Irregular Income Self Employed Small Business Financial Finish Line Podcast
Finish Line Podcast Episode 9

Q&A: How Do I Set a Finish Line With an Irregular Income?

You may want to set a financial finish line but wonder whether it can actually work when your income changes dramatically from month to month.

How can you build a consistent approach to spending and generosity when commissions, seasonal work, bonuses, or self-employment make your next paycheck difficult to predict?

Meet your guide

Finish Line Podcast co-hosts Cody and Kealan Hobelmann explore how a financial finish line can work when your income is irregular, seasonal, commission-based, or spread across multiple jobs. Drawing from their own households and Cody’s experience as a financial planner, they show why unpredictable income does not have to prevent you from defining how much is enough.

They discuss practical ways to smooth out financial uncertainty, including building a larger emergency fund, spreading annual income across the year, avoiding reliance on credit, and creating systems for consistent tithing. Most importantly, they explain why choosing a finish line is based on what your family reasonably needs, not on whether your income arrives predictably.

For those earning below their finish line, having the boundary in place can prepare you for unexpected windfalls before they arrive. For those earning above it, the finish line can actually reduce the complexity of fluctuating income by directing financial peaks toward generosity. You may come away seeing irregular income not as a barrier to intentional stewardship, but as another reason to decide ahead of time how you want to manage what God provides.

  • How to make a financial finish line work with irregular income
  • Why unpredictable earners may need a larger emergency fund
  • How to smooth seasonal income across an entire year
  • Why your finish line should not depend on income timing
  • How advance decisions can prepare you for unexpected financial windfalls
  • Why earning above your finish line can simplify variability

Inspired? Take your next step

Financial Finish Line Pledge Step 1

Take the Finish Line Assessment

Take a brief assessment to see if you are ready for a financial finish line right now 

Financial Finish Line Pledge Step 2

Build a Finish Line from Scratch

Use the Finish Line Builder to identify the finish line that fits your season of life best

Financial Finish Line Pledge Step 3

Try a 90 Day Finish Line Experiment

Receive practical guidance and encouragement as you spend 90 days with a finish line.

Complete your first step right now in under 3 minutes.

Play the Game of Life Simulator

Not ready for the assessment? Try a quick interactive simulator to see how you stack up in managing wealth.

play now →

Inspired? Take your next step

Try the Game of Life Simulator

Step into a four-minute interactive experience and see what unfolds as you decide how to manage your resources.

Game of Life Simulator Mobile Screenshot
Game of Life Simulator Mobile Screenshot

Quotes to Remember

  • “An irregular income might change over the course of the year which seasons you have excess to give and which seasons you don’t, but I don’t think it changes that core fundamental question of ‘How much do I need for myself and my family to live on?'”
  • “For people earning less than their selected finish line, I think it’s actually more important to have that finish line in place when you do have irregular income.”

Links from the Show

Bible References from the Show

Matthew 25:14-30 | The Parable of the Talents

14 “For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. 15 To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. 16 He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. 17 So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. 18 But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money. 19 Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. 20 And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’ 21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 22 And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’ 23 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 24 He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, 25 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ 26 But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? 27 Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents.29 For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”

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Use Our
Free Guide

Have you considered the ways you are uniquely called into generosity? We’re not all called into the same adventure.
Generosity Profile Image
Enter your information below and we’ll send you our free PDF guide to explore the specific adventure you were called into.
Generosity Profile Image