33-year-old was laid off 10 months ago—how she covers monthly expenses

Austin previously earned $131,000 per year designing the user experience for a retail company’s apps and websites.

She got her last paycheck in February, which included payouts for her accrued vacation time, and later received her last bonus and a small severance package.

She immediately filed for unemployment and qualified for 12 weeks of benefits, paid at $600 per week, for a total of $7,200 in jobless aid.

The bulk of Austin’s earnings this year have come from her YouTube channel. She started making lifestyle videos in 2015 as a creative outlet after graduating from college; in 2018, she was in a car accident and began tracking her year-long journey of buying a new vehicle, and has dedicated her channel to covering personal finance ever since.

Symone Austin was hesitant to post her video about being laid off, but it quickly went viral and led to a flood of supportive comments.

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Austin recorded the aftermath of her layoff like she would for any big financial moment. It took her three weeks to build up the courage to post it.

“Even though I know a lot of people have been laid off, I felt a sense of embarrassment around it,” she says.

The video went viral within hours, racking up close to 100,000 views and a flood of supportive comments that same day, Austin says. The YouTube clip now has over 700,000 views, and a version on TikTok reached 1.6 million views. Viewers wrote about how they appreciated Austin’s authenticity and transparency; some said they were going through the same thing, while others said they’d been there before and were able to bounce back.

Austin continued documenting her layoff experience, committing 30 to 40 hours per week to creating three long-form videos and shorter social cuts of her new routine.

Her YouTube channel, Life and Numbers, is monetized in three main ways: ad revenue, sponsorships or brand deals, and a “super thanks” feature where people can donate to her directly.

The month before her layoff video, Austin says she made about $900 from her channel; by February, she earned $5,900 thanks to her viral video. She’s averaged around $2,000 per month from YouTube earnings alone, totaling $21,000 for the year as of October.

Symone Austin works as a virtual assistant for a local Pilates studio, which pays her $300 and offers free classes for about 10 hours of work per month.

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Austin also sells digital products through her channel, like a budget template and job-search tracker, as well as physical merch like T-shirts and sweatshirts. She’s earned about $3,000 from these for the year.

Outside of YouTube, Austin works as a virtual assistant for a local Pilates studio, where she earns $300, plus free classes, for 10 hours of work per month.

Here’s how Austin spent her money in October 2025.

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Mortgage and utilities: $2,962 for her two-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bathroom house. About $2,746 goes toward her mortgage, and over $200 goes toward Wi-Fi, water and electricity.Food: $475 for groceriesDebt repayment: $423, including $223 to her student loans and $200 to credit card debtHealth insurance: $352Gas: $78Discretionary: $77 for a car repair, accidental AMC charge and a professional coursePhone: $25

Austin’s biggest monthly expense is far and away her housing, including her $2,746 mortgage, which includes property taxes and insurance.

Austin bought her house on her own in 2024 after saving for about two years; she purchased the house for roughly $340,000 with a $10,000 down payment and $4,000 in closing costs.

Austin has spent a lot of the year worried about making her housing payments and debating whether she’d need to move. She recently decided that in January, her friend will move in as a roommate, which means she’ll be able to stay in her house and significantly lower her housing costs.

She’s currently making minimum payments toward her credit card debt, which totals around $15,000 and is from buying her home’s furniture and appliances last year. She still uses her credit card for everyday purchases to rack up travel points, but pays off those purchases immediately. “I’m determined to not go further into credit card debt,” she says.

Symone Austin estimates she’s slashed $1,000 out of her monthly budget since losing her job in January.

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Austin is also making payments toward her roughly $33,000 in student debt from her master’s degree in interactive media.

Aside from a big chunk for private health insurance, Austin keeps the remainder of her expenses low. She cut her budget down to the basics after her layoff, estimating that she spends about $1,000 less per month now than she did a year ago. “My brain has been rewired around how I see money,” she says.

Austin started the year with a $40,000 emergency savings fund and only recently dipped into it to cover her monthly expenses. She says she fully intended to rely on it after her layoff, but “every time I’ve gone to pull money out of it, I’ve gotten money from somewhere else.”

“I’ve been very grateful throughout this whole year that it took until month 10 for me to finally have to use my savings,” she says.

Austin’s biggest priority for now is to keep covering her bills and to land another steady job.

The designer and creator says she is open to new work opportunities, whether it’s another 9-to-5, contract work or consulting. She recently got certified in accessibility design and is eager to incorporate that into her work.

Now that she’s built her own YouTube following, she’s also open to social media and content creation roles.

Throughout the year, I’ve still felt a lot of anxiety, and sometimes depression, but I’m still here.

With a steady paycheck, Austin says her next financial goal will be to pay off her credit card debt as quickly as possible, followed by her student loans.