Freelance Finance

Another remarkable freelance friend—a brilliant writer and researcher—has, just yesterday, taken a full-time job. This comes after years of very successful, but tiring, work on her own. She will be performing the exact same kind of duties, except she will be performing them for a law firm. I am happy for her. Why? Because she is happy. And she’s happy because (color me shocked) she will now have insurance (Dental!) a 401K and all the other financially beneficial scootchies that go along with j-o-b-s.

So what are we to do, the literally tens of millions of us who, by choice or not, live with erratic pay and no bennies? Feed our monkeys, that’s what. And, as Muck and I always like to say—all together now—Treat yourself the way a good employer would treat you.

If you’re not saving for retirement, start. If you’re not setting aside money for health insurance, get on it. If you’ve got some debt, commit—to yourself, a friend, your schnauzer—to start paying it down. If you are waiting until April to start looking at what you owe the tax man, get organized here and now to pay your estimated taxes next year. In fact, tax time is a great time to make some financial resolutions.

We all deserve to work the way we want to work, and that doesn’t have to mean foregoing security and sanity. With some careful organization and a very basic understanding of percentages you can be well on your way to getting all those financial duckies in a row—without having to head back to a cubicle.

If you’d like, review our article, “The 4, no, 6 Bank Accounts Every Freelancer Needs.” Hey—it works for us.