FFN #25: How well do you know your wallet?

✍🏼 Practises That Save You Money

Time is money as a freelancer. Although it is important to continue going above and beyond for clients, it’s crucial not to be so giving with your time that you end up throwing money in the trash. To combat this, we love using time-tracking tools like Toggl, that way you can start to see where your time and money are going. There are few worse things than coming up on a deadline and losing your work in the final hour. The scramble that comes after that is nothing short of nightmare fuel. Your time is valuable, especially as a freelancer so back up your work frequently on an external hard drive or a cloud device. For any writing tasks, we love to you Google Docs because even if your dog knocks your coffee all over your laptop, you can access the work from anywhere just by logging in!

💰 How Well Do You Know Your Wallet?  

Becoming financially fit doesn’t happen without knowing the ins and outs of your business finances. Creating a monthly budget can help you to understand how healthy your business really is. We love to begin with our expenses, logging our rent/mortgage, utilities, groceries, student loan repayments, groceries etc. Then take note of that figure working out what we need to make each month freelancing. It can be nice to also create a want-to-have budget, a figure that you’d like to aspire to which will enable you to live the lifestyle you dream of. While we’re on the topic of budgeting, it’s crucial to set aside a portion of your income for an emergency fund. Having a paycheck that fluctuates means you should save between 9-12 months of pay. This gives you a cushion in case you go through a dry spell and doesn’t leave you scrambling to take on low-paying projects. As your own boss, you need to save for your retirement. It’s good practice to schedule automatic payments into a retirement fund, which you can also top up with tax refunds or large client payments.

✨ Always Think a Few Steps Ahead

As self-employed folks we have to think a few steps ahead all the time. Insurance is an important thing to consider in case you have an accident or illness that prevents you from working. With the cost of living being so high at the moment, insurance could keep you from falling into debt and cover your expenses while you’re out of action. If you haven’t already opening a separate small business bank account can help you track your expenses which you can then pay yourself a salary out of. This can be particularly helpful when tax time comes rolling around. Speaking of taxes, paying taxes quarterly can help you avoid a large tax bill all at once after lodging your return, making it a little more palatable shall we say. While you’re looking to the future and giving some love to your finances, it’s a great idea to look into investing. I’ve recently really been trying to learn more about investing and how I can get my money to work for me. The podcast Girls That Invest is a fantastic pod that breaks down the lingo behind investing and gives you heaps of tips for how you can make your money grow in the background.

You Need This

You Need These snacks have been powering me through my 2 pm slump, my go-to is their Veggie Straws. Made from all-natural, gluten-free and plant-based ingredients I never feel sluggish after munching on a bag of these. It’s hard to stop snacking on them, I often find myself deep in a task and suddenly the bag is gone.