How much do you pay yourself?

I prefer not to keep anything in my paypal account. I still use paypal to make payments, but I first bring the balance to zero and then make the purchases with my 2% cash back credit card. I have the cash back automatically sent to an investment account each month that has consistently earned 5+% every year, this year much more.

But absolutely you need to invest in your business too, and make the tough decisions about what to add and what to cut.

10% to God
10% to Savings
10% Invested some way form or fashion
10% me
20% marketing the business
40% development, research, tools and overhead

in that order

Paypal's refund policy is 60 days, so I have the same refund policy. Since after 60 days the money is essentially all mine, I break the 60 days into 10 (6-day) periods. This is roughly getting paid each week. Since there are 10 periods, I pull out 10% of whatever is in my paypal account every 6 days.

You would think that pulling 10% out 10 times would deplete the account, but actually it still leaves 34.87% of the amount that was originally in there at the beginning of the 60 days. 35% is more than enough to cover any refunds. If you're refund rate is over 35%, you have serious problems that you need to address. Where does this 34.87% come from? By taking 10% out, I'm basically reducing my account to 90% of it's value. The math problem is 0.9^10 = .348678 = 34.87%

Why leave so much in paypal?

In the past I used to pull money out of paypal more aggressively. But from their point of view it's risky for you to pull out most of the money that's sitting there. If you make $10,000 and pull out $9,000 the next day, paypal starts to worry that you'll spend the money and there won't be enough to honor any refund claims for the next 60 days. Paypal's policy is 60 day refund, so they will honor it. If the money isn't in your bank, paypal takes on more risk.

I had problems with paypal in the past & I believe it was because I was pulling too much of my money out. I always had enough to grant any refunds that were ever requested, but I believe paypal thought my account was too risky.

Now that I have learned more, I prefer to leave a bigger cushion in paypal and pay myself the money as I actually earn it. A sale is made today, but since I offer an unconditional 60 day guarantee, I don't actually earn that entire sum today. It makes sense to me that I can pull out 10% every 6 days & that's the money that I've actually earned. This way there is plenty of money in there for refunds and other business expenses and I don't have to stress. I like getting paid often. This system works well for me & I believe it's based on what's morally right & what's practical

That's a good question. I certainly don't have a set or fixed sum that I put aside every week - the nature of the IM business means our earnings can fluctuate quite a bit. However what I normally do is pay whatever my essential needs and costs are and then reinvest in my business.

I agree that it’s a good idea to have a plan and invest in your business, besides saving money from what you earn.

I always leave the payments I receive in dollars at my Paypal account to pay for online expenses and investments, and I withdraw only the amount I receive directly in euros, which is a lot more than the amount I receive in dollars.

Sometimes I’m not so loyal to saving money because of extra expenses (usually my family’s expenses, or something for the house, I’m not an insatiable consumer) but I’m trying to always keep something from what I make every month, without spending everything.

5-10% to Savings, Living Expenses, and Me.
90% to Business and Investments.

No reason to take anymore for me. I don't like buying flashy things.

Wish Paypal was a bank that would give us profit. For example, if I will leave 100 euros at my local bank for one month, I will make around 1.5 euros only because I left this amount there. However, the money I leave at Paypal doesn’t make me richer. If Paypal would work like local banks, we could have big deposits there. This would be a good solution for those who must respect the 60 days refund policy.

10% tithe
5% giving
30% overhead
30% marketing education and tools
25% investments

Right now, I don't.

I reinvest my earnings, scale and GROW

Something I should have been doing a long time ago

My reward right now is seeing the progress I'm making when I do my daily stats each morning. I think that's very important. We can become so busy at times that we just don't see how much progress we've actually made.

Being aware of that is real good for confidence too!

Kerry Russell

I don't leave anything on PayPal. I have no fixed rate on where I allocate my income. I guess it depends from time to time though I always make sure I always add to my savings for future purposes or emergencies.