2 years of full-time freelancing ✌️

Pop the champagne, because today marks my second year of full-time freelancing! 🎉

Keeping calm and carrying on

This second year felt a lot calmer than the first. It’s probably because I’ve been working on fewer projects after losing several clients last year. (I just checked: over 120 projects versus 180+ in my first year.)

This isn’t a completely bad thing, though. Having fewer clients means having fewer client requirements to manage and remember (e.g. Client A uses this project management software, while Client B wants things done this way).

The clients that stayed, or started working with me since then, have also kept me busy. I’ve been working on bigger projects—and, in fact, I’m helping to write a book!—and these tend to take more time.

At the start of July, I was blocking off my schedule for confirmed projects and was stunned to see I’m fully booked* until the end of September. That’s 3 months or a whole quarter. Wow.

*with some wiggle room—more on this next…

Pacing myself better

Work has also been calmer because I’ve learnt my lesson and stopped packing my schedule to the brim, LOL.

Now, I typically fill each week with 3 to 4 days’ worth of work based on how I forecast the amount of time I need for projects. This leaves some gaps in my calendar, but they usually get filled in some way or another closer to the date. And if they don’t, I’ll do less and enjoy the chill period while it lasts.

I also factor in more buffer time for projects. E.g. If I would previously set aside 3 days for an article, I budget for 4 days now. It’s not foolproof, but it’s helped a lot.

Self-declared time-offs

I’m enjoying the freedom to go out on weekdays while places are generally less crowded. This sometimes means working evenings or weekends to meet my deadlines, but I’m not complaining.

Okay, I’m going to stop here. Otherwise, I will have nothing to say in my year-end review 😂 As a whole, things have been good and I’m gonna do my best to keep it up!

More freelancer news

Your self-employed revenue isn’t the same as your income

I read the first part of this DollarsAndSense article and this was enough for me to go “Seriously, this!!!!!!!!”

Earning money as a self-employed person can already be challenging, and it gets even more challenging when you realise you have to pay for all your business expenses yourself.

Depending on how much these are, you may need to bring in a lot more money to earn the same income as an employee, who doesn’t have to worry about paying for office rental, software subscriptions and so on.

And your earnings will need to be even higher if you want to pay yourself CPF contributions and bonuses, just like what an employee would enjoy.

​More details in the article here. (It also talks about the Fixed Expense Deduction Ratio, which is helpful for estimating your business expenses if you are a commission-based agent, delivery worker or private-hire driver and aren’t sure how much these are)

Gig workers feel stressed and anxious over money decisions

A recent GXS Bank survey of 1,300 people in Singapore showed that:

• When making financial decisions, 43% of gig worker respondents experienced stress as their top emotion and 41% felt anxious
• 38% of respondents aged 15 to 24 have a side hustle

The survey also explored things like people’s spending priorities and identified 4 financial decision-making personality types: Savvy Navigator, Bright Blazer, Steady Saver and Spontaneous Striver.

​Check out the full report here. Which personality are you?