Sooo, Amber showed on younow that she made right around $1960 the last 30 days. Becky also commented on younow that Amber, 'makes more than I do.' Since we often talk about her income and lack of insurance, I broke down her income in hopes that when Amber and Becky read this post, they might realize that maybe her YouTube gig isn't so lucrative after all. After all, neither of them think like actual productive adults so maybe this will help them a bit.
Long post warning, and I don't know how to insert it into a 'spoiler' to shorten the post. My apologies now.
Let's be generous and say Amber makes $2000 this month. This would be equivalent to a $12.50 per hour job that has NO BENEFITS. On paper maybe $2000 a month sounds good, but $2000 is her GROSS pay, and not the standard take home pay people who pay taxes and insurance receive. Considering Amber has no dependants and no deductions like home ownership or charitable donations, her tax rate would be around 25%. This means she should immediately put aside $500 from her monthly check, decreasing her take home pay to $1500. Small business owners often claim that their taxes are much higher simply because their employer isn't matching their exemptions, so we are using hypothetical higher rates. Amber doesn't have an employer paying into her social security or a 401k, so with her remaining $1500, she should set aside another 20% for retirement, or $300. Again these numbers might seem high but only putting $300 a month in a retirement account is dangerously low for someone who isn't paying into social security, which means when she can draw on her social security, her benefits will be much lower than someone who paid into them their whole life. Amber- just so you know, if you don't pay as much into SS as someone who worked their whole life, your monthly check is smaller. Just FYI. You will also need to work past the standard retirement rate to get a larger monthly check, too.
Anyway- her check (take home pay) is now $1200 after taxes and retirement. Now let's consider health insurance. Since she doesn't have an employer paying for a potion of her insurance, her rate will be SKY HIGH. Her income level will certainly qualify her for some sort of cheaper insurance, but lets go on the low side and say her out of pocket costs for insurance would be $400 a month. Her take home pay is now $800 a month. Doesn't look like YouTube is so lucrative anymore, does it Amber?
Now with her remaining $800, she would have to pay for her food, cell phone, student loan, and whatever small bills she has left. $800 won't go far when you have at least $400 of that going to food and eating out each month. The numbers quickly show us that Amber is now in a deficit, and not a surplus. That's never good.
Looking just as these numbers shows anyone that Ambers YouTube gig isn't this lucatrive, super successful job like she claims. Her not paying her taxes, planning for retirement, or paying for insurance might not be on her mind right now, but for someone pushing 30, she needs to think about these things. In this position, she couldn't even qualify for a cheap used car, let alone anything meaningful that will help her financial stability in the future. Even a job like McDonald's who often start at $10-12 an hour is a better job than YouTube (when you have a small channel like hers, that is). You see Amber and Becky, $10 an hour jobs carry benefits packages that add on at least $4-7 an hour. It might seem that Amber is making more than becky on take home pay alone, but after you look at what she's really making per hour, you suddenly realize that her YouTube simply isn't enough to sustain her lifestyle. She can claim she can live alone and be super independent all she wants, but numbers don't lie. After all the benefits are removed from her $12.50 per hour job, she's probably making closer to $6 an hour, or much less than the minimum wage, meaning she doesn't have a real full time job after all.
Lastly- sure she maybe makes a few hundred off of younow, but that is soooo unstable that no one would consider that money as part of her income. Hell, she didn't even go on there for over a month recently. That younow is simply a small supplement. $2000 a month is nothing to frown upon. Please don't think I'm looking down on that as peasant wages, but it simply is not enough for someone her age to function in society. Not even in cheap Kentucky is she making enough to pay taxes and plan a small retirement. I hope either she or Becky actually at least slightly considers this post (they won't) and realizes that Amber actually does need a 5 year plan that isn't focused solely on YouTube. If she keeps doing that, she's going to be in REAL trouble very soon.
Hence why Becks wanted to take an apple for lunch, but the Wal-Mart fiend was like, "That's not a lunch." Completely unfathomable to her to have a single piece of fruit for lunch or even a snack for that matter. Her usual snacks while "counting calories" consisted a piece of fruit, a cheese stick, and something else. A decent meal for most.
Of course an apple isn't a lunch to someone who's only been awake for about 4 hours, but already took it 1100 cals of food. Her lunch alone consisted of FOUR slices of a high calorie, hearty bread, peanut butter, jelly, and some other small calorie add on. I also have a feeling she used more than 2 tablespoons of peanut butter on her 4 slices of wheat bread, but she probably just 'guessed' on the serving. She will never lose weight when she's eating meals like that. She can't put the energy into actually finding a balanced meal.
