Freelance Finance

Mire and I have yet to tell you guys more about our deal to produce a personal finance book for freelancers and independent workers for Random House. But there’s not much to tell. Obviously, the ball in is our court. We’ve had the idea for a long time. I’ve freelanced a dozen years; Mire for more than fourteen. Each day that we manage to book clients and gigs, we’ve been fascinated by the fact that so many people like us are earning a living without the help of an employer, and without the supposed benefits an employer usually provides. For more than a decade, as we’ve watched some of our independent worker colleagues strike out on their own, only to struggle and eventually seek the safety of conventional employment, we marveled at the fact that we’ve been able to do it for so long.

The tricks we’ve learned along the way, the system we developed for getting by during lean times, how to sock money away for the future, and how to actually grow your net worth—all this will be the subject of the book Three Rivers Press, an imprint of Random House, will publish, probably in 2010. We are enormously grateful for their confidence in this project.

In the months to come, we will probably be trying out new ideas on you, asking your feedback, and your opinions on how you’ve made it work. For now, though, we’ve got a question: Any freelancers out there want to be interviewed for the book? Leave a comment and let us know how to reach you.