To an outsider, making money on OnlyFans seems straightforward enough: You self-produce adult content, you drive traffic to it, you nurture your audience, rinse and repeat. There’s no overhead, right? Just record content on your phone, post it, and rake in the profit.

Not so fast.

In theory, yes, selling homemade videos is easy and inexpensive. But the reality of scaling one’s income as a full-time creator on OnlyFans is costly.

Expenses add up quickly. Longtime subscribers get bored with seeing the same four walls, so creators rent swanky hotels or AirBnBs to keep their content fresh. Custom requests require lingerie or costumes. Then there’s the social media grind, production equipment, camera crew, security guards for collabs, traveling to collabs, and even cosmetic surgery.

However, with financial success on OnlyFans comes a certain degree of lifestyle inflation. Just ask London-based creator Annie Charlotte.

Annie made over one million dollars her first year on the platform, all from X-rated content. She didn’t come from money; she grew up on benefits. It’s not surprising that someone raised in poverty doesn’t know how to manage their wealth, especially when they become wealthy so quickly. Our brains can’t process the level of change that occurs when we go from poor to rich overnight.

How did she end up over $350K in credit card debt? Within the world of high-earning OnlyFans creators, some significant purchases are as normal as buying a Stanley cup. Designer clothes, expensive cars, luxury travel, and expensive housing are just seen as part of the job.

It’s understandable that Annie began spending and partying, without knowing how much was really leaving her account every month. But eventually the stress of her credit card debt became so severe that she stopped working as much. Her income decreased.

Although Annie is now in a better spot and has a plan to get out of debt, it’s worth asking at what point a creator should seek out the help of a financial advisor.