're racking in all this overtime.
You're going to be over taxed. And trust me, rich
rich people they don't worry about being taxed in the
(10:51):
way that we do. And it's just also being able
to say, I'm going to put that money away invested
and put in my four oh one k, so that
make your money work work for you, and that that's
great advice. So get out there, do those overshime to shifts,
like explore the gig economy, because the more money and
the wiser you are with it, the more your money
works for you, exactly. And if you put that money
(11:13):
to work for you instead of just spending it, you
are going to reap the benefit of that money in
the long run. And that's kind of like the whole
point of money. You know, it's a tool to help
us you know, make our life a little bit less
stressful in the future. And you know that's whether you
work hard when you're young and you know, enjoy the
benefits when you get older. And again, you know, I
just want you guys to leave and understand that. You know,
(11:35):
sometimes these aren't all things that you can manage on
your own, So seek out guide and seek out council,
find the right bookkeeper, find the right tax person to
help you, um take advantage of all these of all
these tax advantages exactly, sorrynes. Can you tell us where
folks can follow you on your on social media? Yes,
you guys can follow me on Instagram, pois Finance and Lifestyle.
(11:57):
I'm also on TikTok and YouTube. Thank you so much.
All right, money Movers, That's all the time we have
for today, but make sure you follow Cyreniece on all
her social media handles. Make sure you follow Bank Greenwood
on its Instagram account, Twitter accounts, everywhere you can find us.
And of course, if we helped you make your money move,
please make sure to let us know by sending us
a like, sharing the knowledge, and leave us a review.
(12:19):
On Apple podcasts, make sure you tune in Monday through
Friday and subscribe to the Money Moves Podcast powered by Greenwood,
so that you too can have the keys to financial
freedom that you so rightly deserve. Thank you so much
for tuning in Money Moves audience. If you want more
or a recap of this episode, please go to the
bank Greenwood dot com and check out the Money Moves
(12:41):
podcast blog. Money Moves is an I Heart Radio podcast
powered by Greenwood Executive produced by Sunwise Media, Inc. For
more podcast on I heart Radio, visit the i Heart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts
from
Hey Money Movers, Welcome back to Money Moves, the daily
podcast determined to give you the keys to the Kingdom
of financial stability, wealth and abundance. Hey Money Movers, I'm
Tanya Sam and welcome to another episode of Ask Me
(00:22):
Anything with Syrense Pierce. Syrense is a financial educator and
the creator of High five Banking method as well as
the host of Ask Me Anything about Money with Greenwood
Studios Money Movers. Let's welcome the Queen of answering financial questions,
Syrense Pierce, to the podcast. Hi Syrenise, Hey, thank you
so much for having me back. Excited. Thank you for
(00:45):
coming on the show. It's always lovely to have you back.
And I have more people from the Greenwood family come
on the show and help make our money move. So Syrense,
in this segment of Ask Me Anything, we are going
to focus on money management for the self employed. The
gig economy has taken off. People are bringing in multiple
streams of incomes from multiple types of jobs, whether it's
(01:07):
their main profession or side hustles on the side, and
we want to make sure that they are armed with
all of the educational tools and tips to help them
make their money move. So I'm excited about this and
I'm excited about this conversation. All right, says, Let's kick
it off with my first question. A lot of Gen
zs and millennials have entered the gig economy, and many
have even started businesses during the pandemic. What's your biggest
(01:31):
financial tip when it comes to helping them manage these
multiple streams of income and their finances. This is a
great question and one of the main things that I
want to share with a lot of people who are
entering gig economy, self employment or entrepreneurship, how do you
want to call it, is to start viewing yourself as
a business, because you are the business, and you have
(01:52):
to start managing your finances accordingly. This means separating your
personal finances from your business finances. You do not want
to come angle those two, especially when it comes to
tax time. And what a lot of people don't realize
is that when you're self employed, you actually owe quarterly taxes.
It's not the same as if you were working at
nine to five. Things are changing, so you have to
(02:13):
modify your financial goals and how you manage your finances.
Another tip that I really think it's important to share,
is that you want to be clear on how much
you actually have to make and what your minimum cost
of a living is. For a lot of people, they
feel like they have to make a ridiculous amount of
money and that's just their goal that they want to
get to. That's great, but don't overwhelm yourself. If you
(02:36):
only have to bring in let's say, three thousand dollars
or four thousand dollars to pay all of your bills
when you're first starting out, give yourself that great, so
you can reduce your stress and really focus on moving
your business forward. Oh that's great. Okay. So you're talking
about separating our business finances from our private finances. Okay,
(02:57):
So let's say, for example, I'm a hairdresser, Um, but
I'm in school and I'm becoming a nurse. So there's
sort of two streams of income there. How do I
know which part to put where? Like, I'm hairdressing on
the side and do my homegirl's hair. She pays me
in cash, Like, how do I separate those? Well, if
you're gonna be using you know, your side hustle as
just like under the table thing, then of course you
(03:19):
can put that with your regular um checking account. But
if you're gonna be starting like a legit business and
LLC you're gonna be selling products, you're gonna be you know,
taking it to the next level, you want to make
sure you have a business checking account and a business
savings account because again, you have to prepare yourself for
quarterly taxes if it's going to be above the table.
And also, you know, you have to start really considering
(03:42):
if you have multiple people paying you, you want to
keep track of how these people that are paying you
through different services. You know, you want to have one
checking account where you can collect all of that income
to really see how much money your side hustle is
actually bringing in and then start organizing and dividing it accordingly,
you know. And I think this is a good point,
like as we talked about these side hustles, because oftentimes
(04:03):
people are delivering for Postmates or giving food or Uber
and you know, being very cognizant of your gas expenditures,
you know, the car maintenance, Like you need to really
break it down to figure out am I making enough
to cover my you know, expenses that I'm racking up
for this and so it really is it's a job, yes,
(04:24):
and also seeing if your business is profitable. You know
a lot of times we do these businesses, but just
starting it up is an investment and you have to
be very clear with that. When it comes to your
taxes as well. You know, they want to know how
much your gas expenses were, how much you're investing into
your business, if you had to buy a new computer,
or higher out freelancers to help you with your business.
(04:46):
These are all tax seductible things, so you want to
make sure you're documenting them accordingly and not complete, you know,
commingling them with you going out to starbugs and writing
roxtries for the house. When you're combining it, you know,
it kind of takes away that liability that you have
as a business owner versus just a regular individual. Okay,
(05:06):
So my next question when it comes to keeping our
business and personal finances separate, how many bank accounts should
someone have? Who should someone have? Number one? And is
there any penalty to having too many bank accounts? Well,
I was actually and the Clever Girl Finance books I
Hustle Guide, where you know, there's a lot of great
tips for people who are starting to their small business
(05:30):
economy whichever one it is. And one of the main
things that I shared was that you want to make
sure you have at least three bank accounts if you
are self employed, one checking account for your incoming and
outcoming expenses, one savings account for your taxes. Like I said,
it comes out on a quarterly basis, and the I
r S does not play any games. They want their
money on time. And the last things account could be
(05:51):
for your sinking fund to reinvest in your business. This
is something that a lot of people want to do.
They always say, I want to reinvest in my business.
I want to buy, you know, a new Mike, I
want to buy um, you know, things for our business
to help me make more money. But they don't ever
do it because you know, life gets in the way.
They forget. And by having a sinking fund, this allows
(06:11):
you to put money aside for those annual expenses or
for a fees that you might have to pay. I know,
if you have an LLC, you have to pay the
the LLC fee, and in California it's like eight hundred dollars.
You know, you gotta have to save up for that,
depending on what data you're living in. So these are
all little things that you have to start being a
little bit more aware of, especially if you're gonna be,
you know, really taking this side gig to the next level. Right, Okay,
(06:35):
the sinking fund. I love the way that sounds. Um,
tell me more about this. So this is money that
you sort of put aside. It's not your savings account
because we're talking about your business accounts here, but um,
it's basically how you can reinvest into your business. So
you mentioned Okay, at some point I'm gonna need to
get an LLC UM. What are some other things that
I should think of to put into that particular pot.
(06:56):
Also a few things that there's there is going to
be a savings account. It's gonna be a business savings account.
It's not going to be like a regular savings account
under just your regular name. It's going to be under
your business name for example. A few other things that
you might have to consider is, you know, the the
annual membership for quick Book self employment and you can
track and do all your accounting if you have a
(07:16):
c P a UM. You know, for my husband and
me and our business, you know, we have programs that
we have to pay for, like, uh, for god, what
it's called right now. But you know, every business has
different expenses and that's the reality. You know, if you
have a tech business, if you have a beauty business,
you might need to buy new combs, new products and
(07:37):
really really invest in, you know, different things that are
going to help you and your clientele grow. So I
think it's important to you know, save up for these
things slowly. You don't have to burn out, you know,
a thousand dollars for a new laptop if you can
save a hundred dollars every single month and just make
it a goal that you are going to be buying
a new laptop. And again, it is gonna be written
off as a tax you know benefit, but you you know,
(08:00):
the tax perk is not for free. You still have
to pay for upfront. And it's something that a lot
of people forget. And when you're running a small business,
it's really easy to um to get into debt, to
be honest with you, So this is kind of like
a little cheat code to avoid getting into high interest
credit card debt. And I think that's such a great
thing because oftentimes people will be like, I'm starting a
(08:21):
business and you know, I believe in myself and I've
got to go hard and I'm making these investments into
myself and to my business. And the narrative is if
you don't believe, who else will. But you've got to
be very smart and sort of diligent in making sure
that you don't overinvest for the return that you have. Yes,
taking calculated risks, Yeah, calculated risks. I love that because
(08:42):
they would have to pay an overage in taxes. Can
you talk about that? Is that? Is that a myth?
Or is that true? I think sometimes our mindset of
how we view taxes and making more money is kind
of like a limited um space. It's not really in
a way and of abundance. We have to realize when
comes to the tax code. Our tax code is progressive.
(09:03):
So the first ten thousand is being taxed at a
certain tax percentage, the next ten thousand another one, so
that keeps on increasing. So if you're used to making
let's say eighty thousand dollars as a nurse, and then
you're making a hundred thousand, the next is going to
be taxed only at a different at the higher tax rate.
That's the one that people are more concerned about. But
(09:24):
the other eighty thousand that's gonna be tax like your
regular tax breckort that you're already used to. You're already
comfortable with those numbers. But the other income that you're making,
the increased bonuses, you know, working on the side, traveling nurses,
things of that nature. When you're making more money, that's
the amount of money that's going to be taxed at
the next tax level. And it's not as dramatic as
(09:44):
sometimes people make it seem. So I don't think that
people should be worried about making more money. I would say,
be aware that you have to, you know, pay more
taxes because of this increase of income, but also start
thinking about how can you benefit from this income. Can
you push more money towards your four one k and
that right there reduces your income And right now, you
(10:06):
know your four one K you can put up to
twenty dollars. So if you're like, you know what, I
don't want to pay extra taxes, let me take this
K that I ain't just made extra and put it
towards my four one K and actually focus on money
on helping me, you know, retire early or you know,
fund my future so I don't have to work for
a hundred years. Okay, sorry, is that is brilliant because
(10:29):
I do think that oftentimes, especially in our community, people
operate from this mindset of like lack or you know,
especially a lack of abundance. But there's many many ways
to get around that. And especially in the nursing community,
we used to hear that all the time. Don't work
too much. You know, you're racking in all this overtime.
You're going to be over taxed. And trust me, rich
rich people they don't worry about being taxed in the
(10:51):
way that we do. And it's just also being able
to say, I'm going to put that money away invested
and put in my four oh one k, so that
make your money work work for you, and that that's
great advice. So get out there, do those overshime to shifts,
like explore the gig economy, because the more money and
the wiser you are with it, the more your money
works for you, exactly. And if you put that money
(11:13):
to work for you instead of just spending it, you
are going to reap the benefit of that money in
the long run. And that's kind of like the whole
point of money. You know, it's a tool to help
us you know, make our life a little bit less
stressful in the future. And you know that's whether you
work hard when you're young and you know, enjoy the
benefits when you get older. And again, you know, I
just want you guys to leave and understand that. You know,
(11:35):
sometimes these aren't all things that you can manage on
your own, So seek out guide and seek out council,
find the right bookkeeper, find the right tax person to
help you, um take advantage of all these of all
these tax advantages exactly, sorrynes. Can you tell us where
folks can follow you on your on social media? Yes,
you guys can follow me on Instagram, pois Finance and Lifestyle.
(11:57):
I'm also on TikTok and YouTube. Thank you so much.
All right, money Movers, That's all the time we have
for today, but make sure you follow Cyreniece on all
her social media handles. Make sure you follow Bank Greenwood
on its Instagram account, Twitter accounts, everywhere you can find us.
And of course, if we helped you make your money move,
please make sure to let us know by sending us
a like, sharing the knowledge, and leave us a review.
(12:19):
On Apple podcasts, make sure you tune in Monday through
Friday and subscribe to the Money Moves Podcast powered by Greenwood,
so that you too can have the keys to financial
freedom that you so rightly deserve. Thank you so much
for tuning in Money Moves audience. If you want more
or a recap of this episode, please go to the
bank Greenwood dot com and check out the Money Moves
(12:41):
podcast blog. Money Moves is an I Heart Radio podcast
powered by Greenwood Executive produced by Sunwise Media, Inc. For
more podcast on I heart Radio, visit the i Heart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts
from
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Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.