How I Manage My Money: Voice artist, on £114,000 a year, with a £28,000 tax bill

In our How I Manage My Money series, we aim to find out how people in the UK are spending, saving and investing money to meet their costs and achieve their goals. This week we speak to Emily Jardine, 37, a voice artist, singer and voiceover coach living in southern England with her fiancé, Robin, 43, an actor. Voice artist Emily, who has 53 different agents, made £114,000 last year. You may have unknowingly heard her voice. Emily is squirrelling away money for her wedding in a castle next year. Monthly budget My monthly income: My income as a voice artist varies wildly, but I’m currently making between £4,000 to £5,000 a month. My monthly outgoings: Mortgage, £1,100; council tax, £200; gas and electric, £300 as I overpay; water, £87; broadband and TV, £40; mobile, £40; subscriptions like Netflix and Disney and a treat for myself in the form of monthly flowers, £300 to £400; eating out and takeaways, £120; day trips and hobbies, £200. I like to cross stitch and Robin likes films. We don’t have a car. Our home insurance is £250 for the year. I like shopping around and getting a good deal. Money usually going towards saving and investments is being saved for our wedding. I’m adding about £400 to £500 to a separate cash savings pot each month as my pension. I grew up in Reading and my parents owned a bed and breakfast. I was lucky enough to go to drama school and decided not to go to university. Shorts From an early age, I was taught that I had to work hard and make my own money. I worked from the age of 16. I was in bands and took part in paid musicals. I also worked in a jewellery shop for £5.25 an hour when I was younger and did an administration job earning around £14,000 a year. In time, I started working as a producer, earning from £27,000 to £34,500 a year. We produced TV adverts, video games and online courses. From 2012, I knew I wanted to be a voiceover artist. While I was working in production, I was already making a bit of extra money from it. I was nervous when I first started doing voiceover work and I imagine my heartbeat could be heard through the microphone! By the time it was 2017, I already had quite a few big-name brands behind me. I quit my production job in 2022 to go it alone as a voice artist. My safety net was gone but this drove me to succeed. To keep paying my bills, I knew my business had to work. The fear of the unknown pushed me forward. I now work almost exclusively from home as a voice artist. I had a recording studio built next to my house last year, which is called the Elizabooth. On any one day I can be working on a medical manual, a video game or a TV advert. My clients have included Amazon, Emma Sleep, Danone and L’Oreal. I add a major brand to my portfolio at least once a month. I have 53 agents in 23 countries. The agents get a commission if they secure a booking. I do not have set working hours. If I’m busy, I can work 18 hours a day. In quieter periods, I might not do any work for several days. The work isn’t just about getting in front of a microphone and speaking. It’s about running an entire business. I deal with the marketing, the administration and customer service. I have to be analytical as well as creative. But what I love about my work is being able to change people’s perceptions about something after they listen to me. 2017 was a key year for my business and I was consistently earning £4,000 a month by the end of the year. I made my first £90,000 annually three years ago. In 2023, my income skyrocketed as I got more agents and more work. I made £114,000 last year. Earning more means I can afford more holidays and clothes and not look at the price tag of things so much. I can go to Marks & Spencer if I want to and sign up for a subscription if I fancy it. I fully appreciate how fortunate I am and never take any of it for granted. I have always been very careful with money and shop around for the best deals. As a child, I squirrelled money away in a money pot under a doll’s skirt! Robin is even more cautious with money than I am. We live in a semi-detached four-bed house which we purchased in February 2025 for £283,250. It’s in a rural location and the house needed renovating. Our mortgage is £1,100 a month and we’re on a five-year fix. A lot of the money I’d usually put into savings and investments is going towards my wedding and my tax bill. My tax bill was about £28,000 last year. Our winter wedding is being held in a castle in Wales in 2027. I currently have about £10,000 in savings. I put as much money as I could in pensions when I worked as a producer. I’m now adding about £400 to £500 a month to a savings pot which I plan to use as a pension. Many people in my line of work never really retire and I imagine I’ll follow suit and keep working. The work is too much fun to give up. I couldn’t live solely on the state pension and I think we should be doing more to help people who are financially vulnerable. I like the lifestyle I have and am motivated by money, but not to the extent that it overtakes my passion for my work. I’d love to earn more but it’s not my main goal. I love what I do and feel extremely fortunate to be in the position I am in. I never take any of it for granted. Want to take part in How I Manage My Money? Email money@theipaper.com