This 3-part section gives you the foundation to understand everything else in Money Bootcamp. 

If you're on a deadline to get your books started, you can skip ahead to 2. Deductions and then 3. the No Fear Taxes training. But you'll need to come back and complete this section before proceeding with everything else. 

This is a fun part: what you get to deduct, and how it saves you money. You'll learn everything you need to know about deduction rules and record-keeping. 

Do this module before setting up your books. Why? If you don't know the deduction rules, you will screw your books up.

Bookkeeping is your key action in getting your financial shit together. I won't lie: setting it up is a big job. To curb the overwhelm, I recommend taking it in small chunks. Try to get years of mess settled neatly in a new system in one day? You will have an emotional breakdown. Give yourself some space to learn the system, and schedule regular sessions to use it? Yes - that's how you succeed. Aim for improvement, not perfection. And remember, you're getting a year of guided group work sessions, so you will get a bunch of practice before you're flying solo.

There are two options here. 

Option 1: No Fear Taxes: Simple Spreadsheet Bookkeeping System. This is my own system I use for my painting practice, and developed over 15 years as an artist and accountant. If your goal is getting your numbers organized for a simpler tax experience, this is for you. You can use it to calculate estimated quarterly taxes, for sure, and it has built-in formulas to help you. However, because it is simple, it has some limits: if you need payroll, reports (like a Profit & Loss statement, Balance Sheet or Cash Flow statement), or if you are a product-based business that tracks Cost of Goods Sold and does not file a Schedule C as an "Independent Artist Writer or Performer" (NAICS code: 711510), then you will need bookkeeping software, not my spreadsheet setup. 

Option 2: Bookkeeping with QuickBooks Self-Employed Tutorial. If you need bookkeeping software, this one is for you. Note: I don't love Quickbooks, it's just the industry standard, and that's why my tutorial is on it. Other softwares you can try are Wave (free, but hiring help may be worth it), Xero, Sage, and Freshbooks. These are just a few of many. 

You can watch both and then decide, or use this guide to determine if you're better to set up on software or a simple spreadsheet.

You have a choice between a spreadsheet and software when you set up bookkeeping. 

This section will teach you how to set up your books on a SPREADSHEET.

Spreadsheet bookkeeping is good for:

If you need reports, payroll, COGS or have a lot of moving parts, then you should choose to set up your books using software, not a spreadsheet. (See the next section).

Bookkeeping is your key action in getting your financial shit together. I won't lie: setting it up is a big job. To curb the overwhelm, I recommend taking it in small chunks. Try to get years of mess settled neatly in a new system in one day? You will have an emotional breakdown. Give yourself some space to learn the system, and schedule regular sessions to use it? Yes - that's how you succeed. Aim for improvement, not perfection. And remember, you're getting a year of guided group work sessions, so you will get a bunch of practice before you're flying solo.

There are two options here. 

Option 1: No Fear Taxes: Simple Spreadsheet Bookkeeping System. This is my own system I use for my painting practice, and developed over 15 years as an artist and accountant. If your goal is getting your numbers organized for a simpler tax experience, this is for you. You can use it to calculate estimated quarterly taxes, for sure, and it has built-in formulas to help you. However, because it is simple, it has some limits: if you need payroll, reports (like a Profit & Loss statement, Balance Sheet or Cash Flow statement), or if you are a product-based business that tracks Cost of Goods Sold and does not file a Schedule C as an "Independent Artist Writer or Performer" (NAICS code: 711510), then you will need bookkeeping software, not my spreadsheet setup. 

Option 2: Bookkeeping with QuickBooks Self-Employed Tutorial. If you need bookkeeping software, this one is for you. Note: I don't love Quickbooks, it's just the industry standard, and that's why my tutorial is on it. Other softwares you can try are Wave (free, but hiring help may be worth it), Xero, Sage, and Freshbooks. These are just a few of many. 

A basic roadmap for setting up your business legally. Guest host Dr. Katherine de Vos Devine, is not just a PhD Art Historian, but an art law expert and attorney for artists. She walks you through the areas to consider as you set up. 

We cover legal considerations for taking your business online, including valuable legal language you can use to protect yourself right now, uncover the use of an LLC and touch on other business/tax entities you may consider in the future. Plus Katherine clarifies when you do need a lawyer, and when you don't.

This module is the best value in Money Bootcamp - this session alone would cost you the entire price of Bootcamp if you sat with each of us in individual sessions.  Dig in to the resource lists - they have a lot of info to help you implement your business setup as easily as possible.

Personal Finance is not rocket science - but knowing the basics can get you really far. Take the time to apply it to your specific situation, and make a plan. Your own personal finance plan gets your through an emergency, keeps you on track, and moves you to your dream goals.

This section is about leveling up. When you use tax-advantaged accounts for your money, you get extra tax savings. But you can also supercharge your money's growth. When you combine tax shelters with investing power (that's the next section), you get higher levels of growth because the suppressing effect of your investments' taxable activity is blocked. So if putting money into investments is growth, then investing inside of a tax shelter is supergrowth.

The basics of investing are not as hard as you think. And the good news is that the most boring, simple methods are also the most consistently lucrative. 

People who want to make money off handling your investments have a reason to intimidate you: why pay them if it's easy enough to do yourself? Why pay them to do the consistent, simple thing? Shouldn't they go out and prove their worth by trying to make complicated moves and beat the market, even though research proves that most investors don't beat the market more than 50% of the time (ie chance)? Why should they try to make things clear to you, when your confusion is why you're paying them?

A basic education in investing will pay you dividends (maybe even literally). You really can do it all yourself. And even if you pay for help, it will help you sort the ethical fee-only CFP from the slimy fee-based broker who steers you to investments where he makes a larger cut. And the options in robo-advising are opening new avenues for guidance at a reasonable price.

Lastly, your investments can change the world. Not just the people in your life. So I talk about the ways to invest ethically and use your money to create genuine positive change. When your wealth aligns with fighting for social and environmental justice, you will start to feel your power to change the world for the good.