{"id":25070,"date":"2020-10-12T07:28:33","date_gmt":"2020-10-12T07:28:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/transfergo.wpengine.com\/how-not-to-manage-your-money-as-a-freelancer\/"},"modified":"2024-10-29T20:46:56","modified_gmt":"2024-10-29T20:46:56","slug":"how-not-to-manage-your-money-as-a-freelancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/develop.wpvip.tgalpha.com\/gb\/how-not-to-manage-your-money-as-a-freelancer","title":{"rendered":"How NOT to manage your money as a freelancer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As copywriters, we\u2019ve spent a lot of our professional careers freelancing. Long enough to completely change our attitudes towards how we manage money: from the care-free, penalty-heavy, actually very stressful madness of youth, to the careful, penalty-free, surprisingly calm control of middle age. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are five pieces of terrible advice on how to manage your money that we once followed\u2014<\/span>answered by our older, mature selves.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Go for the bank with the best ad campaign<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Why bother with all the research? I just see which ad campaign makes me laugh, and choose them. Ooh, or maybe the one with the cool logo.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not clever. It\u2019s worth taking the time to find the one that\u2019s just right for you. Some banks are free to sign up and free to manage, with fee-free transfers, mobile deposits and business tools. Some are more ethical than others; some are entirely online\u2026 Do your research.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chuck your business and personal funds into the same bank account<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s so much easier! Well, for about five seconds. Okay, true, it\u2019ll make things trickier in the long run, but who cares? <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The taxman cares. And so will you, once you\u2019ve experienced the pain of trying to distinguish between the two when you do your tax return. Keep them very separate\u2014possibly even with separate banks. Don\u2019t mix business with pleasure, remember?<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Budget shmudget – you can manage your money without it<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Budgets are boring. They\u2019re restrictive. And they\u2019re useless. I earn what I earn, I spend what I spend (and maybe a bit more). What difference does a budget make?<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Budgets can make the difference between profit and loss. At the start of each month, write down a conservative estimate for what you will earn and for what your expenses will cost\u2014and don\u2019t forget to factor in tax. Then spend accordingly: tighten when you need to, spend when you\u2019re free to\u2014but let your budget help you decide when that is. Check out<\/span><\/i> everydollar.com<\/span><\/i><\/a> or other budgeting tools online.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only invoice when you feel like it<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I only invoice when I\u2019m in the mood. Which is almost never. But every few months I\u2019m like \u2018Ooh, yeah, let\u2019s do some invoicing\u2019. But by the time I\u2019ve found all the invoice details I\u2019m bored already and watching dancing parrot videos.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Want to spend less time invoicing? Do it more often. Keep track of all your projects as you do them, then invoice them by the end of the same month you did them in. It\u2019s also good practice to keep a short, strict deadline: payment within 15 days, or else there are penalties (make this clear on the invoice). You\u2019ll be surprised how much less chasing you\u2019ll do.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spend all your tax money <\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

OK, I know I SHOULDN\u2019T do this but I just can\u2019t help it. It\u2019s there, and I need it. I\u2019ll find the tax money later.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It isn\u2019t there if you move it straight away. Tax money is money that you owe, and as soon as you spend it you\u2019re in debt. Instead, open a savings account with the same bank\u2014specifically for taxes\u2014and instantly put aside the appropriate percentage (plus a little bit more) so you can\u2019t touch it. So much less stress when the year ends. <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

______________<\/section>\n\n\n\n
And to make it easier for you to manage your money, our transfers<\/a> are low cost and super-fast. Sign up<\/a> now for easy and affordable online money transfers<\/a>.<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As copywriters, we\u2019ve spent a lot of our professional careers freelancing. Long enough to completely change our attitudes towards how we manage money: from the care-free, penalty-heavy, actually very stressful madness of youth, to the careful, penalty-free, surprisingly calm control of middle age.  Here are five pieces of terrible advice on how to manage your […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25071,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1498,1500],"tags":[],"business_case_studies_tags":[],"class_list":["post-25070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-business-tips"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/develop.wpvip.tgalpha.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/How-to-not-manage-your-money.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.wpvip.tgalpha.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.wpvip.tgalpha.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.wpvip.tgalpha.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.wpvip.tgalpha.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.wpvip.tgalpha.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/develop.wpvip.tgalpha.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.wpvip.tgalpha.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.wpvip.tgalpha.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.wpvip.tgalpha.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.wpvip.tgalpha.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25070"},{"taxonomy":"business_case_studies_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.wpvip.tgalpha.com\/gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/business_case_studies_tags?post=25070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}