2019 saw a substantial shift for TAS content at events with far more events than previous years. It also saw a major uptick in Twitch, YouTube, and Patreon income with a transition to very few direct donations.
The bottom line is I spent $36,144.73 across all TAS related expenses against $15,098.78 in TAS related income for a loss of $21,045.95 in 2019. Yes, that's right, I spent $21k more than I made in 2019 in support of TAS content at charity events. On the other hand, that effort helped raise over $282k for various charities in 2019 and I have no regrets. I could use your support whether it's throwing me a Twitch Prime subscription or Patreon support but I will continue to serve the community as best I can regardless. I don't anticipate every year being quite like this one.
I feel it's important to show what expenses I had for each event inclusive of 2019 (meaning costs for AGDQ 2019 airfare purchased in 2018 are not reflected here and so on):
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Category |AGDQ 2019 |RPGLB |SGDQ |ESA |MWGO |AGDQ 2020 |Total |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Food | | | | | | | |
| Dining Out |$109.77 |$180.55 |$491.52 |$341.34 |$99.58 |$136.81 |$1,359.57 |
| Groceries | | | | | | | |
|Total |$109.77 |$180.55 |$491.52 |$341.34 |$99.58 |$136.81 |$1,359.57 |
|Giving | | | | | | | |
| Charitable Donation| |$600.00 |$314.15 | | | |$914.15 |
|Total |$0.00 |$600.00 |$314.15 |$0.00 |$0.00 |$0.00 |$914.15 |
|Services | | | | | | | |
| House Sitting |$115.00 | | | | | |$115.00 |
|Total |$115.00 |$0.00 |$0.00 |$0.00 |$0.00 |$0.00 |$115.00 |
|Recreation | | | | | | | |
| Event admission fee| |$50.00 | |$188.99 | | |$238.99 |
|Total |$0.00 |$50.00 |$0.00 |$188.99 |$0.00 |$0.00 |$238.99 |
|Tech stuff | | | | | | | |
| TASBot | |$1,383.06 |$25.82 | | |$53.82 |$1,462.70 |
|Total |$0.00 |$1,383.06 |$25.82 |$0.00 |$0.00 |$53.82 |$1,462.70 |
|Travel | | | | | | | |
| Accommodations |$953.00 |$1,108.67 |$247.59 | |$72.00 | |$2,381.26 |
| Car Rental | | | | | | | |
| Fares | | |$236.61 |$1,936.35 | |$3,049.40 |$5,222.36 |
| Parking and tolls | |$10.30 | | | | |$10.30 |
|Total |$953.00 |$1,118.97 |$484.20 |$1,936.35 |$72.00 |$3,049.40 |$7,613.92 |
|Grand Total |$1,177.77 |$3,332.58 |$1,315.69 |$2,466.68 |$171.58 |$3,240.03 |$11,704.33|
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Note that I made a donation of $567.89 during AGDQ 2019 but I had a PayPal balance from 2018 I used for the purpose. It didn't hit my bank account so it wasn't in my financial tracking software and doesn't appear in the chart but if anything it represents an additional expense. Desert Tesla Charity Drive expenses were folded into RPG Limit Break. MAGWest Go ("MWGO" above) involved the purchase of a substantial amount of equipment but most of it was general equipment as described below.
Throughout the year I had a number of expenses that were unrelated to specific events, mostly equipment purchases but there were also a lot of legal fees:
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Tech stuff|Jan |Feb |Mar |Apr |May |Jun |Jul |Aug |Sep |Oct |Nov |Dec |Total |
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| TASBot |$0.00|$1,117.43|$858.26|$91.08|$610.12|$307.12|$165.44|$10,600.00|$458.83|$75.72|$87.22|$506.15|$14,877.37|
+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Here is a detailed list of tech transactions which should be fairly inclusive for those interested, excluding legal fees and other non-tech expenses:
2019-02-18 $4.99 AMZN MKTP - Bits for opening consoles
2019-02-19 $988.52 Four port Magewell HDMI 2k capture card, USB power meter
2019-02-21 $30.32 Domain name renewal
2019-02-24 $84.61 MONOPRICE - So many HDMI and USB cables, and all of them dead useful and high quality
2019-02-25 $8.99 AMZN Mktp - USB cable adapters for use with video card to pass through to VM
2019-02-25 $25.82 AMZN Mktp - Mario Kart Wii for SGDQ 2019
2019-03-03 $13.16 Domain name renewal
2019-03-09 $13.16 Domain name renewal
2019-03-10 $205.73 PAYPAL - NESRGB modded US toploader that will be used at RPG Limit Break
2019-03-12 $6.99 AMZN Mktp - Bluetooth adapter for streaming cart
2019-03-12 $499.99 AMZN Mktp - Behringer XR18 sound board for streaming
2019-03-12 $45.98 PAYPAL - RGB SCART cables
2019-03-20 $213.17 AMZN MKTP - Behringer X-Touch Compact fader board for streaming cart
2019-03-21 $48.61 AMZN MKTP - MIDI cables and headphone splitter cables for streaming cart
2019-03-25 $17.20 ACH DEBIT- PAYPAL - Gandi domain name renewal
2019-04-10 $8.99 HDMI adapters for Desert Tesla Charity Drive
2019-04-18 $500.50 ACH DEBIT- PAYPAL - Wireless microphone equipment for Desert Tesla Charity Drive
2019-04-21 $82.09 MONOPRICE - This particular order was mostly USB cables
2019-04-27 $27.03 NOSTALGIA ALLEY PETALUMA CA - Cartridge for RPG LB but not charged properly, long story
2019-04-30 $8.65 BATTERIES PLUS - I'm putting expenses for Desert Tesla Charity Drive under the RPG Limit Break 2019 entry as well, and this was a wiring harness
2019-04-30 $358.38 ACH DEBIT- PAYPAL - Wireless microphones themselves for Desert Tesla Charity Drive
2019-05-01 $23.22 OREILLY AUTO - Yeah, I know, tech stuff at an auto parts store? But yeah, this was all wiring harness stuff, mostly cable ends and splices for building the harness for the inverter.
2019-05-02 $216.49 VERIZON WRLS - This was the Verizon MiFi / Jetpack used for streaming video during Desert Tesla Charity Drive
2019-05-03 $21.60 New Sennheiser headphone cable specifically for streaming cart
2019-05-13 $57.00 ACH DEBIT- PAYPAL - Infinite Lives reader board to augment my older board for TASBot purposes
2019-05-16 $13.16 Domain name renewal
2019-05-30 $600.00 ACH DEBIT PAYPAL INSTANT TRANSFER - Video editing
2019-05-31 $15.16 Domain name renewal
2019-06-03 $100.00 ACH DEBIT PAYPAL INSTANT TRANSFER - Sent to cover the cost of a TAStm32 board
2019-06-04 $2.35 Cables
2019-06-12 $64.86 GAMESTOP – Splatoon 2 (I think – I could have mixed this one up with SMM2)
2019-06-26 $91.52 Domain name renewal
2019-06-30 $48.39 MICRO CENTER - Raspberry Pi ultimately used directly for controlling TASBot
2019-07-15 $1,679.92 AMZN Mktp - Hard drives for ToolAssist server
2019-07-19 $12.98 INTL ACH IAT PAYPAL - Drive tray sled for server
2019-07-20 $41.82 AMZN Mktp - Microphone adapter for sound board, Switch dock for travel
2019-07-22 $61.65 GANDI.NET - Domain name registration renewal
2019-07-24 $48.99 AMZN Mktp - Behringer P1 audio monitor
2019-07-27 $135.98 AMZN Mktp - RAM for servers
2019-08-12 $600.00 CALYX INSTITUTE – Wireless access point planned for Desert Tesla Charity Drive 2020, given to Pepman who creates thumbnails for TASBot videos to have internet access
2019-09-05 $104.99 PAYPAL - Audio level tweaking fee for the Patreon pitch video series
2019-09-05 $160.00 PAYPAL - This invoice is for video editing and thumbnail creation
2019-09-16 $53.82 GAMESTOP - Super Mario Maker 2 later used at AGDQ 2020
2019-09-19 $119.88 GAMESTOP - I believe this was the Switch pro controller and a game plus the yearly pro renewal fee
2019-09-25 $17.96 AMZN Mktp - Swivel stem casters for TASBot cart
2019-09-25 $492.83 AMZN Mktp - BenQ monitors for TASBot cart, HDMI switcher
2019-10-12 $43.06 VZWRLSS - This was a late charge for Desert Tesla Charity Drive 2019 mobile data service
2019-10-15 $75.72 AMZN Mktp – Power supply for Behringer P1, MicroSD cards, SD card reader for TASBot cart
2019-11-05 $17.96 AMZN Mktp – Another set of casters for TASBot's cart (set number 2)
2019-11-20 $69.26 AMZN MKTP - Electrical tape (later used for BotBash), "guest" headset which I use more than guests do
2019-12-01 $150.00 ENCIRCA, INC. - Domain name renewal for tas.bot
2019-12-09 $240.00 ACH DEBIT PAYPAL INSTANT TRANSFER - Video editing
2019-12-09 $47.32 ACH DEBIT PAYPAL INSTANT TRANSFER - Domain registration with Gandi
2019-12-10 $42.51 Behringer microamp for headphones, Bluetooth adapter, headphone adapters
2019-12-21 $13.16 Domain name renewal
2019-12-22 $13.16 Domain name renewal
Meanwhile, I started ToolAssist, L3C and the subseries TASBot, L3C as social benefit companies last year. I used $10,000 of personal funds from savings (plus a server worth $350) as the initial funding for a dedicated checking account with Beneficial State Bank, a bank that caters to the needs of social benefit entities who do not have profit as their primary goal. ToolAssist will eventually offer donation tracking services to charities and is thus separate from TASBot in its scope. Prior to establishing the dedicated bank account I incurred $3,975.90 in legal fees and server equipment (not counting the $10k plus $350 additional server previously mentioned). Expenses from the dedicated account including legal fees, data backup, and service fees total $5,587.13 in expenses. Total expenses were $9,563.03. The company made no income.
Combining all three expense categories comes up to $36,144.73. That was offset by streaming income (along with PayPal donations that totaled $768 but were entirely offset by PayPal balance purchases outside the visibility of my financial tracking software and thus not reflected here but it's a wash so I'm not too concerned). Here's a breakdown of TAS related income in 2019:
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Category |Jan |Feb |Mar |Apr |May |Jun |Jul |Aug |Sep |Oct |Nov |Dec |Total |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Twitch |$601.38|$1,205.08|$296.17 |$2,103.90|$445.32|$819.17 |$504.38 |$490.34 |$531.90|$454.35|$370.47 |$239.62|$8,062.08 |
| YouTube |$0.00 |$172.36 |$1,001.28|$622.98 |$360.11|$1,035.19|$543.09 |$1,128.63|$437.15|$535.96|$785.54 |$414.41|$7,036.70 |
|Total Income|$601.38|$1,377.44|$1,297.45|$2,726.88|$805.43|$1,854.36|$1,047.47|$1,618.97|$969.05|$990.31|$1,156.01|$654.03|$15,098.78|
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Over the course of 2019 I received $15,098.78 in streaming related income (this does not include my day job wages - I was laid off from my job of 10+ years in 2019 but acquired a new job 3 months later and my day job income helped offset the net loss). I started a Patreon in the fall of 2019 but there were no disbursements until 2020 so there is no revenue recorded.
In summary, I had $36,144.73 in total expenses against $15,098.78 in income for a net loss of $21,045.95 in 2019. I consider it an investment as I acquired a lot of very useful equipment such as a new sound board, new capture equipment, and other gear like consoles that were used during MAGWest Go along with equipment that will be reused for DTCD. The ToolAssist investment will hopefully one day both help charities track donations and bring in income and is worth doing. I spent the money knowing what I was getting into and I have no regrets at all.
I'll be providing a 2020 transparency report a whole lot earlier in the year now that I have proper tracking of expenses. I am more than willing to break out transactions for anyone who is interested (edit: I broke out the majority of the tech purchases above but let me know if you have any other questions). Thank you again for all of the support over the years getting to this point - a $21k loss while seeing $282k raised for charity is absolutely a win in my book and the future for growth looks bright.
