Cartooning in the Age of AI #20: AI Stole My Work, But At Least It Fixed My Finances

AI Helped Me Discover I'd Been Haemorrhaging Money for Years.

Cartooning wasn’t an easy way to make a living before generative AI came along.
Now we’re going to have to get smarter.
And more human.

Getting AI to Help with Finances

Cartoonists are never likely to be paid for the work that was stolen from us to train generative AI systems. But we can use AI to help with one of the worst parts of cartooning as a business: tax returns and other financial admin. Saving us time, saves us money, but it is the research and data crunching that can help us make sense of making cents (or pennies).

I've been working on my tax return and getting AI to sort currency exchange rates and other selected numbers into columns that I can paste into my spreadsheet. There is no way I'm prepared to upload all my financial information to an AI that feeds on data, even though that would probably save me even more time.

But I also wanted to do something I've been meaning to do for ages. It's only taken 25 years and a move from England to New Zealand to Australia, back to England, back to New Zealand, and back to England again (I am a “ping-pong-Pom”)to make me finally sort out my bank accounts.

You Don’t Have to Have a Separate Bank Account, But it Helps

I confess that up until this point, I haven't had a separate business bank account. Since sole traders are legally responsible for the money flowing through the business (unlike when you have a company), it is not a legal requirement to have a separate bank account, even if my accountant thinks I’m bonkers (I didn’t even have an accountant until about five years ago).

My finances have been straightforward, my clients few, and I didn't mind sorting through everything at the end of the tax year. But now it's getting more complicated. With multiple streams of income (and expenditure!), it's time for me to get a business bank account

Making a Cartooning Living in the Age of AI

On the surface, it looked like opening a dedicated business bank account was going to be expensive. But then I used Claude AI to help me run the numbers. I asked it to compare a range of business accounts and whittle it down to one: Wise. Now, Claude is not a financial adviser, and neither am I, but it can research what is available and pick the best one for you if you ask it questions that are pertinent to your situation (in my case, which business bank accounts are most cost effective for online deposits of multiple currencies, for example).

I checked Wise’s business bank account conditions on their website. It has some upfront charges (£45 to open an account, other charges to set up the account to accept different currencies, etc.), but the month to month running costs were negligible for my situation (again, your situation may differ).

I asked Claude to look at whether it would be worth making the switch from the “free”, personal, high street bank account I’m using at the moment. The analysis made my heart run cold. Most of my income is from overseas and my personal bank has been stiffing me on the exchange rate AND commissions. By keeping my regular bank account for international payments, I’ve been losing much more than Wise charges to open an account.

Every month.

For years.

Bugger.

So I've opened a new account, which will save me in currency exchange transactions and help me as I diversify my income with Substack, workshops, books, etc.

More Reviews Help Cartoonists Make a Living by Selling More Books

If you are one of the many readers who have enjoyed my books (usually available for free in libraries, like my latest, A New Zealand Diary), please leave a review, ideally on Amazon (where many people research books, even if they don’t buy them there). It costs only your time and helps me do battle with the algorithms.

Thank you for being one of the good humans.

Alex

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P.S. Molly and I returned to the vet physiotherapist yesterday. Chippy is not to be trusted, so we went by bus and train: a return trip of over 5 hours. Molly loved it as she was never allowed on trains or buses in New Zealand.

The good news is the physio found that Molly has a better range of motion now, and is in less pain. But we don't know why she is still having funny turns (and why she still lunges at passing fluffy dogs for absolutely no reason, sigh…). We are adding in some exercises and will see if she improves.

Molly will be delighted that after a few days of those we will be allowed to go back to swimming, yay!

And if you’re not the subscription type, you can also support what I do by buying me a coffee, or Molly a treat (her current favourite: dried lamb unmentionables), by clicking the graphic below.

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"A New Zealand Diary: Living in Lyttelton", an illustrated, non-AI-generated memoir, is available where all good books are sold and in Christchurch Libraries (where it’s free to place a hold)

“Alex Hallatt has made a little masterpiece of a book” – Librarian from Tūranga, Christchurch

If you want your library to get a copy, ask them.

And if you like the book, please let people know.

Book details, a sample chapter and more information are at alexhallatt.com/nzd

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