How does freelancing fit into my personal financial plan?
Why are you freelancing? If it’s just to fill some time until you get another full-time job, you may not need to do a lot of long-range planning. But if this is how you see yourself spending at least the next few years, it’s worth sitting down with your family and/or financial advisors to figure out how freelancing is going to work with your overall goals. For many freelancers, a long-term financial plan involves getting paid for last week’s job and finding another job to do next week. Especially if you have a family, this kind of short-sighted thinking can turn a rewarding career into a bad financial decision. Hard questions to ask include: — Where do I want to be in my career five years from now? — What happens if I become temporarily or permanently disabled? — If I’m not making enough money to meet my goals, what do I need to do to make more money? — What are my plans for retirement? — What happens to my business if I die? — How am I going to reach other financial goals (colle
