A Porn Star’s Purse

I'm going to reveal something not many girls really talk about. It's something everyone might be curious about or think they know about but don't--it's a porn star's money situation. Of course I can only talk about mine, and it could be completely different from other girls, so I am not speaking for everyone. First of all, it seems many people assume the majority of girls in porn are making all this money, and we're big ballers. This is so not true. Here is my personal experience:

The person who got me into the industry would actually tell strippers not to cross over into the porn industry expecting to make more money. There are only a small percentage of girls who are making good money. This is why when I decided to get into the industry I knew I was going to sacrifice a lot of time, effort and money to build a career in this business. Many of you know I lived in Hawaii the first year in the industry, so I would travel to L.A. for about 3 weeks then go back home for about a month. It wasn't like I would come to L.A. and work everyday right away. Because I wanted to only work for good companies, it took a long time before I really started to become fully booked on my trips. The trips were costing me a lot of money. One of my trips to L.A. spanning two weeks would cost me about $1500. That's with airfare, lodging, etc., and I made about 11 of those trips in the first year. That's almost $17,000! I also spent more money on top of that to make sure I had the right people behind me. So, over the course of the year I built a decent amount of debt and I really struggled for a while. It was funny how I won all these awards yet, financially, I was not doing well. The girls who make good money in the industry seem to do it two different ways: 1) Get into the industry with a lower rate and work for any company so you are working everyday. Girls make massive amounts of money doing this, but it usually doesn't support longevity in the industry. For some girls that's okay. 2) Set yourself up to get income from different sources such as your website, toy deals, appearances, etc. This is the part of my career I am building right now.

I am making good money now because I am working often, but I am now paying off the debt I incurred the first year. I'm a dweeb and listen to Dave Ramsey. I am TRYING to complete his money makeover, except I am turning it into my own interpretation. I set up an entire plan on Excel as to how I will execute this goal, and although I've only looked at it a couple times since a few months ago, I have made a few short, wonderful strides to getting completely out of debt. So will I stick with it? Will I ever be 100% debt free? No, definitely not, and I only say this because I am being realistic. Debt is such a nasty, nasty word, but I am ok with a wee bit of it. Dave Ramsey would probably be really disappointed to hear that, but I still have time to change.

So wish me luck on my endeavor to be able to spend all my money on shoes rather then credit card payments. I promise I'll have more exciting blogs soon. I've had somewhat of  a creativity crutch happening lately, so wish me luck in gaining that back as well.

-XO Chanel