Freelancers’ Financial Guide: Tips From Accounting Experts

Managing money is arguably more challenging for freelancers due to lack of benefits and steady incomes. This guide answers some key questions, such as how to handle variable income streams, track expenses and plan for tax payments.

It also specifies strategies for maintaining the distinction between business and domestic expenditure and knowing how to keep on top of debt.

Track Your Income and Expenses

Because freelancers’ income can fluctuate month to month, financial planning often starts to feel like aiming at a moving target. This guide has strategies to help freelancers find stability through smart money moves and working to put more into savings faster. The first step will be to create a budget, where a freelancer outlines where they spend and what they save. Budgets also help freelancers keep their personal and business finances separate, track eligible expenses, and set money aside for taxes owed. Among the many topics it covers are the tax issues that commonly cause headaches for freelancers – for example, it tells you what deductions you are entitled to make, and how to best file them, both to make it easier when doing your taxes and to get the maximum deductions possible. It also explains saving and investing on a long-term horizon so that you will get the most out of your money. Going back to the issue of jobs and projects, the manuscript discusses diversifying your client base so that you are prepared if one of your ongoing projects ends suddenly (it is rare, but not unheard of). It also includes ideas of what you could do if you are caught in a sudden downward spiral caused by one project going sour.

Set a Budget

Since a freelancer does not earn a fixed income, it is important for them to be aware of proper financial management to remain healthy. The examples and case studies in this book will help them to understand the nuances and benefits of managing finance properly. Destroy all means for unplanned income; keep track of all planned income. Decide on a baseline monthly outflow level and distinguish/rank all outgoing cash flows in such a way as to maximise the unnecessary outflow. Key additional topics include: how to identify eligible tax deductions; formulate tactics for calculating how and when to pay taxes. Make sure that by setting aside savings for unexpected expenses – at least six months’ of bare-bones living expenses but ideally more – you have space for months that aren’t quite as budget-friendly without resorting, once again, to credit cards or buyer financing. We touch on saving for retirement and other major longer-term goals in this guide as well; the point is to help you plan ahead while building stability for your life as fluctuations hit.

Pay Your Taxes

It can be harder for freelancers and those in the gig economy, who frequently experience fluctuations in their income. Even in cases where you might try to budget and save, proper planning can be difficult because you don’t always see your income coming through. However, it’s also true that even a flawed strategy, if implemented thoroughly, can see you through. Build up an emergency fund: Volatility in all streams of income – which can vary widely from one month to the next – demands that a sturdy safety net be created: three to six months’ of expenses stashed in an emergency fund. Debt: Refusing to succumb to the seductive demands of credit cards during troughs and promising them only when peaks arrive – the interest can be very steep. Diversify Income Sources: Along with the ability to ride out wild fluctuations in income, being able to set up additional income streams – such as passive income or, better yet, income from one’s own business. Tax Management for the Freelancer: Understand how to file as a freelancer and make quarterly estimated payments, as well as itemise eligible deductions – and freelance with confidence.

Save for the Future

Saving for the future is harder when income can spike or nearly disappear one month to the next, which is why freelancers often find it especially difficult to establish and hang on to savings goals. The 50/30/20 rule, as well as unflinching analysis of spending, can be set as a baseline against which to build. Establishing a separate bank account and credit card for any freelance business (when tax time comes around, it will be simple to keep track of it), and a personal retirement account (SEP 401(k), and saving as much as possible now to prepare for a rainy day. Uncertain incomes are hard to keep track of, but what professionals often need is the right budgeting infrastructure to hold them back and use them for their growth and stability. While there’s no one-size-fits-all approach, freelancers who understand their unique financial architecture can find solutions and improve their finances with confidence, by consulting the experts in the field of accounting. Here are strategies to help freelancers save, invest, and stay tax compliant, while keeping a close eye on their money at all times.