How PocketSmith Has Changed Digital Nomad James' Money Mindset

Read how James has used PocketSmith to transform his approach to budgeting and improve his spending habits during a period of career instability.

Tell us a little about yourself?

I’m an artist who was, until recently, based in London. But I’ve moved to Spain to escape the rain and overall greyness, not to mention the cost of living in one of the world’s most expensive cities. I’m 35 years old and have always been terrible with my finances.

For the last 12 years, I have worked professionally across film and animation, mostly as a video editor. I found myself in quite a lucrative career, earning what I would consider a good London salary. This was all good and well, but for some reason, I always ended up living paycheck to paycheck. As a self-employed person, I have to pay taxes yearly, and it was always a really stressful scramble to save up and pay my tax bill.

Over the last six or seven years (that makes me feel old), my life has been on a bit of a rollercoaster. I decided to enrol in an MA program at the Royal College of Art in London and study animation for two years, thus throwing me back into a student lifestyle. The problem was that I was now used to living with a high steady income, so I saw my financial situation crumble. Couple this with Covid, and my world was slightly turned upside down.

How would you describe your role in your household?

I guess I could be described (although I dislike the term) as a digital nomad. I work remotely and recently left London to move to Spain, but I often move around. During the last year, I’ve lived in Barcelona, Kyoto, and Southern France, and I’ll soon be moving to Granada. So my household is pretty much just me until perhaps I find somewhere that I want to settle. Short-term rentals can quickly become expensive, though.

What drew you to PocketSmith?

I tend to only start thinking about money when things start going wrong. After Covid-19, there was quite a boom in my industry, and I was busier than ever. However, over the last year, things have really turned upside down. In 2024, I have barely had more than 15 days of work, which has completely drained my bank account and made me really have to get good at managing money. I heard about PocketSmith a couple of years ago, but I initially thought it seemed too complex for my needs, and I tried countless other apps and tools. None of them helped my financial situation.

I recently stumbled upon PocketSmith again and thought I’d give it a try. I was amazed at its features. Within a few hours of setting it up, I suddenly had complete clarity over my financial situation. This was both a great but scary thing. For the first time, I could see that unless I made serious changes to my spending habits, I was going to find myself homeless. I’d like to think that it would never come to that and that friends would be there for me, but it would have likely led to me having to move back to England and give up my dream of living a nomadic life.

How long have you been with us?

I have been with PocketSmith since July, initially on the free plan. But I immediately saw its value and the effect it instantly had on my spending, so I subscribed straight away and can pretty much see no reason that I would leave. I can look at a graph and see the startling difference between my finances before and after PocketSmith.

What do you primarily use PocketSmith for?

So… life can get busy, and I by no means claim to use PocketSmith to be penny-perfect. I use it in probably a slightly lazy way, but it gives me a clear enough view of my money to know if I need to panic or if I can relax.

The way I have it set up is to list all my bills and direct debits, i.e. rent, phone, internet, etc. Then my little trick is I just made a category called ‘Misc Daily Spend.’ I can then spend that on whatever I want each day.

At the moment, it’s set to 15 euros per day. I use the rollover function so that if I spend too much on one day, it will reduce the amount I can spend the next day(s). So, with these 15 euros, I can spend it all on groceries, treat myself to something nice, or just go and sit with a beer (which happens quite a lot).

I can adjust this ‘Misc Daily Spend’ amount and see how it will impact my finances months (or even years) down the line. So I adjust it regularly to make sure that I am in a stable situation while still being able to enjoy life.

How has PocketSmith changed the way you manage money?

I’m at a time in my life that I would class as the worst financial situation of my adult life. Yet with PocketSmith, I have never felt richer. I can really notice the difference in my mindset, knowing that I am spending within a budget. Before, I would just never even know what I was spending or if I could afford it.

I am practically unemployed and have a small amount of passive income that I have to live off (£800 a month). Without PocketSmith, this would terrify me, but because I can break that £800 down in detail and know that X amount pays my bills and X amount is spending money, I feel relative financial freedom.

What are your favorite features?

For me, I just love looking at the graphs; it almost becomes a bit of a game where I try to beat yesterday’s spending. I love the ability to project 10 years into the future. It makes me really wish I had this 10 years ago; I could have probably bought a house by now. But it’s better to start getting on top of my finances late rather than never.

Got any tips?

My biggest tip would be to outline your core income and expenses and then throw everything else into ‘Misc.’ This way, you just have a clear amount of how much you can spend right now, today. This resets every day, and you can even allow budgets to roll over. I initially was rolling over whether I was above or below my spending targets, but now I only roll over to round down the next day’s budget if I overspend today.

I also like to check in every morning; it takes 5 minutes, and it’s surprising how often surprise expenses can pop up (thank you, yearly Vimeo Pro subscription). This helps keep peace of mind, and then you can happily not think about money for the rest of the day.

What’s the best money decision you made in the past 12 months?

I’ve made plenty of terrible financial decisions over the last year! But by far, the best one has actually been subscribing to PocketSmith — as cheesy as that sounds. And no, I didn’t get asked to say that!

A note from the PocketSmith team: James is an insanely talented animator, and we seriously love his work! If you want to check out some of his previous projects, or you’re looking for an experienced animation artist and director across 2D and 3D for your next video needs, visit his website: https://james-cheetham.co.uk/