Any idea on how retirement is possible for an average Cam girl? Plans, options, investment

Any idea on how retirement is possible for an average Cam girl? Plans, options, investment



You answered your own question.
1) Plan
2) Weigh your options
3) Invest
The same way you planned on being a camgirl, you weighed your options and then invested in what it takes, is the same way you move on to the next thing.
People are so much more capable than what they give themselves credit for. You can do it.



I would contact a financial adviser in your area. Places like Edward Jones are all over the place, and I think they're pretty inexpensive. I always recommend my friend Kevin Bachhuber, because he specializes in working with people that work in the adult industry. His email is [email protected]. He can probably point you in the right direction, at least!
Kudos to you for thinking ahead!
Open a Roth IRA if you can. It's up to $5000/year you can invest ($6,000 from age 50 and up), and you can open it at any bank or many online websites. I personally use Scottrade, and have put $5000 away for three years. At 24 my retirement account has around $16,000. The nice thing about a Roth IRA is you can pull out all that money 100% tax-free once you turn 59.5 years old. Hypothetically, if you put away the MAX amount every year from age 22 to 65 you'd have $194,000 WITHOUT interest, but say you have 5% added interest every year that amount is more like $484,692.96. Not a bad amount to retire on. Shit, if you really were good with your retirement and received 10% annual interest you'd have $1,638,195.46 from just putting away $5000/year!
The other benefits of a Roth IRA is you can pull it out early (before retirement) penalty-free if you come across a hardship. A hardship qualifies as a first time homebuyer, paying off student loans or tuition, or you can use it for major health bills. However, you can not withdraw the money penalty-free if you wish to use it for non-emergency stuff such as a shopping spree or Hawaii vacation. If you pull it out early you are charged the regular income tax on it, plus a 10% fee. That means if I had $10,000 in my Roth IRA and I wanted to go on a huge trip I CAN take out all my money - but the government is going to take about half of it, so in reality I'm getting about $6,000 after Federal/state/penalty tax. BUT if you leave that money in until you retire you get every penny.
On top of my Roth IRA I have my 'emergency/second retirement' account with about $12,000 in it which is more liquid and I can take it out without penalty, but I'm only making .8% annual interest on it which is only an additional $100/year.
For more information on the Roth IRA, check out your local bank, or check out http://www.irs.gov/Retirement-Plans/Roth-IRAs
Remember, you're never to young to start saving. Having a healthy bank account and being independent is far more important than having that flashy new car or designer shoes.
According to Cosmo mag, 25% of Americans couldn't come up with $2000 in 30 days. Is that you?
Last edited by Buddysmom; 09-11-2012 at 02:58 AM. Reason: puncuation





Roth IRA's are a fairly good idea if you plan to retire at age 60. However, if you plan on retiring by age 40 they're not as good of a way to go, since you'll wind up paying huge penalties to the IRS if you withdraw the money before age 59 1/2.
As other have already posted, the key to a comfortable retirement for a dancer or camgirl is to save, Save, SAVE ... and then invest your savings wisely. Before worrying too much about the investment aspect, first comes developing the ability to save consistently !!! And going hand in hand is the ability to earn money consistently.
My own approach to this was to first sit down and figure out how much money I absolutely needed to spend in order to pay taxes, to pay my rent and utility bills, to buy food, etc. on a weekly basis ... which in my own case worked out to about $ 600 total. Then I figured out how much money I needed to save per week in order to pay taxes on and build up a sufficiently large 'nest egg' to retire by the time I reached age 40 ... which in my own case turned out to be another $400 total. I then adopted a mindset that, until I reached the point that I had earned $1000 per week, I really didn't have ANY money available to spend on anything else. This in turn 'pushed' me to make an extra effort to work extra hours and extra days so that I WOULD earn something beyond $1000 every single week. If I failed to do so ( which occasionally did happen ), it meant no restaurant meals, no shopping trips, no 'nothing' the following week.
Admittedly this sort of savings ethic takes discipline ... and frankly very few girls actually have the ability to follow through on it. Knowing that you have tens of thousands ( and after a few years hundreds of thousands ) of dollars in the bank ( or an investment account ) makes it really difficult to continue eating Ramen noodles, to continue driving a 7 year old car, to continue wearing 2 year old jeans etc. But being able to do so allowed me to save enough money during my ~12 years of full time dancing and camming that I now have a large enough 'nest egg' built up that provides enough 'passive' income so I don't have to worry about ever working again for the rest of my life.
However, in the interest of fairness, I need to point out that I had the 90's 'tech boom' economy working in my favor in regard to dancing, I had the 'scarcity' factor in my favor during my early years of camming, and I also had some very good investment opportunities available in the early 00's to help me achieve my goal. While today's economy / earnings and investment opportunities may not be as good, this only means that it might take 15 years or 20 years instead of ~12 years to achieve the goal of retirement. Again the key is save, Save, SAVE.
Last edited by Melonie; 09-11-2012 at 03:19 AM.
I've been thinking about this too. I'm 30 now, and after a string of shitty relationships I don't have much money. I do have savings, but some are accounted for.I will inherit a lot of money and property and I have no offspring unless the hamster counts. I want to retire at 45-50, not 40-I don't work *that* hard and I tink there are still options in the adult agency available for a woman in her forties so I'm not thinking I will *have* to be retired by then.
I'm in the UK so slightly different. Have got me thinkng about this!





I view each stage of life as an investment to pay for the next. I college, I stripped. That career allowed me to graduate with no debt, a paid for car and a huge storehouse of experience in running a small business.
Next came a fellowship with a large southeastern utility that paid for my MBA and my baby. I used a midwife and breast feeding to further reduce costs for my child and increase her overall health. Also, the money I had in the bank from stripping and the company credit union allowed me, an unwed mother, to buy my first house and fix it up. I flipped the house and bought another. I also switched jobs just as soon as my fellowship expired. That added both to my bank account, my investment account and most importantly, to my storehouse of knowledge of how to operate a large business.
A few years of flipping houses and working for a VC with their early stage companies and startups both increased my investment fund and my storehouse of knowledge about startups and turnarounds. I lost money on my last house deal, but not near enough to wipe me out. But, a year ago, I knew it was time for the next phase of my work life. Time to put all I'd learned about running small businesses, large businesses, startups and turnarounds to work for me. I bought a business.
Today, I'm the boss. My advice, use your looks while you can, put money aside but more important, learn from this experience. Learn all you can for the next phase of working life.
What will the future hold for me? I already have my eyes open for another acquisition.
HTH
Z





Zofia, you are a gleaming example of an entrepreneur !!! You have profited greatly by putting your own assets at risk, plus expending huge amounts of personal effort. Here's hoping that your success continues. But admittedly you are FAR from being retired. Like it or not, with your own assets 'sunk' into a business, you have to pay close and active attention to that business on a daily basis ... because if you don't, the actions ( or inactions ) by subordinates can effectively destroy your business ( along with some of your 'sunken' assets ). Where passive investments are concerned, the attention requirement ... while important and ongoing ... isn't so time critical, and isn't subject to the 'mistakes' of subordinates.
I do completely agree that acquiring knowledge ... particularly 'real world' practical knowledge ... is the single most important key to ongoing success. You and I have both learned far more from the 'school of hard knocks' than from college. I learned far more from stockbrokers, bankers, lawyers, corp exec's etc. who were my customers in Manhattan club VIP rooms than I ever learned from a college professor !
You and I both employ the 'real world' practical knowledge we have acquired over the years to further our financial interests ( albeit in different ways ). In terms of business philosophy, you tend to be aggressive and optimistic, while I tend to be passive and pessimistic ... something that is probably due to our different geographical backgrounds ( different business climates, different tax / regulatory situations ). But, ultimately, you and I both 'gamble' that the decisions we make based on that 'real world' practical knowledge will be profitable !!! Fortunately, we have both been 'right' in our decisions far more often than we have been 'wrong'.
Circling back to the topic of this thread, you and I share something else in common. Had we both NOT managed to 'cash in' on our exotic dancing / camming skills at the beginning, and had we NOT exercised the discipline to live frugally and save a good portion of the money we earned, neither of us would have had the necessary 'capital' built up which allowed us to pursue subsequent options. Thus I would argue that the discipline to earn as much money as possible while you are still young, live frugally, and save a good portion of the money earned, is the key to 'initial' success.
The classic adage applies just as much today ... " it takes money to make money' !!! All throughout my dancing career, I was 'amazed' that a large number of girls ... girls at their 'maximum earnings potential' ... would choose to not go into work because they would rather party or be lazy, would choose to spend their earnings on designer clothes / jewelry / new cars / fancy nights out and vacations etc. Some even had the 'audacity', after spending the money they had earned on such 'luxuries', to complain that they didn't have enough money left to make their rent payment at the end of the month. Obviously, such girls were operating on the assumption that their earnings potential would always continue at present levels. But with each passing year, and with each economic downturn, they were proven wrong. And as a result, a good number found themselves still dancing at age 40, with no savings or investments, simply hoping to earn enough to cover their rent and living expenses, with absolutely no 'plan' in regard to next year.
Which brings us back to ... earn all of the money you can WHILE you can, don't waste money on 'luxuries', save Save SAVE.
Last edited by Melonie; 09-12-2012 at 03:36 AM.
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