Is it possible to earn a living as an actor? Bet you’ve heard that before…Yes, but it is difficult. According to SAG’s records, only 6% of the almost 100,000 actors who are already in the union make what SAG speaks of as “middle-class” earnings of $30,000 to $70,000 a year, and only 2% make over $100,000 annually.
And get this: almost 60% of all members of SAG worked only five days total in a recent four year period. Out of every 100 actors, only 6 made the “middle class ” earnings, BUT over 80% of the members made less than $10,000 a year. And almost a third made no money at all!

SAG MEMBER EARNINGS:

27.5%…earned no money at all!
39.5%… earned $1 to $3,000.
2.8%…earned $100,000 +
1.4%… earned $200,000 +

And although these facts may make most people want to run as fast as they could from show business, sometimes it can serve as motivation to become one of the 1.4%. Acting is like being a professional athlete. Only the top 2% make 98% of the money. The rest are either not talented, or most of the time hard-working enough. So remember what we say at breakalegg: don’t leave your career up to chance or anybody else: MAKE IT HAPPEN. Work harder, study harder, look better, save more…

Technically your check looks like it should be enough to cover your bills, expenses and even saving up for a rainy day, doesn’t it? But then something happens, and you end up eating dry cereal and the occasional can of tuna waiting for the next check to arrive.

So what is going wrong? Mostly the planning. When we make a budget we normally subtract the bills and reoccurring expenses, and figure that the remainder gives us a good enough cushion to splurge on the rare luxury. But we are forgetting about the small stuff. For example, you should also be factoring in the power bar every morning at the gym, or the beer after work, or the cab fare after a night of partying, and most of all you should include the amount of times we usually eat out that we don’t event think about.

Same goes for when you want to save: little stuff first. To stop the paycheck-to-paycheck way of life you should start off cutting back on the expendable small daily things: the morning starbucks (make coffee at home), eating out (pack your lunch for work)..etc. Never should you try and cut down on the amount of money that goes towards your 401k, health insurance, or paying bills and debt.

Another thing that could help would be to try and “lower” some of the expenses. For example if you normally spend $300 a month on food, try getting the generic-brand or store-brand products instead and you might be surprised often they are just as good and save your money. It might take a few tries to figure

out which brand you like best. Another example could be your transportation/gas expenses. Try and see if there is an annual public transport pass that can save you a couple of bucks each month, or if you drive think of car pooling as an option to save gas with co-workers.

Trying to save on the little things each month will let you have more money for the occasional big purchase (such as paying for new classes, headshots…etc) can be very worth some power-bars or snacks.