How I did it: First, I sold one painting and gave that money to the investors my parents used.  That turned out to be a reallly bad time to invest.  But my rule is only invest what you're willing to lose.  And I'm just going to leave that money there for years, and hopefully the economy will turn around and the investment will be worth something, at least as much as the money I put into it.

Then I set up personal, business and savings accounts at BofA.  They have a really awesome online banking program, so i could take any money i make from painting and transfer it to savings from business.  so now i have some savings that i don't spend.  i also set up automatic transfer of $50 a week into my savings from my business checking.  That will go to IRS setasides for 2009.  I use Mint.com to organize my expenses.  I set up budget amounts on Mint.com.  So if I exceed my budget or if there are large purchases or withdrawals, Mint emails me an alert.  Once a month I go to Mint.com and categorize every single transaction I've made throughout that month, so it's all accurate.  They have pie charts and all kinds of cool tools so you can see where your money is going.  So you can know, and so you can make changes as needed. 

Lessons & tips: if you don't have taxes deducted, it's really important to have a business that you can use to write off your expenses.  also if you set up a personal checking, personal savings and business checking accounts, you can transfer between them online, pay bills, and auto transfer a small amount that you can afford weekly to your savings forever.

Resources: Bank of America
Online banking
IRS Online (for EIN #)
County Clerk's Office (for business certificate)
Mint.com

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Mar 16, 2009, 09:32AM PDT | 0 comments | 1 cheer