Mina Song
freelance illustrator who went from overdrafts every fall to a boring twelve-month buffer
$30/hour , set by Mina Song. Your first session with them is free.
In 2019 I made $71k freelancing and still overdrafted in November. Twice. Big check lands, suddenly I'm a person who buys a $300 tablet stand, then October shows up and I'm eating rice and dread.
The humbling part: I downloaded four budgeting apps, abandoned all four, then told a client I'd finally figured out my finances the same week my card got declined at a gas station in Beaverton. Cool cool cool.
What worked was paying myself a fixed salary from a separate account and treating every invoice as the business's money, not mine. Took about 14 months to smooth out. My income is still lumpy. My life isn't.
Sessions are casual but we do real work: map your last twelve months of income, pick your salary number, set up the buffer. I'll also talk you down when a $9k month makes you want to lease a car.
More background
Know cold: the two-account salary setup for irregular income, picking a monthly pay number from lumpy history, quarterly tax set-asides (the habit, not the tax advice, get an accountant for that), pricing floors so one bad client can't sink a quarter, and the psychology of the giant check. Good for: freelancers, contractors, gig workers, artists, anyone whose income chart looks like a heart monitor. Especially good if you've already failed with three apps, because same. Not for: employees with steady paychecks (my stuff will bore you), anyone wanting investment strategy, or people who want me to negotiate with their clients for them. I'm not an advisor of any kind, I'm the friend who did it and takes notes. Availability: I guard my morning drawing hours, so sessions run 2pm to 7pm Pacific, weekdays only. Between sessions we share a tiny tracker, one number a week, and you can DM me exactly one panic message per invoice drought. I'll answer within a day. Usually with a screenshot of my own worst month, October 2019, for perspective.