How to Not Be Broke as a Full Time Musician

Some musicians take the “vow of poverty” when they finish high school, and they decide to live in a van and travel with a band. They pride themselves in just scraping by, bouncing from couch to couch and living on the road. It’s all worth it if you’re doing what you love, right? Maybe that’s so, and maybe that life is right for a select group of single 19 year olds out there. But just because you want to be a full time musician doesn’t mean you have to take the vow of poverty and be broke.

All I want to do today is give you some tips for handling money as a full-time musician. This is for any of you young guys who are in high school or college, and this is especially for any of you doing the full-time music thing. It’s so important that we manage our money wisely, otherwise we really could become broke and end up on the street.

I’m your average musician. I play a bunch of gigs, some paying more or less than others, and I teach a bunch of private lessons. I also have the Non Glamorous Drummer online business, and I’ve occasionally worked little side jobs every now and then. That’s what my “full-time-musician” work looks like. But my point today isn’t to outline for you how I make money, because that varies a ton from musician to musician. Me breaking that down for you will do you no good if you live in a different city, have different interests, have different strengths & weaknesses, etc. You get the idea. But what’s common for all of us is that we can follow some universal, practical tips for saving money and being frugal as musicians.

Here are 6 money management tips, whether you strongly agree or disagree with them:

• [1] Don’t spend a bunch of money on alcohol. I’ve seen musicians on gigs spend more than they’re making because they felt compelled to buy shots for their buddies who showed up at the venue. The “I’ll buy you a drink if you come out to my gig this Saturday” promise is a dangerous one. Don’t make that a habit. Use good judgement here, and eliminate expenses that aren’t necessary. Choosing to not drink on a gig is wise for a lot of reasons, but it will potentially save you a ton of money too. (Yes, I know many venues cover food and drink for the band up to a certain amount, but even then…be judicious and use discretion.)

• [2] Only buy gear that you absolutely need. That would include basics like quality cymbals, hardware you can trust, good heads on your drums, etc. You don’t need multiple kits when you’re starting out, nor do you need tons of cymbals. Don’t chase after gear trends, because you’ll always be buying stuff you’ll only use for a short time. Be content with what you have, and learn to instead play your limited gear with such skill that your one or two kits become extremely versatile! By the way, don’t feel like you need to spend the majority of your earnings on gear so that you can save on taxes. It’s true that equipment is a tax write-off for a gigging musician, but that doesn’t mean you ought to spend all your extra earnings so that you net zero dollars at the end of the year. That’s dumb. Only buy what you need, and pay your taxes on your earnings at the end of the year.

• [3] That leads us to another point, which is… Always be prepared to set aside a chunk of income for taxes. It’s so important you’re always saving money, but it’s especially important to remember that you may owe up to 30% of what you earned come April. As a side point here, YES. Pay your taxes. Don’t try to avoid the IRS. They’ll catch up eventually and you’ll owe tons of money down the road that you don’t even have any more.

• [4] Don’t go into massive debt in order to go to music school!! I could write multiple articles on this and make several videos, but I don’t want to wear you out on how strongly I feel about this one. So I’ll keep it brief. ;) If you’re in high school, you may be considering majoring in music. If you’re interested in teaching music in a public school system or teaching at a collegiate level, this is pretty much necessary. Or if you want to be a “classically-trained” musician and make a living playing in a symphony, this is necessary. Otherwise, I’d recommend getting a business degree with a minor in music. But that's a topic for another email. Regardless, go to an in-state school that offers great scholarships that cover the majority of your schooling. Commute if possible, because that saves a ton of money. If you’re planning on being a drummer for a living, the degree you get really isn’t going to matter. Most likely no one will care which school you went to, and most won’t even care that you went to college. So don’t rack up $150,000 in debt you can’t pay back just to get a piece of paper that says you know things.

• [5] If you’ve decided to be a career musician, that means you don’t have a job that by default pays into your retirement. This means you need to personally save for retirement, because no one else is doing it for you. I’ve had a Roth IRA for the last several years, and I do my best to max out my contributions to it every year. This is basically a great means for long-term-investing your savings. Once you put money in at the end of the year, you can’t pull it out until you retire. If you consistently invest money like this, you’ll potentially be a millionaire when you retire. I know that many of us say to ourselves “man I’m never gonna retire cuz I love what I do!” I’ve said that plenty of times, too, but you don’t want to get old and HAVE to work. Be able to gig because you WANT to at that point.

• [6] Live somewhere you can actually afford. When my wife and I got married almost 5 years ago, she was looking for a job and I was playing gigs and teaching. In other words, we needed somewhere to live that average “musician income” could pay for. We looked at several nice apartments around Atlanta that we really wanted to live in, but we knew we needed to be wise and get something simple and affordable. Our first apartment was $750 a month and was 454 square feet, and it wasn’t at our favorite location we had hoped for. This was nearly a “studio” apartment since it was so small. I had to set my drums up in the living room to practice, so that became my “office” on a day-to-day basis. If you’re single, find some roommates and you can get something at half of what I paid. Either way, be ok with sacrificing the perfect location and ideal amenities so that you can be financially comfortable and not stress at the beginning of each month.

• [7] Pay cash for your car. I know I’m starting to sound like Dave Ramsey here, but this is a big one. I understand that everyone’s situation is different, and it isn’t always easy to do this. But if at all possible, buy a used car that’s in good shape, and pay cash for it. That way it’s done and paid for, and you don’t have that extra monthly expense. You’ll always end up paying more if you finance it, so tough it out and save your money so that you can pay it all off at once. My wife and I were blessed to start off our marriage with at least one car, which is the 2000 Honda Accord I still drive to this day. It’s old and looks pretty beat up, but it’s a great car that gets me to all my gigs. We pretty quickly needed a second car once we were both working, so we saved some money and paid cash for a 2011 Kia Sportage in 2015. That car has been great, and we’ve had zero car payments ever as a result.

Now I hope you don’t take all of this as me bragging about all the good financial decisions I’ve made. By the grace of God my wife and I were raised with frugal mentalities, and we both have wise parents who taught us well. We were blessed with a great starting point for adult life, and thanks to college scholarships both of us graduated debt-free right before we got married.

I know we’ve all been dealt different hands in life, but anyone can make the decision right now to spend less money and make wiser financial decisions. Getting into good financial shape can be a process, but if you’re a full-time musician you gotta do that now.

Shoot me a reply and let me know if these tips helped you out! I’d especially love to hear from you young guys who are either planning to go into music or who are just beginning a music career.

Take Care & God Bless,

Stephen