Living On $55K A Year In Jacksonville, FL | Millennial Money

Carlina Will, 30, lives in Jacksonville, FL, and earns $52,000 a year as a coordinator at Nickelodeon and $3,000 a year from her cooking channel on YouTube. Carlina moved home from Los Angeles and is living with her mom while working remotely. This allows her the time to work on her cooking channel as well as save money to pay off her debt.

This is an installment of CNBC Make It's Millennial Money series, which profiles people across the globe and details how they earn, spend and save their money.

Read more about about Carlina's budget breakdown here

In May 2019, Carlina Williams unexpectedly lost her job — and the experience completely changed her relationship with money.

Williams, who goes by Carlina Will professionally, was an associate producer at The Walt Disney Company in Los Angeles, California. Although she heard rumors of potential lay-offs, she didn’t think her department would be affected.

While Williams lived comfortably on her $75,000 annual salary, she wasn’t able to save much of her income and had just $6,000 in emergency savings. Most of her paycheck went toward the $1,500 rent on her studio apartment.

Her financial situation made losing her job “scary,” Williams, 30, tells CNBC Make It. “The bills don’t stop coming. The rent doesn’t stop. Any savings can deplete very quickly – there was a moment where I only had $5 in my bank account and my mom helped me pay my rent.”

Williams also had a significant amount of debt at the time, including $2,200 in credit card debt from car repairs, $3,500 for Lasik eye surgery and $5,500 in student loan. Williams also owed around $20,000 on another credit card, and she is currently engaged in a lawsuit with the card issuer over the remaining balance.

Williams decided that going forward, she would prioritize establishing multiple streams of income for herself. As Williams looked for full-time work, she also built up her YouTube channel, “Cooking with Carlina,” where she hosts a cooking show sharing various recipes.

Almost a year later, in April 2020, Williams landed a job as a production coordinator at Nickelodeon. The entry-level role is a step down from Williams’ previous position, but she’s happy to be employed.

“It does hurt your ego for sure, but I have so much life to live,” Williams says. “I’m only 30, so I can take that time to build back up and to continue to have multiple streams of income.”

To continue to save money and spend time with her family during the pandemic, Williams also moved back home with her mom in Jacksonville, Florida, in October 2020.

Today, she earns a total of $55,000 per year through her full-time job at Nickelodeon, which pays $52,000, and her social media side-hustle, where brand partnership deals on YouTube and Instagram earn her about $3,000 per year.

Starting over

Williams worked at Disney for about four years and likens getting laid off to “getting a divorce.”

Not only was losing her job emotional, but Williams struggled financially as well. She had to spend nearly all $6,000 she had in savings as bills piled up and debt mounted.

“When you don’t have money and you only have $5 in your bank account, that creates some kind of PTSD,” she says. “I did have a 401(k), and I had to pull from that. It was scary — not something I would wish on my worst enemy.”

Williams says she took $1,100 out of her 401(k), plus an early withdrawal penalty, completely emptying her retirement savings.

“I know a lot of people are like, ‘Oh my gosh, you touched your 401(k)? How could you?’ But it’s either that or sleep on the street,” Williams says.

Still, Williams tried not to dwell on the job she lost and immediately started looking for new opportunities. “You realize that bills still need to get paid. In your mind, the world has stopped, but the rest of the world is still moving,” she says.

During the summer of 2019, a former Disney colleague reached out to Williams. They were familiar with Williams’ YouTube channel and encouraged her to audition for a new Disney+ show called “Muppets Now.” In July of that year, she landed the gig and starred in a cooking segment where she cooked Caribbean food with Muppet character “the Swedish chef.”

Williams received a one-time payment of around $500 for the segment, which “was a little bit shocking,” she says. “People think just because you’re on TV, you make a lot of money.”

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Living On $55K A Year In Jacksonville, FL | Millennial Money