80% of my pay is commission, 20% base. DH is on a 40% base 60% commission. We live off our base pay and all commission goes towards investments and savings.

we have a lot of upside and make a ton of money some years, but it’s feast or famine so we have kept all fixed expenses very low. For example our mortgage on our 4BR/3BA home is 1900/mo.

We use higher income periods for fixed costs. For example. my mortgage is paid through June 2026.

Anonymous wrote:We only include our base salaries in any budgeting / fixed costs (like mortgage car nanny etc). Any variable comp like RSUs, commissions, etc go into savings and we pull a small amount for bougie vacations (we love to travel). Pros of this is we save a ton. Cons are we definitely live WAY below our “on paper” comp because the variable comp can be a lot.

We were in this situation for many years and our monthly budget assumed a light month - not necessarily “no commission” but something on the far lighter end if the scale. Better months - which were frequent bc the bar was so low - we put the difference in savings and/or went ahead and did things that might be problematic in a light month (think, let’s get new tires now. Or extra meat for the freezer. Etc).
We also forward funded all bills by one month, so the income this month pays our bills next month.
You could really tell the difference between a “steak for dinner” month and a “ramen for dinner” month, but most months were more like “chicken and pasta.”

We also prepared for the complete loss of one income for six months (savings). Actually we still do this.

This may be too late to be helpful for you but use the variable part of your income to invest in assets that pay consistent income streams.