It was a surprising decision
for me not to pursue higher education, but I've always
been very conscious of wanting to pay for my own
path if possible. My name is Kate Brunotts, I
am 23 years old. I currently live in
Brooklyn, New York. Last year I brought in
$48,000. I would say first and
foremost, I'm a music producer, so that means all
the sounds that you hear behind the vocals. So like the pianos, the
sound effects, all of those things. I am building the
beats there. One of the best things
about freelancing for me is that you get to learn so
many different skills and put yourself in so many
different situations, and that makes me feel very
engaged. Yesterday I helped someone
set up their podcast setup. Right now I'm also teaching
kids one day a week music production. I edit
podcasts. I write for music
production blogs. I also sometimes produce
for indie artists. I do copywriting. I've done like general
marketing videos, that sort of thing. I grew up in a
very academic neighborhood in Northern Virginia. I always loved music
growing up, but I hadn't really found something that
I was really obsessed with until I found out that
music production existed, that I just fell head over
heels in love with. I've always wanted to work
as soon as I could just because I knew I wanted to
build a safety net for myself. My parents and my
brother always emphasized the importance of saving,
and as soon as I was 15.5, which is like the earliest
age you could work, I got a job at Wegmans. Can I get a high five? Good girl! How about other
paw? Yes. How about a dance? Yes. Very good! I eventually met Matt, who
is my partner now. He also had a very similar
path of at 18, he moved out of his home as a freelance
video editor. In that time, I learned
about freelancing myself. I didn't know that was a
path that could exist, especially, you know, for
for someone like me who hadn't really pursued any
higher education. So this year I've had a
pretty large goal to try and earn at least $1,200 a
week. I figured if I was able to
do that $1,200 a week, I would be able to set that
aside and still live comfortably in terms of
being able to make the art that I want while saving. We each make a transfer
from our own personal accounts. And it's just for
those shared expenses like rent, groceries, utilities,
insurance for our dog, pet food, and sometimes like a
little slush money if we want to go out to eat. Most of the time I pay for
all of my expenses on my credit card so that I can
get that cash back. I probably have around
$10,000 in savings, but most of that is coming from my
IRA, which is right around $9,000. Because I'm
freelance, I don't have a 401(k) or any sort of
retirement match. So I really need to be
proactive and save for that myself. So my IRA is really
important to me. My one splurge is I budget
for a bubble tea every week because I'm so passionate
about it and it's amazing. Most weeks I'm working a
pretty normal Monday through Friday schedule. Most of my free time is
taken up by my artist project where I'm producing
and singing and performing my own songs. I do make a little bit of
money from that. But for me, I think it's
important to have that separation between art and
what I do to survive and sustain myself. That's mixing my songs,
that's putting together costumes for my
performances, that's paying for my rehearsal space,
putting together music videos. There are so many
ways to spend money on music. I'm pretty
minimalist in terms of setup. Like my mini
keyboard is like $100. I use that like every day. My guitars... One I got from the Guitar
Center dumpster. Another was like $200
bucks. I got a good old Squier
mini over there, so nothing too fancy. Coming from when I first
moved to New York and it was so tight and stringent, I
feel so lucky to be where I am now. I think it's super
commendable when people are able to commit to their art
full time, but I think for me, decoupling that has has
really benefited me. And I think it benefits my
art too, because I know at the end of the day my
expression is not dependent on its perceived value in
the outside world. And so I think it can
actually be really freeing. You know, if I end up being
at this level for a very long time, but it still
allows me to save and do what I love, then I think I
could definitely be happy with that.
