It’s a Saturday morning when I sit down to talk with Lana Reid, though for the UK-based content creator, it’s already early evening. On the agenda for our discussion is money, specifically how OnlyFans creators can save, manage money, and budget effectively. And Reid, who is in the top 1 percent of earners on the subscription-based platform, is the perfect person to ask.
Reid started making content in 2019, a decision she says was partially out of necessity. Reid was a university student at the time owing more than $2,000 in overdraft fees, as well as another few grand for a car loan. She recalls thinking, “Oh my god, how on Earth am I gonna do this?” Reid adds, “I was like, you know what? I’m just gonna do it. It’s a short-term thing. I’m just gonna make the money and then quit.”
But Reid didn’t quit. In fact, she stuck with porn long after the bills were paid and her bank account recovered. “I just love the freedom, the creativity, the process of making content,” she says. “Plus, obviously it earns well, which is a bonus.” Eventually, Reid began focusing her approach on the “girlfriend experience,” which is now her speciality. (The girlfriend experience typically involves a client seeking a more romantic interaction with a porn performer or sex worker, often mimicking a relationship.)
Now, five years later, Reid has built up a strong following, with more than 60,000 followers on X (formerly Twitter) and 20,000 followers on Instagram. Plus, she’s hired her own team, including a social media assistant and a videographer.
Reid spoke to PS about how she manages the ups and downs of owning a business, stays savvy with taxes and budgeting, and plans for her financial future. Below, she shares her best advice for fellow creators.
PS: At the start of each new year, how are you typically planning ahead financially? How do you plan for taxes, retirement, and other expenses?
Lana Reid: For people doing their first year of content creation, the full tax year has to finish, and then you’ll be paying your taxes the following year. But it’s still so far in the future, you’re not necessarily saving for it. With OnlyFans, there’s an opportunity to earn a lot of money, and sometimes it’s money you haven’t seen before in your life. It can be very easy for you to just spend it all with no regard to how much you need to keep set aside for taxes. So, get an accountant first thing, and then think about taxes and setting aside money.
In the same scope of what I would recommend, there needs to be care for pensions, which sounds so boring and unsexy, especially when you’re so young. If you’re in your 20s, it’s like the best thing to do because that money is going to grow over time.
A lot of people don’t think about it because it’s not something sexy, thinking about what you’re going to be doing at like 60 years old. But at least for me, my own experience, that is where the majority of my money goes.
PS: Since cam and sex work is still so stigmatized, it can be challenging to find an accountant or financial adviser. How did you find yours?
LR: When I first started OnlyFans, I just picked a local accountant who lived nearby. I remember I was too embarrassed to fully say what I did. I think I said I was just working in social media and I didn’t give him a picture of it.
The best thing to do, I think, would be to get a recommendation from someone else who’s on OnlyFans. If you can, try and ask a friend. That’s the same way that I found my financial adviser as well, through an OnlyFans creator. The most important thing is you just don’t find someone who’s just the first click online. Find someone who you feel like you’d be happy to talk to. Because my situation – feeling too awkward to tell my local accountant about what I did – that’s not gonna help the accountant, that’s not gonna help me.
Also, when you are registering for a business, at least in the UK, don’t register it to your home address. Register it to your company’s address, your accountant’s address, or you can buy virtual addresses online. If someone finds out your real name, they can find that information easily just by doing a Google of your name.
PS: I imagine your income can vary pretty widely every month. How do you make sure you have your basic expenses covered?
LR: When you’ve had a good month, that’s the best time to not just splurge it all, but to use that to set aside your rainy-day fund. If you have the spare money available, you really want to have enough money saved up, [in] a liquid, cash, savings account that you can easily access, for at least three to six months of your business expenses.
I would say that’s one of the first things that you need, before even pension. That goes for saying, both in a company, plus your own personal money, like rent, mortgage, car payment. Have that three months down there, so it can cover you if you are struggling and same goes for your business expenses.
Now, there’s not necessarily going to be many overhead costs that you’re going to have as a creator, but you might have things like your budgets on doing advertisements or maybe you’ll be buying exposure on other girls’ pages. Have that money that you would spend every month and have a good three to six months set aside as well.
Once you have that, you then have the opportunity in your future months where you do well to be able to invest in pensions or, you know, buy yourself a designer handbag – just make sure you have that foundation with your monthly expenses set aside first.
PS: What’s your biggest piece of advice for other OnlyFans creators and newcomers to the industry?
LR: When it comes to money, don’t bury your head in the sand. Just try and get a really nice view of where your money is. Maybe do a little spreadsheet on Excel. Google online things like tax calculators. They might not be accurate for your situation, but just have a rough idea of how much you might need to pay and just put that money aside.
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
Sara Youngblood Gregory was a contributing staff writer for PS Wellness. She covers sex, kink, disability, pleasure, and wellness. Her work has been featured in Vice, HuffPost, Bustle, DAME, The Rumpus, Jezebel, and many others.
