What are some of the factors that influence how soon one can go full-time?

The marker of “earning enough to not need a day job” is different for everyone. A single parent supporting their children in a high cost of living area is going to have a higher necessary earnings threshold than a student still living at home. For this reason, it’s important to not compare yourself too heavily to your peers or feel bad about yourself if someone who hasn’t been at this as long is able to go full-time before you do.

Location and cost of living

Location is a huge factor in how much an actor needs to work in order to go full-time. Many professional actors at some point need to move to where the work is if they want to book enough to earn a full-time living. But the geographical hubs where so much of this work is concentrated (Los Angeles in the US and London in the UK) are known for exorbitantly high living costs.

Supporting dependents or receiving support yourself

Children, a spouse/partner, elderly family members, even pets…if you are financially responsible for taking care of others, this is going to play a major factor in how much income you need to earn to stay afloat. On the other hand, if you are sharing financial burdens – for example, you have a partner that contributes to half of your rent or mortgage each month, or you’re willing to live with roommates to save on bills – you won’t be under the pressure to earn quite as much.

Current debt

If you’re paying off mortgages, student loans, credit cards or other debt, this will naturally affect how much you need to earn to still be financially stable if you decide to quit your job.

Lifestyle requirements and preferences

Think about how you realistically expect your lifestyle to look when deciding whether or not to quit your survival job. One actor might be content living with multiple roommates, having a long commute to studios and forgoing trips or special occasions in order to make voice acting their sole source of income. But another actor might prefer to live by themselves in a nice apartment that’s close to the studios they regularly work with and treat themselves to nice things. There’s no right or wrong answer, but it’s important to decide which sacrifices you are willing to make, or not make, when evaluating your position.

Safety net for sudden expenses

For actors in the United States, health insurance and health-related expenses are significant barriers in freelance professions. If you routinely find yourself in and out of the hospital for example, are you earning enough to be able to cover your medical bills even when work is slower? If your day job provides health insurance as an employee benefit but you quit or move to part-time, will you be able to afford insurance independently?

Emergency expenses can pop up in other ways, too—car repairs, vet bills, servicing or replacing appliances…these things can easily set anybody back, so it’s important to factor them in when determining the income threshold you need to meet.

How much you are working and in what types of projects

An actor who works primarily in anime dubbing – a medium seen as highly desirable to many up-and-coming actors – is generally going to have to work more hours and book more sessions due to the fact that the hourly pay is quite low compared to other types of voice acting work. An actor working on national commercials, however, may have to book far fewer gigs—despite not being public-facing or seen as prestigious, this type of work tends to pay significantly better. Video games, another desirable type of work, fall somewhere in between.

In reality, most voice actors do not and cannot rely only on one type of work to pay their bills. It’s common to do a mix of different types of work (whatever opportunities you can realistically go out for) and perhaps also supplement with industry-adjacent work such as directing, teaching, script adaptation, streaming, or conventions.

Because of these factors, it is not really possible to set a specific amount of income per year that someone should be attempting to meet before quitting their day job. That number will be highly specific to each person’s situation.

When should I quit my day job?

The most basic answer is: when your creative endeavors are providing you with enough stable, consistent income that you no longer need to – or even have the time to – have an additional job.

While dry periods are expected from time to time, if you routinely find yourself struggling to pay bills, it may not be the time yet to let go of that safety net.

Set a full-time income goal

If you’re not already doing so, set a realistic budget of your monthly living expenses (you can find various budget templates online). Remember that your needs may fluctuate from month to month based on emergencies, one-time expenses, trips, etc. Figure out the bare minimum amount you would need to make per year in order to be comfortable.

From there, tally up your VO income from the past calendar year (ideally you should be keeping track of your freelance income via a spreadsheet, accounting software or similar method, but if you don’t have these records yet then you can use your most recent tax return). Are you meeting or exceeding your goal? If so, you may be ready to think about going full-time. If not, this will give you an idea of how much more work you need to pull in before you can do so. Remember that it is normal for self-employed income to fluctuate based on a variety of factors.

It’s also good to identify trends in your income. If you’ve been doing this a while, look at your income totals from the past five years. Has it consistently gone up every year, or did it rise and fall without a predictable pattern? Consistently increasing income is another good sign that you’re on track to go full-time.

Avoid relying too much on one specific gig to pay your bills long-term

If you book a lead character in a project that will be recording for years, it may be tempting to feel you’ve “made it” and will no longer need to worry about having another job. But it’s still important to plan for contingencies. What’s going to happen when that project eventually wraps up? What if something beyond your control happens and the client decides to recast? And if you’re hoping to rely on the convention appearances you get from booking that gig, what happens if those appearances don’t materialize, or if you end up making far fewer sales at your booth than you had hoped?

There’s a reason we caution against the mentality of “getting a big break” – yes, there are voice actors who have been so fortunate with a single role in a popular project that they are able to leverage that success for years upon years, but for every one of those there are countless other actors who live paycheck to paycheck and know they need to have other gigs lined up even if they happen to book something big. Prepare for the worst, but hope for the best!

Consider a day job that offers part-time or flexible hours

Unless your recording schedule is so intense that you’re having difficulty scheduling sessions on a regular basis, a part-time job can be an attractive option to provide a little extra financial stability while you pursue your creative endeavors. There are many jobs – particularly in the retail and hospitality sectors – that ask for evening and weekend availability, which will allow you to have some free time during typical business hours to schedule recording sessions with clients. You can also consider doing gig work such as ride share or food delivery services which allow you to set your own hours and work a lot or a little.

In the past, it used to be common for auditions to be held in-person at studios or agencies, which further complicated day job scheduling. However, modern day auditions are almost entirely recorded independently at home, so you can simply record the day’s auditions on your own time when you are not at work.

Ask yourself questions such as the following:

• How much money do I need to make per year in order to reasonably live?
• If I had an emergency expense (car breaking down, veterinary procedure, hospital visit, etc) would I be able to handle it without going broke?
• Is my career trajectory trending upwards, or at least stable? Can I expect to make a similar amount or more next year as I did this year?
• If my landlord were to raise the rent next year, would this cause me a financial crisis if I were to quit my current job?
• Do I have any existing debt, and if so, what is my current status on loan repayments?
• Does anyone else depend on me for financial support (such as children, spouse/partner, pets, or aging family members?)
• Am I getting opportunities from a variety of different sources to where if things get slow with a particular client or studio, I will still be able to audition for other projects with some regularity?
• Do I have any additional freelance/sporadic sources of income that can provide a little extra financial cushion? (ex: Twitch/YouTube/Patreon, autograph signings/events/conventions, writing/directing/casting, workshops, musical endeavors)
• If I currently rely on employer-sponsored benefits (such as health insurance), will I be able to pick up these expenses on my own if I quit my job?
• Do I have a contingency plan in mind for what to do if I don’t book work for a significant period of time?

things to keep in mind

There is no shame in having another job

It is natural to view being able to be a full-time voice actor as a badge of honor, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with taking a smart approach towards financial stability and savings. There are even plenty of voice actors who have booked popular lead roles and still have day jobs! In a tough economy where costs of living continue to rise, yet voice actors are expected to live near studio hubs for so much of the work, the fact is that it’s going to be expensive. Not being able to rely solely on acting income does not make you any less of an actor.

Going full-time may not always be permanent

Life circumstances change over time, and unfortunately, one’s career isn’t always going to be on an upward trajectory. Taking a step back doesn’t mean you failed. Some people may pick up side jobs temporarily to earn additional income, help supplement their paychecks during a slow season, and/or take advantage of additional benefits. For example, healthcare can be quite expensive in the United States, but certain full-time jobs will provide their employees health insurance, which may be a compelling reason to hang onto that job as long as possible.

Working consistently doesn’t mean you always have to be booking new things

For many working voice actors, a large percent of income comes from repeat projects and clients. A show you recorded for may get additional seasons, a live-service game may need recurring sessions for updates and in-game events, or a commercial client may bring you back to record new spots. Having these ongoing, long-term gigs can more easily provide financial stability than constantly hoping you book a new one-off gig.

Financial stability and popularity do not necessarily correlate

Particularly in public-facing character work (anime, JRPGs, gacha games), visibility leads to the idea of success which makes it easy to assume that popular actors must be doing well financially. But regardless of how many followers a voice actor has on social media, chances are they’re getting the same hourly rate or session fee that a brand-new actor would be who is hired on the same project. This is a positive thing, because if you’re good enough to book the work, you’re good enough to get paid the same industry standard as your castmates! But do not assume that you have to be in the public eye in order to be a successful voice actor. There are plenty of full-time voice actors whose names you never would have heard of and have perhaps never attended a single convention, but they make a great living!

Even full-time actors often have some sort of side income

Even if an actor is working enough not to need a “survival job”, many still have some other source of income besides purely acting. Perhaps earning enough from acting allows them to pursue their own business ventures such as selling handmade crafts on Etsy or creating custom baked goods for special occasions. Actors who rely on character work full time often supplement their income by traveling around the country selling autographs at conventions. Streaming and content creation is a popular “side hustle” for actors too, and some are also artists, musicians, etc. If you’re able to be in the fortunate position where acting pretty much pays your bills, it can allow you the freedom to pursue other creative endeavors as well.