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Income After Dancing
Hi Ladies& Gents
It seems that quite often I am thinking about what my lifestyle(financially) is going to be after I retire from dancing. I have been dancing for 2 years this month ( 9 months part time and the rest full time) and I have a realistic plan of dancing until summer 2004. I live in the state of New York and I plan on buying a two family house with a finished basement Spring 2003 and renting out one level and the basement while living in one level myself. The rental income will most likely pay the mortgage or at least 70-80%. Right now I live in a basement apartment of a private house paying $950 for rent, which I will have to pay less of when I move.
My full time job before I started dancing full time was a Special Events Coordinator for a Fortune 500 company which I really loved doing but, of course I made more $$ dancing and I set my own schedule.
I am now in the process of starting a business in which I will coordinate theme parties (Bachelorette parties, Birthday, Baby Showers, 70s parties,etc.) I figure this is something I love to do and why not do it for myself. Also, if I start now by the time I retire from dancing I will have experience, exposure and lots of contacts.
Ladies and Gents please let me know what you think of my plans any I appreciate any constructive criticism.
Also share some of your " after dancing" plans & goals.
Much Success
Tori
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Re: Income After Dancing
Lenders are looking at two issues when they give you a mortgage, ability to pay and security.
With a mortgage, the home is the security. Some lenders will make 100% of value loans, but there are higher fees associated with those and higher interest rates. If you can save up the down payment you will be able to take advantage of lower rates and lower fees.
Ability to pay is judged by two important pieces of information. Your income, and credit history. Credit in small amounts is relatively easy to obtain. Now is a good time to get a credit card. Make all your payments on time and your credit score will be awesome! Don't default. That is a killer. Don't miss a payment if at all possible. Use an online bill paying function that good banks and credit unions offer. This will remind you of your bills and it makes it easy to pay them. Some companies offer discounts for online payments. My landlord in college did.
The next issue is your income. Most strippers avoid paying taxes, or report only minimal amounts of income. When you go to get a loan, the bank or credit union will want to see your tax returns or have employment confirmation before they make a decision. That presents you with a choice, cheat the government now on your taxes and save a few bucks, or have no income history next spring when you want to buy your house. In your case, you have an employment and income history from before you danced. So it may not be as big a problem as someone who has never danced at all. To preserve your financial history, and avoid hassles with the IRS, I suggest that you report your income accurately and pay taxes. That will make your life easier when you go to the bank or credit union to get a loan.
HTH
Z
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Re: Income After Dancing
Also,
Working at the financial compnay did teach me a few things. The bank/credit union will depend on if they loan you depending how much you are asking for. Also, a little trick is to get your credit report, the big 3 credit bureas are Equifax, TransUnion, ahhh i forgot the last one. Thye all have an 800 #. It will cost you and show up, but, look and make sure all your accounts are in order!
Now for the litle trick, if you have any disparaging marks on your credit, you, may be able to get them off. Circle them, and write a letter back to the Credt Burueau you got it from. Say that you are disputing these 30 day marks, 60 day marks, 90 dar marks or 120 day marks. If the company that your disputing doesn't reply in a month I believe, may be two, they the buruea will remove them from your credit report.
If that does happen, then make sure your bank/credit union bulls THAT bureau because it usually updates only once a month, . And if my memory serves me correct its right smack dab in the middle of the month.
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Re: Income After Dancing
This is all true, but there are always no doc loans.
When I got my house, I just showed bank statements and rent receipts for the
last two years, instead of a credit report and pay stubs. The interest
rates are a little higher, but I'm planning to pay it off in a year or so
anyways.
With the business, reputation is the main thing. I have a dog training
business, and I dance sometimes 2 weekends a month, sometimes more (more
right now cuz I'm spending a lot of money building a porch and putting up
fences and getting appliances and stuff for my house). Always be
professional. Sometimes when you have a hard client it's easy to say fuck
it, I don't need your money, I can go to the club and make 5 times what you
would give me. Stop and imagine how many people this person will run their
mouth to if you don't kiss their ass. Read books about customer service.
Service America and the Knock your socks off service! series are good. If
there's a small business development center near you (and there probly is)
stop by and introduce yourself and pick up some brochures.
For me, the hardest part is the transition between me, the stripper, and me,
the dog trainer. Who I am with my freinds is not that different from either
one. But me, the stripper, doesn't do well in dog training mode. And me
the dog trainer, can't be acting like a stripper. It's the little things
that count, too. When a new dog training customer is suspicious of how I
can help him, turning on hot eyes and moving my chest is the worst thing I
can do, even though it's my first instinct sometimes, and I used to do it
almost unconsciously. So I try to leave a day after dancing before going
back to business. That's just me, though.
Lena
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Re: Income After Dancing
right now in New York, if you walk in with a 20% down payment in your hand, a lot fewer questions will be asked and , other than your Equifax report, the other documentation will be "negotiable". many parts of New York have a huge amount of shaky mortgages now as property values have for the most part stopped rising. The only risk that I can see in your plan is that with a rising inventory of homes on the market and large impending state tax increases on the way to bridge New York's budget gap, your new home may actually drop in market value after you buy it.
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Re: Income After Dancing
*This could become very long so I am going to glaze over several topics (and will reply to any questions).
If you have a good knowledge of the housing market in your area and have access to a reliable contractor buying and renting homes can be the best investment you will ever make. The key is to have a very thorough knowledge of the market and the predictions for the one to five year term after you make the purchase as most often you will see a slight decline in value unless you have purchased the home at an advantageous price as this is still a sellers market and you must have a very thorough screening process for prospective tenants (think commercial property as well as it is very lucrative).
Investing money, not just saving is the one critical piece that so many people cannot do successfully. I know dozens upon dozens of people who had banked a decent amount of money in 401ks and stocks that are literally almost bankrupt now.
The money that you save must be diversified, do not place it in a standard savings account or if you do plan to withdraw it when you reach the $25k mark and move it into a larger bank chain that has in house funds. I use Credit Suisse First Boston's private banking services for my investments, they have a much larger minimum balance threshold but I suspect that more then a few girls here are making enough money to meet it and the benefits far outweigh the relatively small costs for the services they provide:
Richard Jaffe
Managing Director- Philadelphia
(610) 660-8962
[email protected]
When the market began to turn in 2000 I was wisely advised to move my money into real estate funds and while others lost their life savings I made 21% in 2000, 17% in 2001, and 16% in 2002 all for "doing nothing".
Remember to keep yourself fairly liquid, don't take big payments on during a down economy and keep your debt to income level at 30-40% max! With the other 20-30% that you would normally spend in debt and on “stupid stuff” going to your investments and you will be able to live very well down the road as your assets and portfolio will continue to grow and outpace your living expenses. Use the revenue from the investments to buy property as property when purchased wisely will return an additional 5-20% each year on average after year 3 (in general) and you can usually use multiple dwelling properties to your advantage by using one multi home unit to pay the mortgages on new un-rented units while you continue to accumulate assets then as the new units rent they will each cover at least their own expenses and then you can begin to use the previous monies to purchase even more property (and banks view property like credit cards, when you have a few they literally hound you to get more and they make it very, very, easy for you.)
Form your own corporation (it is so cheap to do and has so many benefits) and determine how you want to pay yourself i.e. S-Corp. or standard (in S-corps the taxes are paid by the principals/individuals and standard corps pay tax on their earnings and the disbursements are taxed as well a sort of double tax) and then use the normal expenses like your car lease payments, cell phone bills, that home office where you have the computer, the maintenance costs for your home office, the expenses to maintain the properties and collect rents, your uniforms, travel costs, and so much more as pre-tax dollars so that you get the benefit of not being taxed on those portions of your income.
I have over simplified a lot of this in the interest of expediency but if you can discipline yourself now while you have that extra cash coming in to make the cost/investments ratios work for you in a very short time you will live a standard or life that you never thought was possible and you will have income for the rest of your life.