From the Stage to Tax Season: Lessons I Learned as a Dancer
When I started dancing in November 2014, I was 19 years old and about to turn 20.
I didn’t know anything about taxes beyond basic W-2 jobs I had worked before. When I started dancing, taxes were not on my mind at all. I was focused on making money and figuring things out as I went.
I had no idea how important taxes would become later in life.
I didn’t understand taxes at all
At 19, I didn’t understand self-employment taxes, quarterly payments, or tax planning.
Someone did mention to me later—around age 23—that they filed quarterly. But I didn’t understand what that meant, so I ignored it.
Looking back, I realize I wasn’t just uninformed. I simply didn’t think it applied to me yet.
My money habits were simple (and unstructured)
When I was working, I would just put my money in the bank and hope for the best.
At one point, I was able to save around $3,000 while living in Florida. That felt like stability at the time.
But when I moved to North Carolina, things changed. I wasn’t making as much anymore, and my savings slowly disappeared.
I didn’t keep any records of my income. No tracking. No system. Nothing.
I was just earning and spending without structure.
My first tax experience changed everything
The first time I filed taxes as a dancer, I went to a tax preparer who charged me $300 for a simple W-2 return.
What made it worse was that I wasn’t shown my return while it was being prepared. I didn’t really understand what was being done with my information.
That experience stayed with me. After that, I stopped filing for a while because I didn’t trust the process.
I started to worry about my future
Around age 25, something shifted in me.
I started thinking more seriously about my future and realized I wasn’t building anything long-term.
That’s also when I got married to my tax man, and my understanding of taxes started to change completely.
For the first time, I was learning instead of guessing.
I learned what I was missing
One of the biggest things I learned later was how important tax history really is.
When my husband and I bought a home, I finally understood how tax returns actually matter.
Your tax history can help you:
Buy a home
Get approved for a car loan
Show proof of income
Build financial stability over time
Looking back, I realized I had missed a lot of opportunities simply because I didn’t build that history earlier.
The retirement reality check
Another thing I didn’t think about when I was younger was retirement.
When I looked at my Social Security contributions later on, I realized how little had been paid in during my dancing years.
At 19, retirement felt too far away to matter.
But those years still count.
The real turning point in my life
The real turning point came when I wanted to stop dancing.
That’s when I understood I couldn’t ignore taxes anymore. I needed clarity, structure, and someone I could trust.
That mindset shift led me into my first real office job at a tax company.
That job changed everything for me. If I hadn’t taken that opportunity, I honestly wouldn’t understand taxes the way I do today.
What I would tell younger dancers
If I could talk to a 19-year-old version of myself, I wouldn’t try to overwhelm her.
I would simply say:
Think about the kind of future you want.
Because your tax history can help you get there.
It can help you get a car. A home. A loan when you need it.
But only if you start building it early.
Final lesson
If I could go back and change one thing, it would be this:
I would have put money aside and kept records from the beginning.
Because your tax history is more than paperwork—it’s your buying power later in life.
Closing
Your future is being built with every dollar you choose to track—or ignore.
