Tag Archives: money

How to Be Better With Your Freelance Writing Income

By on May 20th, 2013

Too bad we’re not born knowing how to deal with money. If you had a financial literacy class in high school, you were pretty lucky. For many of us, much of what we know about personal finance we learned from our parents or our own mistakes. It’s not too late to learn those critical lessons you may have missed. Here are some tips on being better with your money. Read about money. You don’t have to completely immerse yourself in personal finance, but learn what you need to better manage your money through books, blogs, magazines, and other people. A …

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What To Do With Extra Writing Income

By on February 11th, 2013

Is your freelance writing business netting you more money than what’s needed to pay the bills? It’s not a bad problem to have. Here are some ways you can spend that extra money. Make sure you set aside enough for taxes. If you’re earning more than you expected, you may also owe more taxes than you expected. Update your estimated tax calculation and set aside some additional funds if you need to. Pay at least your estimated taxes, i.e. what you paid last year, and you shouldn’t face any underpayment penalties if you happen owe at tax time. Having some …

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Spending Money on Marketing – How Much is too Much?

By on February 5th, 2013

As a freelance writer, new clients are your lifeblood. The more gigs you land the more money you will earn. Pretty simple, right? Your marketing plan is going to determine how much success you have in this area of your business. While true that some marketing strategies are free, others are going to set you back a few dollars from time to time. This leads to one very important question: how much is too much to spend on marketing related tasks? My best advice is to set a monthly budget for marketing expenses. This gives you a “set” amount of …

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The “Live on the Rest” Budgeting System

By on January 16th, 2012

For many self-employed workers, taxes and savings are the two hardest expenses to keep up with. I think it’s because there’s no immediate benefit or consequence to either of them. A lot of people mentally plan their budgets based on a certain dollar amount that often hasn’t been adjusted for taxes or savings. So you might end up spending all your money and not having anything left for either of these two. Living Expenses/Taxes/Savings Ratio This “live on the rest” budgeting system isn’t something I made up. I’ve read about it over and over in personal finance books, so I …

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Posted in Finance |

5 Money Moves to Make Before Year-End

By on December 6th, 2010

A lot of people are focusing on holiday shopping this time of year. Personally, my workload has increased and I haven’t given shopping much thought. (I really need to get on that!) But I have thought about my finances and some things I need to do as the year comes to a close. There are tons of year-end money lists out there and they all talk about decreasing taxes, selling investments, and saving for retirement. There are a few other things I like to think about when the year ends. Evaluate your performance against your goals. At the beginning of …

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Freelancers: 4 Tips for Dealing with Cheapskate Clients

By on October 19th, 2010

I’ve said it before and I’m sure I’ll say it here again, but when you work as a freelancer you’re a business owner. You’re the one offering an in-demand service. And that means you get to set your rates and payment policies. Just as you can’t walk into your favorite retail store and tell them what you’re willing to pay, expecting them to accept your offer, clients shouldn’t be able to come in and undercut your rates. That’s not to say you should never consider negotiating. That’s an individual decision. The problems start when you allow clients to control what …

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Posted in Freelance Writing Business |

How to Budget a Freelance Writer’s Fluctuating Income

By on November 23rd, 2009

I know what you’re thinking, Ugh. Budgeting. The only thing worse than budgeting is licking sandpaper. As boring as it feels, budgeting is especially critical for you as a freelance writer, because your income is less predictable. Creating a budget takes just three steps: totaling your monthly income, subtracting your expenses, and adjusting your budget based on the result. You’ll create your budget using the same basic process, with some extra steps to compensate for your fluctuating income. Projecting Your Monthly Income You may not know for certain what your income will be for a particular month, but you can …

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Posted in Finance, Freelance Writing Business |

10 Costly Money Mistakes Freelancers Should Avoid

By on November 9th, 2009

As a freelancer, you have to treat money a lot differently than if you were employed by a huge corporation or even a small business. Your paychecks aren’t guaranteed. No one is withholding income taxes on your behalf. You have to be much more conscious of how you’re spending the money you make and avoid costly financial mistakes than can put a halt to your freelance writing career. 1. Living without a budget. Everyone who receives money should have a budget. Budgets are especially necessary for freelancers because our incomes aren’t as predictable. You need a budget to help you …

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Posted in Finance, Freelance Writing Business |

The Freelancer’s Quick Guide to Accounting and Bookkeeping

By on October 26th, 2009

I know. It’s one of the last things you want to read about, but it’s one of the most crucial parts of freelance success. Don’t worry, you won’t read anything about cash flow statements, balance sheets, or profit/loss statements – they’re complete overkill for the average freelancer. Instead, I’m going to give you some easy-to-follow tips on managing your records throughout the month so it takes less work to figure out how much money you’ve made. Keep track of your invoices. If you’re not invoicing your clients, start now. An invoice is just a bill that says “you owe me …

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Posted in Finance |

Money: The Balance Between Spending It and Making It

By on April 26th, 2009

Last week we talked about situations where it may be to your benefit to consider outsourcing, those where it may not be, and the fact that a significant amount of outsourcing is not necessary to earning a significant income as a freelance writer. In fact, freelance writers benefit from a low overhead overall compared to many more traditional startups. What I’m not going to do is further address some of James’ assumptions in his response on FWJ however. Frankly, this topic is far from being worth getting into a pissing match over. To summarize, he and I disagree on whether …

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