Last week two hip hop heavy hitters added jail time to their upcoming tour schedules.

On March 28 a New York Supreme Court found Remy Smith, professionally known as Remy Ma, guilty of shooting a woman outside of a nightclub last year. Smith, 26, faces up to 25 years in prison. She remains in custody until her sentencing later this month. Meanwhile, on March 27 in Atlanta, Clifford Harris, also known as T.I., pleaded guilty to a federal weapons charge, including possession of machine guns. Harris, 27, must spend 1,000 community service hours talking to youth groups before reporting for a year in prison. His deal enables him to release an album before he is locked up. "I'm looking forward to turning this negative time in my life into a positive," Harris, 27, said after the hearing. "I know I have a long road of redemption to travel."

Being incarcerated is a long road that obviously changes your life. However, with the proper financial planning, a stay in the big house will not leave you in the poor house. Are you or someone you know going to prison? For starters, find someone you can trust to run your affairs. "If everything is joined with your spouse, then the household can be run without your signature," says Brian Jones, a financial planner and vice president at CJM Wealth Advisors in Fairfax, Va. "Everything is online bill payment so just make sure there is enough money in the bank while you're away." No spouse? Set up an agent with a “springing” financial power of attorney to act on your behalf. “This is someone you would also use if you were leaving the country for a while and needed someone to pay your bills for you," says Jones. Whomever you chose make sure it’s someone you can count on, says Jones.

Once you begin serving, you'll need to keep around $200 a month in your inmate prison trust to live comfortably off the commissary, says John Webster, managing director of National Prison & Sentencing Consultants. Inmates doing custodial, kitchen, maintenance and clerical work earn an average of $16 a month, so you'll need outside money to cover most commissary purchases, says Webster. Families can have money sent into your trust and any money earned working in the prison also goes into that. Inmates are then able to spend up to $290 a month to purchase additional toiletries, clothing and snacks, all priced similarly to the outside consumer’s market, says Webster. (To pay, prisoners generally use their identification card as a debit card at the commissaryor when they do laundry.)

A second expense is the telephone. Prisoners get three hundred minutes a month or ten minutes a day, says Bales. Most prisons use the cheaper phone credit system versus pricey collect calling which generally runs double the phone credit price. Experts say budget around $150 a month for the phone.

Overall, an expectant prisoner should, "budget $5,000 each year," says Ed Bales, managing director of Federal Prison Consultants in Wilmington, Del. That kind of money can really add up during a decade-long sentence! Sure looks like crime really does not pay.