Artwork for podcast Wealth Witches
Foundations Part 2: Paying Yourself
Episode 813th December 2021 • Wealth Witches • Katelyn Magnuson
00:00:00 00:12:56

Share Episode

Shownotes

Now that you’ve narrowed down what entity type fits best, it’s really common for entrepreneurs wonder about the best way to pay themselves. For sole proprietors, single member LLCs and partnerships, for the most part you can’t pay yourself wrong. You’ll be taxed on all of the profits either way, whether you pay yourself all the profits or leave them all in the business account. For an S-Corp election, you will need to run payroll in order to get the tax benefits. I recommend using Gusto* for your payroll.  As for timing, you can set that up however works best for you. Just be aware that as an S-Corp you can’t just transfer money to yourself without either running it through payroll as a bonus or writing yourself a check as a profit share.

We cover ALL of this in the “Get Your Finance Sh*t Together” self-study course at confidentmoneypodcast.com!

Join our community at confidentmoneypodcast.com where we’ll share tips and resources, and you can suggest topics for future episodes.

Enter to win a free strategy session with me!  Leave a 5-star review and include your IG handle to enter. We draw the winner at the beginning of each month. 

*FTC/Affiliate Disclaimer: By using some of these links, at no extra cost to you, I may earn a small commission or referral fee, which helps me continue to produce content like this, support my business, and my team.

DISCLAIMER: I am not a financial advisor and this is not financial advice. My podcast is for educational purposes and is my personal opinion only. To make the best financial decision for your situation, please do your own research and if needed, seek the advice of a fee-based, fiduciary.

Music credit: Neon Fairies by Wolves 

A Podcast Launch Bestie production

Transcripts

Katelyn Magnuson:

Hey, welcome back today.

Katelyn Magnuson:

We are going to be talking about probably the number one question that I get

Katelyn Magnuson:

from entrepreneurs and business owners.

Katelyn Magnuson:

And also I think the most commonly confusing question

Katelyn Magnuson:

and that's how to pay yourself.

Katelyn Magnuson:

Seems, you know, kind of straightforward, but there are some serious

Katelyn Magnuson:

nuances and questions that come up around this and misconceptions.

Katelyn Magnuson:

So.

Katelyn Magnuson:

I'm going to talk about the right ways to pay yourself the do's and

Katelyn Magnuson:

the don'ts, whether you need to be running payroll and how that all

Katelyn Magnuson:

impacts your taxes on this episode.

Katelyn Magnuson:

Okay.

Katelyn Magnuson:

Number one, let's talk about how to pay yourself, you know, are you

Katelyn Magnuson:

going to use Venmo, checks, online transfers, do you need to take cash out?

Katelyn Magnuson:

Like what, what do you need to be doing?

Katelyn Magnuson:

And this might sound crazy.

Katelyn Magnuson:

I feel like this is such a common happening that we see happen

Katelyn Magnuson:

in the business world, right.

Katelyn Magnuson:

Where you're like, oh my God, there's so many options.

Katelyn Magnuson:

Like a, there's a little, little bit of like decision paralysis going on.

Katelyn Magnuson:

Cause there's so many options.

Katelyn Magnuson:

But at the end of the day, it's so much simpler than we all make it out.

Katelyn Magnuson:

If you are a sole proprietor or a single member, LLC, there's no

Katelyn Magnuson:

wrong way really to pay yourself.

Katelyn Magnuson:

It doesn't matter.

Katelyn Magnuson:

Cash check online transfers.

Katelyn Magnuson:

Zell's would be fine then Mo technically Venmo would be.

Katelyn Magnuson:

Okay with an asterisk simply because you're not supposed to be

Katelyn Magnuson:

using Venmo for business purposes.

Katelyn Magnuson:

However, technically paying yourself is not a business purpose,

Katelyn Magnuson:

although paying yourself via Venmo kind of difficult to do.

Katelyn Magnuson:

So.

Katelyn Magnuson:

My favorite and my major tip is to set up a regular way to pay yourself.

Katelyn Magnuson:

So instead of money flying here and there and chaos I really

Katelyn Magnuson:

recommend when you're first getting started paying yourself one day.

Katelyn Magnuson:

And either paying yourself a flat amount or paying yourself

Katelyn Magnuson:

a percentage of what you make.

Katelyn Magnuson:

Generally you want to be paying yourself about 50% or less, and

Katelyn Magnuson:

we're actually gonna go into that in our next episode, how to forecast

Katelyn Magnuson:

what you need to be making, but.

Katelyn Magnuson:

Paying herself, either a set amount or a set percentage once a week, I think

Katelyn Magnuson:

is a really easy way to do that when I was first getting started and with a lot

Katelyn Magnuson:

of our clients, I encourage, they pay themselves either every Monday or every

Katelyn Magnuson:

Friday, a that gets your personal bills.

Katelyn Magnuson:

That you can kind of know what to expect and it keeps you like if you're doing

Katelyn Magnuson:

the profit first medicine method or something else, you're not sitting here.

Katelyn Magnuson:

Oh gosh, I got five payments today, four payments yesterday, and I'm getting three

Katelyn Magnuson:

payments tomorrow and you're not having to do all the math on a daily basis.

Katelyn Magnuson:

It's just, it's a fricking mess.

Katelyn Magnuson:

I really liked doing it once a week.

Katelyn Magnuson:

If you're not counting on the income, I might even do it once

Katelyn Magnuson:

every two weeks or once a month.

Katelyn Magnuson:

But if you need the income more regularly, which I find to be much more common with

Katelyn Magnuson:

the businesses that I work with once a week, then eventually maybe move to

Katelyn Magnuson:

every other week if that works for you.

Katelyn Magnuson:

But there's nothing wrong with doing.

Katelyn Magnuson:

No.

Katelyn Magnuson:

I really like if you have your bank at the same place, like business

Katelyn Magnuson:

bank, personal banking, all at the same bank, you know, chase, Wells

Katelyn Magnuson:

Fargo, bank of America, you name it.

Katelyn Magnuson:

You're simply able to do an online transfer.

Katelyn Magnuson:

So you're able to go in and move money from the business

Katelyn Magnuson:

account to your personal account.

Katelyn Magnuson:

Normally in the memo, I'll put something simple, like owners pay or owners.

Katelyn Magnuson:

Because that's not actually a business expense, the money that you take

Katelyn Magnuson:

out of the business to pay yourself.

Katelyn Magnuson:

And that's in quotes to pay yourself is not payroll.

Katelyn Magnuson:

It's not wages and salaries.

Katelyn Magnuson:

It's owner's draw or owner's pay.

Katelyn Magnuson:

And it does not affect the expenses of your business.

Katelyn Magnuson:

Because like we said, in the previous episode, remember how

Katelyn Magnuson:

all that profit and the bucket drips into your personal bucket.

Katelyn Magnuson:

Same concept, whether you pay yourself all of that money that you have that's

Katelyn Magnuson:

profit, or whether you leave it in your business account, you get taxed on it.

Katelyn Magnuson:

So that's the next, really common misconception that I have.

Katelyn Magnuson:

I have worked with some clients who come to me and they're

Katelyn Magnuson:

like, oh my God, I'm terrified.

Katelyn Magnuson:

I was like, what the taxes are going to be.

Katelyn Magnuson:

I haven't moved any of the money over.

Katelyn Magnuson:

I don't know how to pay myself the right way.

Katelyn Magnuson:

I've left it all on my business account.

Katelyn Magnuson:

What do I do?

Katelyn Magnuson:

And I mean, the, the good and the bad is, Hey, like you're going to

Katelyn Magnuson:

pay taxes on it, whether you pay it to yourself or not, you're not going

Katelyn Magnuson:

to fuck it up by, you know, paying yourself or wrong as long as you're not

Katelyn Magnuson:

doing payroll when you shouldn't be.

Katelyn Magnuson:

So you can move the money over.

Katelyn Magnuson:

But you're paying taxes, whether you let it sit there and grow, which for some

Katelyn Magnuson:

of my clients, they're really happy to do, you know, they want to have their

Katelyn Magnuson:

business accounts be super flushed.

Katelyn Magnuson:

Maybe they have another job.

Katelyn Magnuson:

Maybe they have a partner whose income they're relying on.

Katelyn Magnuson:

That's totally fine.

Katelyn Magnuson:

If you're able to leave that money alone, just know that you're paying taxes each

Katelyn Magnuson:

year as you go, as you have your profits.

Katelyn Magnuson:

So you don't have to worry if you've accumulate.

Katelyn Magnuson:

You know, 50, 60, $70,000 in your business checking.

Katelyn Magnuson:

And then you finally go to start paying yourself.

Katelyn Magnuson:

You've paid taxes on whatever your profit is.

Katelyn Magnuson:

So deep breaths because you're not paying yourself wrong.

Katelyn Magnuson:

Now, if you do not have your bank, your personal bank at the same big as your

Katelyn Magnuson:

business bank, I really like using checks.

Katelyn Magnuson:

And this is so flipping old school.

Katelyn Magnuson:

Do not for the love of everything, do not order checks from your bank.

Katelyn Magnuson:

They are probably going to be like Harlan Clark.

Katelyn Magnuson:

It's going to be 125 checks for a hundred checks.

Katelyn Magnuson:

And they're going to be ridiculous.

Katelyn Magnuson:

Go to Vista print.

Katelyn Magnuson:

You don't have to order checks to your bank.

Katelyn Magnuson:

Go to Vista print.

Katelyn Magnuson:

Go to look at their check options.

Katelyn Magnuson:

You need your info.

Katelyn Magnuson:

So like business name, business address, um, what bank you bank with

Katelyn Magnuson:

and your nine digit routing number and your account number, which

Katelyn Magnuson:

you can get from online banking.

Katelyn Magnuson:

Go in.

Katelyn Magnuson:

It'll prompt you to enter all your information for the checks.

Katelyn Magnuson:

And I'm still working off the Vista print orders that I had

Katelyn Magnuson:

like three or four years ago.

Katelyn Magnuson:

And I write checks regularly for my business, just nature, you know who I am.

Katelyn Magnuson:

So I think they were like $5 or $7 for 125 of them.

Katelyn Magnuson:

So if your banking is not all at the same place, order some checks, um, same thing.

Katelyn Magnuson:

If you're needing to be like contractors or subcontractors and you need

Katelyn Magnuson:

checks, you can use all of those.

Katelyn Magnuson:

I really like using checks for exactly that reason.

Katelyn Magnuson:

But when you're paying yourself, it's really easy because you can write yourself

Katelyn Magnuson:

a check and then mobile deposit it.

Katelyn Magnuson:

So it's a really low cost way to be paying yourself.

Katelyn Magnuson:

So this is for sole proprietors, single member, LLCs, and

Katelyn Magnuson:

partnerships for the most part.

Katelyn Magnuson:

Now, if you are running payroll, paying yourself as different, and we're going to

Katelyn Magnuson:

talk about that for just a minute or two.

Katelyn Magnuson:

So when you have an S-corp election, you have to be running payroll in

Katelyn Magnuson:

order to lock in all of the tax savings at the S-corp election brings.

Katelyn Magnuson:

And when I say payroll, I mean like through QuickBooks, please don't

Katelyn Magnuson:

use QuickBooks payroll through ADP, through Paychex, through sure.

Katelyn Magnuson:

Payroll or through my favorite Gusto.

Katelyn Magnuson:

We'll link them in the show notes here because they're, they're phenomenal.

Katelyn Magnuson:

Their customer support is great.

Katelyn Magnuson:

They're really affordable.

Katelyn Magnuson:

And they e-file everything for you, which is fantastic.

Katelyn Magnuson:

We use them for all of our clients because we literally cannot process

Katelyn Magnuson:

payroll as inexpensively as they can.

Katelyn Magnuson:

They've really just been killing it.

Katelyn Magnuson:

So if you're an S-corp, you need to be running.

Katelyn Magnuson:

At least one a year, most times, depending on the dollar value, at least

Katelyn Magnuson:

for a year, what I recommend doing is I recommend setting up payroll on a twice

Katelyn Magnuson:

a month schedule, which is known as semi.

Katelyn Magnuson:

Keep in mind, this is not the same as biweekly biweekly.

Katelyn Magnuson:

You get paid every other Friday.

Katelyn Magnuson:

Generally there are 26 pay periods in a year, meaning you get paid

Katelyn Magnuson:

26 times because there's 52 weeks.

Katelyn Magnuson:

So if you get paid every two weeks, 52 divided by two is 26.

Katelyn Magnuson:

However, have you get paid semimonthly that is twice per month,

Katelyn Magnuson:

which means that there are 24 pay periods per year instead of 26.

Katelyn Magnuson:

So with that, the reason that I like semimonthly over biweekly.

Katelyn Magnuson:

So my monthly, your pay date stay the same every month.

Katelyn Magnuson:

So if you pick like the first and the 16th or the fifth and the 21st or

Katelyn Magnuson:

the 10th and the 26th, or it doesn't matter, it lets you plan your personal

Katelyn Magnuson:

bills around that, which again, we're covering on our next episode.

Katelyn Magnuson:

It lets you plan your personal bills and gives you some stability,

Katelyn Magnuson:

which I think is really important.

Katelyn Magnuson:

Um, when you're a business owner.

Katelyn Magnuson:

Now, if it's biweekly, your pay dates will rotate throughout the month because

Katelyn Magnuson:

there are two months out of the year where you have three pay periods, meaning

Katelyn Magnuson:

that like your Friday dates will shift.

Katelyn Magnuson:

Some people really like that.

Katelyn Magnuson:

So.

Katelyn Magnuson:

Set it up.

Katelyn Magnuson:

How you like, um, some people will do monthly.

Katelyn Magnuson:

I don't love monthly payrolls simply because monthly payrolls require a lot

Katelyn Magnuson:

of cash up front for a lot of smaller business owners and gusta doesn't charge

Katelyn Magnuson:

extra for running multiple payrolls.

Katelyn Magnuson:

So I think from a personal finance and a personal budgeting standpoint and cashflow

Katelyn Magnuson:

it's much easier to do two per month.

Katelyn Magnuson:

So you've got payroll.

Katelyn Magnuson:

You're looking good.

Katelyn Magnuson:

You're really happy with it, but you need to take more money out.

Katelyn Magnuson:

Maybe you're buying a house, maybe, you know, you're paying yourself a bonus

Katelyn Magnuson:

or you're doing a profit distribution.

Katelyn Magnuson:

You can take additional money out of the account.

Katelyn Magnuson:

Just like you were a single member LLC or a sole proprietor.

Katelyn Magnuson:

It needs to be a little bit more legitimate though.

Katelyn Magnuson:

Once you're in essence.

Katelyn Magnuson:

So in this case, I recommend either an online transfer or a check.

Katelyn Magnuson:

I prefer a check and you just need to denote.

Katelyn Magnuson:

If it's a bonus, it should go through payroll.

Katelyn Magnuson:

If it's profit sharing or an owner's distribution, you

Katelyn Magnuson:

can run it through a check.

Katelyn Magnuson:

So I know again, we're going to recap because this is a lot and kind of dense.

Katelyn Magnuson:

So single member, LLC, sole proprietor.

Katelyn Magnuson:

Pay yourself.

Katelyn Magnuson:

However you choose.

Katelyn Magnuson:

My preferred methods are check and online transfers.

Katelyn Magnuson:

Doesn't matter if you pay yourself all of the money, or if you hoard

Katelyn Magnuson:

it all in your business account, you still get taxed on whatever your

Katelyn Magnuson:

profit is at the end of the year.

Katelyn Magnuson:

If you are an S-corp, you need to be running payroll in order

Katelyn Magnuson:

to maximize all of the tax benefits that come with an escort.

Katelyn Magnuson:

If you have questions about any of these, we cover all of these in

Katelyn Magnuson:

the self study course that get your finance shit together, linked on the

Katelyn Magnuson:

website, confident money podcast.com.

Katelyn Magnuson:

And it truly, this gets to be so much simpler than a

Katelyn Magnuson:

lot of us make it out to be.

Katelyn Magnuson:

We want, we want paying ourselves to be a little bit complicated, right?

Katelyn Magnuson:

Especially if you've worked, you know, a standard job or like a day job where,

Katelyn Magnuson:

you know, you're filling out your tax withholdings and it's on a set pay period.

Katelyn Magnuson:

And it's, you know, got a delay on when you get paid.

Katelyn Magnuson:

We're used to it being more complicated.

Katelyn Magnuson:

And I think coming into business, we're used to things in business

Katelyn Magnuson:

being a little bit more confusing or a little bit more complicated.

Katelyn Magnuson:

And this is one thing that really gets to be.

Katelyn Magnuson:

About as simple as we want it to be.

Katelyn Magnuson:

So again, if you liked this episode, please leave a five star review.

Katelyn Magnuson:

Tell me all about it.

Katelyn Magnuson:

Leave your Instagram handle in the comment on your review, because we

Katelyn Magnuson:

do pick one person every month that we're going to do a free strategy

Katelyn Magnuson:

session with, and I am so excited.

Katelyn Magnuson:

So make sure you tune in next week for the next episode.

Chapters

Video

More from YouTube