NIL Money, Planned · session 1 of 13 · 25 min

Money That Comes in Lumps

Explain why NIL income needs a different plan than a paycheck.
Turn a year of lumpy payments into a steady monthly pay to yourself.

A paycheck comes every two weeks. NIL money does not. One deal pays in March. The next pays in August. In between, nothing. That is not a problem. It is a pattern, and a pattern can be planned.

The plan is simple. Add up what you expect this year. Divide by twelve. Pay yourself that much each month, like a salary. The lumps go into a holding account. The salary comes out of it.

Three deals this year: Ⓛ6,000.00 in March, Ⓛ9,000.00 in August, and Ⓛ3,000.00 in November. What monthly pay could you give yourself, before taxes?

Work it out, then check

Ⓛ18,000.00 across the year. Divided by twelve months is Ⓛ1,500.00 a month. The March money has to last until August, and this plan makes it.

It is May. The March deal paid Ⓛ6,000.00. Your monthly pay to yourself is Ⓛ1,500.00. A friend says the rest is "just sitting there." What is true?

Pick your answer first, then open it.

Ⓛ3,000.00 of it is spoken for. It is June and July.

✓ Right. The money is not idle. It has a job, and the job is the two months before the next deal pays.

Spend it. August will cover the gap.

August pays in August. June and July still have to be paid for, and now nothing is there to pay them.

Raise the monthly pay to Ⓛ3,000.00.

That empties the holding account in May. The plan was built from the whole year, not from the biggest month.

This week

Write down every NIL payment you expect in the next twelve months, with the month it lands. Add them up. Divide by twelve. That number is your pay from yourself.

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