1. Income protection, first and largest

AOV (disability insurance for the self-employed) replaces your income when illness or injury stops you working. For a creator it is the whole business in one policy, because the business is a person with a schedule. It is also the biggest premium, which is precisely why it gets skipped. Premiums scale with your age, the waiting period you accept, the age you insure until and the monthly amount — lengthening the waiting period is the honest lever if the quote lands hard.

A cheaper cousin exists as collective schemes among self-employed people, which pay a limited monthly amount for a limited period. Treat those as a floor rather than a roof. One practical note for creators: insurers price the work you actually do, so describe filming, travel and any physical stunts honestly at the application, and keep the description current as the channel changes.

2. Health insurance, mandatory

Everyone living in the Netherlands takes basic health cover, at roughly €150 a month, and the system is explained in healthcare. This one is settled by law, so it belongs in the fixed costs beside rent.

3. Liability, two flavours

  • Business liability covers damage your work causes to people or property — a light stand on a rented location, a guest injured at a shoot.
  • Professional liability covers claims about the work itself: a sponsored claim that misfires, advice that turns out wrong, a licence you granted twice.

Both stay modest in price and become relevant the moment other people appear on set or on payroll, as described in hiring your first editor.

4. Gear, only past a threshold

Equipment cover earns its premium once the kit outvalues what a bad year could absorb from cash. Below that line, self-insuring from the buffer is cheaper — the buffer logic sits in good year, bad year.

5. Legal expenses, situational

Useful when contracts, licensing and platform disputes are a regular feature of the month. Otherwise an hourly lawyer beats an annual premium.

Everything here is deductible as business cost inside the company, alongside the items in the deductions list, and it sits in the same monthly plan as pension.