Millions of people worldwide freelance as a side hustle rather than using it as the sole means to pay the bills and put food on the table. While freelancing jobs can expand to become full-time jobs, it takes time to branch out in most cases.
Whether you’re a freelance artist or a writer, you can make a lot more money than you would as a babysitter or a dog-walker. Plus, the availability of freelancing jobs platforms has made it easier for people to work from home.
Even if you don’t manage all your expenses through a freelance job, your side hustle can help pay for miscellaneous things. Let’s do an in-depth analysis of how freelancing can help your personal finances.
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Minus the Commute Costs
For your nine-to-five job, you’d have to travel every day. If you take the bus, the cost could be lower, but the commute costs become a considerable sum if you own a car. In any case, it’s still an additional cost that your job is most probably not paying for.
When you work from home as a freelancer, you can minus this cost from your total expenditure for the month. If you previously spent $5 on commuting daily, you’re now saving over a hundred bucks every month by switching to an online freelancing position.
Even if you freelance at a physical workplace, you won’t have to go there every day of the month. It’s not as economical as working from home, but it still saves money.
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No More Apparel Costs
Depending on your workplace, you’ll be required to follow a specific dress code. It’s possible that casual suits aren’t your everyday fashion style. So, when your corporate job requires you to wear a certain kind of apparel, you have to spend money on buying it.
Additionally, as a woman, you’ll have to spend money on makeup and hair care products since appearances matter a lot in most workplaces.
According to Forbes, an average family spends around $1700 annually on buying clothes. You can significantly cut down this cost if you don’t have to go out in a workplace and conform to the dressing norms in the field.
In contrast, when working from home, you can sit in your PJs, and no one would bat an eye. Also, there’s no stress of looking perfect every minute of the day.
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Coffee Money
If you freelance as a side hustle, you can make enough cash to fulfill your everyday needs. In this way, you can use your salary to pay for the utilities and other domestic expenses while the freelancing money goes to miscellaneous things.
Suppose you earn $300 a week working as a freelance writer. You can use this money to pay for the fuel, coffee runs in the morning, retail therapy, eating out, etc.
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Annual Vacation
According to the Vacation Confidence Index, 36% of the Americans haven’t taken a vacation in two years. When asked if they’d take a holiday the following year, only 42% of them responded positively.
The most probable reason behind this is that most people can’t save enough money from their regular jobs to pay for a vacation. To fix this, search for freelancing jobs according to your skill and take up one of them.
You can save the money from your freelancing job until you raise enough to finance a vacation. Depending on the job, you may not earn enough to take a month-long international trip. But you’ll have a sufficient amount to spend a week in your favorite local vacation spot.
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Pay Student Loans
According to Forbes, 42 million Americans were paying student loans in 2019. Even worse, for about three million students, the loan was higher than $100,000. Most of you reading this must be in student debt too.
Instead of giving away a fraction of your salary in the loan amount every month, why not take up a freelance job?
You can use this money to pay off the monthly loan amount while using your salary to cover other house expenses.
By adding an extra source of income, you make it easier for yourself to manage and pay off the debt.
Since freelancing jobs don’t have strict requirements, you can work at your own pace. Simply work the number of hours that pay enough to make the monthly debt amount.
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Frees Up Time
A notable benefit of freelancing jobs is that they don’t take up much time. The amount of time you take to finish a task depends on your skill and expertise level.
On the contrary, a physical job requires you to spend a specific number of hours in the office. By the time you get home, there’s hardly enough time to do anything else. That’s why most office-goers are stuck in limbo.
While freelancing, you can spend the extra time to learn a new skill or polish an existing talent. Plus, you can use this time to start a business or build connections with other people in your field.
Although this doesn’t instantly help your finances, it lets you earn more in the long run.
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No Unpaid Overtime
If you’ve ever worked an office job, you’d know that salaried individuals are working more than they get paid for. Most people have to work overtime without getting any compensation for the extra effort.
Along with tiring you out, this also lowers your earning. If you’re working ten extra hours every week under the guise of ‘packing up’ or ‘team meetings,’ you should be paid for it. Sadly, most corporate jobs don’t give this issue much regard.
In contrast, your freelancing job pays you by the hour. Almost all of the best freelancing sites allow you to set your own hourly rates. Plus, you can charge the clients extra for edits and revisions. Additionally, you can upsell your gigs by offering perks like same-day delivery.
If you don’t know what you should charge as a freelancer, use this handy calculator to determine your hourly rate relative to your annual income goals.
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Earn More
Experts estimate that freelancing could make up 80% of the global workforce in the next ten years. Why are people suddenly switching to freelancing jobs? Because there’s more potential to grow and earn.
Most jobs pay you the same salary for years until you get a promotion. Along with being disrespectful to your skill, it’s also a blow to your bank account.
On the other hand, freelancing helps your finances by allowing you to branch out and earn more. You can raise your rates in a few months of working if you’ve found enough clients and have a strong portfolio.
You can work independently or on sites such as Fiverr, Freelancer, Upwork, etc.
Conclusion – Freelancing can help you earn extra income!
The US freelance market earned a trillion dollars in 2019. That should be enough proof to convince you that there’s money in freelancing. If you don’t plan to leave your full-time job, you can take up a side hustle to help your finances.
According to Indeed, a US freelancer earns an average of $797 per week. Even if that’s not enough to pay the rent, it can help ease most of your financial burdens.
Author Bio: Mike Sanderson is a part-time writer and editor for FreelanceNomads.com. Freelancer Nomads is the ultimate freelance community. We’re on a mission to help over 50 million freelancers work better and smarter. You can follow along with Freelancer Nomads on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or Pinterest.
