(Chelsea): Hey guys!

It's Chelsea from The Financial Diet. And today I am here with a very special guest, Anna Akana, who is also herself a YouTuber.

I'm sure that plenty of you know about her. Um, and she's also someone who is cool and open enough to talk about money. So we thought we would bring her here to do the 6 Awkward Money Questions that we did with Hank Green, and we'll link you guys to that in the description, but we also thought that we would do a little, quick lightning round about what it's like to be a Youtuber who has reached, let's be modest here and say some level of professional and financial success. (Anna): Just a modicum. (Chelsea): Just a modicum.

So let's get right into it! The first question is "What was the worst money you've ever spent in the name of romance?" (Anna): Oh my god! There's so much.

I bought a Slave Leia costume, um for like $500 because this guy I liked loved Star Wars and loved Princess Leia and like casually dropped like having sex with a Slave Leia costumer was like his end goal. And so I was like "I will be that costumer." So, I put it on a credit card, even though I had like $20,000 in debt from stupid, first-edition mint comic books, and I banged him. *laughter* (Chelsea): I have to admit, I was not expecting that answer. Wow. (Anna): Yeah. (Chelsea): Next question!

So something that we love to talk about on TFD is the idea of spending money in the interest of sort of making yourself a better person or becoming a new version of yourself. So, what is the worst money that you've ever spent in an attempt to become a better person? (Anna): Wow. You know, honestly, I can't say that any of the things I've spent my money on have been a terrible decision.

Even if I hate the programs that I-- like I've done a lot of like, "manifestation" "Transform your life". A lot of the things that I've done, even if they were a stupid amount of money like for a course, ultimately I feel like it's helped me honed into like what I believe. (Chelsea): Has there ever been like, I mean, even like a clothing item? I feel like I've bought so many things that were just even for like personal appearance that I was like, even like the decision to get bangs. (Anna): Oh, well, I cut my own bangs, but I didn't spend any money on that.

I don't know, I mean I've had cosmetic surgery, but I've been happy with it. Like, I love it. So, nothing I've done, I've ever really regretted. (Chelsea): Not even the Slave Leia costume? (Anna): No!

It was great sex! He was an awful person, but it was a great night. And I like used that costume to like work as a booth babe for like 2 years after that, and like met a bunch of great friends who I'm still friends with today.

So, I was like "This is great!" (Chelsea): So what is one guilty pleasure that you spend money on that you know that you absolutely shouldn't? (Anna): Uh, food. Expensive ass food. I am so down to drop $300 on a meal.

I don't know if you've ever been to Bazaar by José Andrés. Like, the first time I ever went there, I dreamt about it. I dreamt about eating there for like a full week, and then I became a regular there, and it was a horrible financial decision, but every meal I was just like "Oh my-" I was like crying and like shoving shit in my mouth.

And even now, like I'm down to try an expensive restaurant just to see if the food will be delicious. (Chelsea): So sort of on the opposite note, what is one thing that you are really cheap about, that you know you should spend more money on? (Anna): Oh man, that's a good question. Um, I'm really cheap about self-care. I go and be like "This massage is $85 dollars?!", even though like I clearly, badly need a massage and I just blew like $200 on crystals or something.

Um, so I, yeah, I'm trying to get a lot better about like being ok with spending money on my own body. (Chelsea): Is there any money, body spending, that you are gung-ho about? (Anna): Body mods! Love body modification. (Chelsea): What does that mean? Like tattoos? (Anna): No, not tattoos.

I mean I've had a boob job. I've done like Botox in my jaw to help with my migraines. (Chelsea): Well, so this is a question that implies that you have money, and while I don't want to make any assumptions, I think it may be fair to say that you do. What is something that people with money know that people without it don't? (Anna): I think, and I say this as someone who eight years ago was having her phone shut off every month and bought my groceries at the 99 cent store.

I think the more you worry about money the less likely you are to actually get it. I refuse to worry about money. And I have the mentality, "I'm going to make money no matter what.

I will be fine." I really do think you have a lot of power in your own life to like manifest certain situations or have things come to you. And I know it sounds very new-agey and like privileged as fuck, but uh the moment I stopped worrying about money, the more money I actually started making. (Chelsea): There's probably a fair amount of empirical evidence to support that in the sense that people can tell when you're desperate about money, and this is particularly true in like interactions with clients or employers or any kind of situation where you need leverage. And we talk quite a lot on the channel about the importance of negotiating and the importance of advocating for yourself in terms of what you're worth.

And if you are struggling with money or at all feel precarious about it, you can tell. The person across the table from you can tell. And for a lot of people I think especially in their first job negotiations, like when.

I was negotiating for my first salary, I literally said on the phone with the guy like, "I would do this job for free." (Anna): Oh my god! (Chelsea): Which you're just really not supposed to say. And I think it was largely due to my kind of, I mean over-eagerness but also that, that desperation, and I think the power to walk away from things is often what will lead to the money coming. (Anna): Yeah, and I think being able to believe it and being able to see it is so necessary in order for you to unconsciously make the choices for you to get there. Cuz if you're fixating all the time on like "I don't have money.

I don't how I'm going to have money" Like, you're just, that's what you're focusing on, so I feel like that's what's going to come true for you. Versus like being proactive and taking steps until like, "Ok I want, I want this money. I know it's coming to me.

What can I do to deserve it?" (Chelsea): And you have to be on some level willing to take risks even if that risk entails just going for a job or a project that you don't, don't feel like you could get. So what is something that 2018 Anna does with money that 2008 Anna would have never thought possible? (Anna): Wow, um, I have a pension plan, I guess like-- I'm able to really manage my money in a way that I never would've dreamed I could have, like now I'm able to really calculate, "Ok, how much should I put into this project? How am I willing to lose on like this property?" or something like that.

And so just the ability to reinvest in yourself, I think is such a beautiful concept, and feel kind of financially liberated from-- I don't have to work a day job. I literally get to be creative all day. And thought that's a, you know, as you, I'm sure you know, it's hard enough in itself when you're like completely focused on that, but it's, it's also really liberating and a privilege. *Chelsea making alarm noises* (Both): Lightning round! (Anna): I know that sound cue! (Chelsea): So, I wanted to ask you just a few questions around, so as you mentioned, you used to not have so much money. (Anna): Yeah. (Chelsea) And now you have a good amount of it.

If you want to like, you know, ballpark it for our audience. (Anna): Yeah. Before taxes or after taxes? (Chelsea): One of each maybe. (Anna): Uh, before taxes, for the last three years, I've made a million dollars. After taxes, it's about $400,000.

After reinvesting in myself, maybe about $100,000 is stuff I actually take home and spend on myself. (Chelsea): Interesting. So, does in that $400,000 that you're reinvesting in yourself, does that count all of like your bills and living expenses? (Anna): No, it's mostly like YouTube, financing passion projects, supplies, um headshots, random websites that you have to be subscribed to. Movies actually count as research for an actor, so any kind of entertainment.

I luxuriously spend on entertainment because I know I can also write that kind of stuff off, but mostly projects. (Chelsea): It's kind of fascinating to me because we're, at TFD, we're much more in like the personal finance world which is full of obsessives about maximizing every dollar, and it's very interesting to hear someone who is taking home seven figures but choosing to actually live on about a tenth of that. Is there a time at which you envision yourself not doing that anymore? (Anna): Not any time soon because I found that the more I invest in myself, the more opportunities come to me. So, I've been able to build a library of work that then gets me bigger and bigger opportunities every year.

My first short, I invested $60,000 into and that brought me a series that was like a million dollar budget. So, the shorts after that I'll put like $100,000 into. Um, my current stop-motion project's about $200,000 for four minutes, but I really want to go after the Sundance and festival circuit and try to nail a directing job in features.

And I know that's the way to go. So, to me it's like, no I'm putting this back in for me to have bigger opportunities and to grow and to level up as a businesswoman and as an artist. I mean, my work is my life anyway.

So, if even if I like had a million dollars to spend, I'm like, "What would I buy? Like a boat? Or like an island?

That's so expensive. And the maintenance costs and like just recurring like sales tax would be a nightmare" So, um for me, it's always been a very easy decision to just put it back into yourself, um, also raise your value and expand your business by doing so. (Chelsea): Is there any kind of goal that you have in terms of wealth? (Anna): Yeah, I want to be a billionaire someday, for sure. I am really upset at the billionaires of the world.

Like, once you're past like, honestly, $100,000 a year is so much money to live on. I have so much money like I freely give it away. Like, I troll animal GoFundMe's as my good deeds or Kickstarter in order to try to fund passion projects or um if my friends have a really good web series idea but they're not necessarily notorious yet, I'm like, "Hey!

I'll fund that. Just give me like EP credit on IMDb or whatever." Money, to a lot of people, when you get that high becomes a game, and you're super emotionally detached and you're really irresponsible and are kind of a dick, and I would love to be in a position of power to make real change. (Chelsea): So, if you, like me, were incredibly riveted by this conversation and would love to learn and hear and see more of Anna, you can find her at YouTube.com/annaakana. And everything social media @annaakana. (Anna): Thank you! (Chelsea): So, as always guys, thank you so much for watching, and don't forget to hit the subscribe button and to come back every Tuesday and Thursday for new and awesome videos. (Both): Bye!