How to budget and do not screw up: Practice tips freelancer

Paul Jarvis

Web designer, creator of the training courses for freelancers. Regular contributor to The Huffington Post, Forbes, The Next Web and other publications. Author of four best-sellers about creativity and productivity.

Warning, spoiler: spend less than you earn. Boring, but seems to be easy, right? Translate personal budget in surplus mode and make a positive difference between income and expenditure will be much easier if the spending limit.

Those who work for themselves, work usually causes more enthusiasm than expenditure management. Indeed, this is very cool: do what you love, and more money to get. Earn pretty well and think that budgeting - this is not for you. Stop logic starts here limping on both legs.

If we do not control their spending and do not know how much is spent on the most necessary, it is not going to end good. You spend more than you earn? So, soon will have to work more.

None of us tells the customer: "Oh, come on, how much money, just pay me in any way, and I'll do my job," - so why do we often do not want to know what they spend their money? Control of income and expenditure is very, very important, in fact it helps to understand what we can afford and what is not.

How to budget for freelancers

1. Determine the size of his salary

Yes, you work for yourself, but who said that in this case can not be assigned a permanent salary - the same amount each month? Do not know how much? Take the average amount for the previous year and pay yourself 70%. The remaining 30% leave for taxes if you work as an individual entrepreneur, and incidental expenses. It is a more or less constant amount, which you can manage.

2. Keep track of everything expenditure

You can set a special program or just to have for this purpose table. Monthly fix it all income and expenses. New month - new table, so you understand what to spend too much money.

3. Determine your minimum requirements

Count how many leaves per month for accommodation and food. In order not to stand out from the budget, you need to earn at least twice as much. If not, think about where you can save: apartment, for example, or the car. Housing choice and the car generally requires a very balanced approach, because the costs for their maintenance and periodic repairs will fall on your shoulders the additional burden.

4. Create airbag

You never know what, all of a sudden flow of orders shrink or break out the next crisis. Enough for a rainy day set aside 10% of the monthly earnings. By the end of the year receive an amount sufficient to ensure that you sleep peacefully. Even if there will be something serious, you will have to live on that.

5. prioritize

If you want to buy a few things at a time for work or personal use, place the waste in order of importance. What should buy right now, and what can wait a month or two? Purchase most things can be safely postponed for a particular period of time.

6. Find ways to save

Regardless of how much you earn, find ways to cut unnecessary costs. Give up cable television: why is it necessary to do, when there is an Internet. Less often go to restaurants: by cooking more fun, especially if you do it for other people. Buy less new clothes: it's just a cloth. Save on gatherings in a coffee shop: home, too, can make coffee, get even tastier. In short, if by something it is possible to give up - give up without thinking.

Reducing unnecessary expenses, you save time previously spent on making money to cover these costs.

Do you have more free hours to enjoy life. If you analyze your spending for a few months, you'll see how much money is spent on things of questionable necessity. The impressive sum turns out, is not it?

7. Grow revenue

If you are a freelancer, nobody forbids to make money in many different ways. Design, consulting, post podcasts, copywriting - if one source for one reason or another is not profitable, help out others. Such an approach will always be alive and to have a sufficient number of orders. In short, if there is a way to invest in their own development, it is diversification.

What I've learned in 18 years of freelancing

about money talk is not accepted in polite society, but sometimes still necessary. This is especially true of people who work for themselves. Now, after so many years of self-navigability I learned to be content with little. I do not need cool car or expensive apartment in the center. Every dollar I use as efficiently as possible, so I do not have to spend a lot of time on making money. I can just live happily.

budget compliance - this is not the cries of the series "On the mountain, how to live without it!", but rather a fun game, from which you can go out a winner each month.

Sometimes I give myself a small task: not to go to the store and use only the available supplies, not to visit the coffee shop or six months to spend money on rent, food and petrol. Think of yourself and you quests to help intelligently manage resources.

I realized that the free entertainment can bring more joy than what money can buy. Walking, gardening, swimming in a river or lake, picnics, games, home parties - this is really fun. My wife and I even gave up gifts for birthdays and other holidays, and instead simply arrange a feast. Junk we do not need a new experience always bring joy.

results

As mentioned earlier in this article, not to be on the rocks, you need to spend less. What are the details of the process?

• You pay yourself a regular salary, even if the income varies from month to month, and you have yourself a single worker.
• Know how much you spend each month and receive.
• Remember, what you do earn (life - is not just a job, money and spreadsheets).

Well, it is time to begin to properly manage their money. Maybe it's not as exciting as pure art, but it is very important.