If you like reading about people’s personal finances, this one’s for you.

Because recently I posted a YouTube video called “How I make $288k/year with only 19k subs”.

And you hear jacked online business bros (like me 💪) talking about these kinds of numbers all the time just to get views, and you wonder what’s true and what’s not.

What does $288k/year actually mean? And how much do I have left to spend on coffees and golf holidays with the boys?

When I first started making money in the business, I didn't have a scooby how to manage it.

Zero clue.

My monkey brain had one general thought process:

Make money, spend less than make, hope number go up, business grow, Tintin billionaire soon.

But I’ve learned one very clear and important lesson the last couple years.

You and your business are completely different things. Completely.

You are legally different entities, the finances are separate, and the business revenue number is completely different to money in your pocket.

When someone says they make "$100k/month" you can bet your bottom dollar their personal account looks very different.

So, first things first, in case you're not doing this already, have two different bank accounts.

One personal and one business, from day one.

This sounds obvious, but needs mentioning as I mixed them up when I first started making money online.

So, what's the reality of $288k?

Well, first things first, it's revenue.

It's the sexy big number.

And it's basically impossible for any business, even an 18 year old's local tutoring business, to have 100% profit.

For YouTubers it's things like video editors, thumbnail designers, software, payment fees, team members to help deliver to clients, a co-working space subscription.

In the early days, you're often reinvesting any money you make back into the channel, but once you're full time a good rule of thumb for most educational YouTubers is to keep your profit margins around 60-90%.

They shouldn't need to drop below 60% and if they do you're probably spending unnecessarily. And if they're above 90% then your probably doing too much stuff yourself, and you could re-invest more into the business to grow it and buy back your time.

My margins are around 70%, before paying myself.

I spend between $6,000 - $10,000 per month, which about 18 months ago would have blown my mind.

But it's very easy for costs to stack up.

My costs aren't likely to increase a tonne as the business grows. With 1-2 more full time hires I think I can double or triple the business, which is pretty crazy. But who knows, I'll keep you updated.

For now, $288k x 0.7 = $201k in profit.

And then I'm from the UK. So convert that into £ using an average exchange rate from the last 12 months of 0.75 means it's £150k/year in profit.

So, that's pretty tidy.

But I haven't paid myself yet...or paid tax on those profits.

And here's every business owner's dilemma, and one you don't appreciate from the outside when you're just looking at revenue numbers.

How much should you take out the business?

How much do I live for today vs tomorrow? Should I wait and keep as much money in the business as possible to grow it? I don't want to have too little money in the business account either, because that's stressful? I don't have kids yet, so should I leave more in it and keep my lifestyle cost low? But I still want to go on nice holidays now? And I still need to save personally? What's the best tax structure? Ah!!

You can see how things become a lot foggier.

Here's my system:

I pay myself a salary equivalent to £75k/year or around $100k/year.

In the UK, the most tax efficient way to pay yourself as a business owner is max out the personal tax free allowance of £12,570 and then pay yourself the rest in dividends.

At least that’s the case when you’re paying yourself less than £125k/year. After that the rules change and I’ll figure it out when I get there.

But right now, I literally transfer myself £4500 (around $6,000) from my Wise Business account into my personal Monzo bank account on the 2nd last working day of the month.

(2nd last working day because that’s what happened at my last job. I figured I’d just keep the same system.)

And I also like the mindset of treating myself like an employee in my job. Rather than running loose and paying myself whatever I want whenever I want.

And it’s £4500 because if you earn £75k/year as an employee of a company, the amount you’d actually get into your bank after income tax and national insurance is around £4500.

If you’re in the UK you can use the HMRC tax calculator to see how much you get after tax for different salaries.

I use Wise for all my business stuff because it’s great for dealing with multiple currencies and has low fees etc, but I’ve heard from much bigger business owners than me not to keep too much money (beyond $100k - $500k ) in there because it’s not an actual bank, but an "electronic money institution" meaning it's not as protected.

Why £75k ($100k)?

Here’s my reasoning.

In 2024, I got paid £55k/year + bonuses in my job. Then I quit to go all in on the business.

So in 2025, I wanted to give myself a £10k pay rise and was confident the business would be able to afford it. So I paid myself £65k/year (about $88k).

Then this year, business was going well and I think it’s important to feel a sense of progress, so I thought let’s give myself another £10k pay rise, so it went to £75k/year.

Why not more? Because in theory I could pay myself £150k or $200k/year (before tax)?

So there's a few reasons.

Having consumed a tonne of personal finance content from people like Morgan Housel and Ramit Sethi's, I'm trying to avoid lifestyle inflation.

Or at least, inflating my lifestyle too fast.

I’ve realised my satisfaction doesn’t come from actually having lots of money, it comes from a sense of progress, and my income steadily increasing.

Lifestyle creep is a legitimate trap. If you earn £200k/year, it’s friggin hard to go back to earning £50k/year if you really wanted to because you’ve got so used to having lots of money.

Plus, £75k/year or $100k/year is already a great salary, and puts you in the top 1% earners on the planet.

And I also put a fair amount of expenses through the business too 👀

But the biggest reason I don't pay myself more, is because I want to grow this bad boy.

I don't want the business to stay where it is.

I could double my salary, keep doing my thing and live a great life.

But I am motivated right now to grow, and the bet I am making is that I will get a greater return on my money by keeping it inside the business.

To demonstrate this, here's some math.

So for good financial habits, I do still save 26% of my £4500 each month, which is £1170.

Half of that goes into a savings account which gets 3.5% per year. And the other half gets invested into an index fund which might over the next 10-20 years return 10% on average.

But I think next year I can double my business, so a 100% growth rate.

And that will be a lot easier if I have money to spend! That £1,170 for example would allow me to hire someone for 20 hours/week at £15/hour.

It's enough to hire another full time video editor, or a personal assistant, or a coach for my clients etc.

I think of it like a video game. Where do I invest my limited resources to get the best return, and reach the next level the fastest?

I could bank the points I've earned, or I could take a risk and reinvest them to get even more points.

So I still do save personally because as I said at the start, you and your business are different entities.

And who knows, maybe my business will explode and I'll need to rely on my savings.

But having cash is the number one way for a) the business to not die and b) to grow it faster.

So that's the reality behind $288k/year. Hopefully it's helpful to see a bit more of the behind the scenes.

It's an amazing place to be, and I'm extremely grateful. It's taken many years of work, stress, uncertainty and a tonne of support from other people.

Tintin from 5 years ago, when he first started his YouTube channel, would be very happy to know that he made it this far.

He was very nervous when he only had 19 subscribers...

But hedonic adaptation is a funny feature of the human condition.

As soon as you get the thing you wanted, you want the next thing.

So I want to keep growing.

And of course, I'll share all my the learnings with you here.

Tintin 🫡

P.s.

The next cohort for The $100k YouTuber is coming up. If you want to turn your educational YouTube channel into a 6 figure business, then this is for you.

The next cohort starts on 21st September. There are only 10 spots available.

If you want to be the first to apply, join the waitlist on this page here. Applications will open up later this week.