The Budget

Managing money at 15 when you're trying to fund a pilot dream and run multiple ventures simultaneously. Welcome to my financial reality.

The Setup

I track everything in Notion. Monthly budget, income from ventures, expenses, and the number that matters most: how much is going into the pilot fund. The system isn't complicated — it doesn't need to be. What matters is that it exists and that I actually use it.

The monthly budget tracks:

• Income — whatever comes in from ventures, allowances, or other sources
• Expenses — tools, domains, subscriptions, and the things a 15-year-old actually spends money on
• Savings — the pilot fund allocation, because Emirates Flight Training Academy isn't going to fund itself

The Revenue Reality

At 15, revenue is aspirational more than it is consistent. LockIn has a subscription model via StoreKit 2 in-app purchases. Simplifly is building toward B2B revenue. Raly is a data platform that could generate fintech partnerships. Each project has a path to money, but none of them are printing cash yet.

"Still have 0 in the bank but I like building and I know the money will come for sure."

That's the honest state of things. The ventures are real. The products are shipped. The revenue is coming, but it's not here yet. The budget reflects this reality — more tracking potential than tracking profits.

The Cost of Building

Building isn't free, even with a stack built on free tiers. There are costs:

• Apple Developer Program — $99/year to ship on the App Store
• Domains — every project needs a domain (gosimplifly.com, etc.)
• Tools and subscriptions — most are free, but some have costs
• Physical materials — NFC cards for LockIn, prototype materials for F1 in Schools

When your total capital as a teenager is limited, $99 for an Apple Developer account is a real decision. Every expense gets weighed against the pilot fund. Every purchase is a trade-off.

The Pilot Fund Math

Emirates Flight Training Academy costs serious money. The training programme, the hours, the certifications — it adds up to a number that would be intimidating if I thought about it as a lump sum. Instead, I think about it as a target that every venture contributes to.

The monthly budget isn't just about tracking spending. It's about tracking progress toward the cockpit. Every dirham saved is a dirham closer to flight school. The timeline is before 18, which means every month counts.

Lessons in Money

Managing a budget at 15 teaches you things that business school takes years to cover:

• Opportunity cost is real — every dollar spent on a domain is a dollar not saved for flight school
• Free tiers are a strategy, not a compromise — Vercel, GitHub, Photopea, Supabase free tiers are deliberate choices
• Revenue takes longer than you think — building the product is the easy part; getting people to pay is the hard part
• Track everything — if you don't know where your money goes, you can't direct where it goes next

See Also

• The Pilot Fund -- the ultimate savings goal
• The Monthly Budget Tracker -- the Notion system
• The Solo Founder -- the financial reality of building alone
• Pilot Dream -- why the money matters