Can you make a living as a freelancer?

$300 a month for individual insurance? Are you living in 2001?

That's not a snarky reply, but that's what I was paying in 2001. I shudder to think of what it is now.

 

exactly. i don't know what it is because i don't pay it. is it up to $400?

last person i spoke with about this went through freelancer's union and was paying $300 a month. but you are right - that may have been a few years ago.

 

Two years ago, I was paying $300 a month for Health Insurance Plan (HIP). Every three months, they would raise the rates by $50. I shudder to think what the rates are now.

 

I'd be shocked if it's only $400.

My wife's insurance skyrocketed last year, so I can only imagine what folks are paying out of pocket. Of course, as we have discussed here before, spending that money in insurance beats the alternative.

The $10K comment is spot on as well. I didn't have that in the bank when I started, but I was fortunate in that I didn't need it right away. But I really needed it in October 2000. I'm still in debt from that awful dry stretch from October 2000-post 9/11.

My big thing about putting off the freelancing career was once I started it I knew I wouldn't want to go back to a traditional job. Once you get a taste of working in your Underoos pajamas, you never want to stop.

 

I freelance along with my traditonal job, so I'm not in bad shape financially.

The single biggest positive in freelancing is that you can become a "national" name if your work is good enough. Just today, I received a call from a paper out West for a gig or two.

 

This is all good to "hear". Ive been going in debt for years as a full timer anyway. It's all about doing the work for me, so the adventure of trying to crack through as an independent contractor makes the struggle worth it to me.

 

God, no. Freelancing sucks. No matter how I made, it sucked.

 

As with somebody posting earlier, the best freelancer I ever knew was a guy whose wife was a huuuge freaking deal at a company you've heard of, probably availed yourself of their services in the last 30 days at least once.

He probably would have been a success, I'm sure he would have been anyway, but he had one hell of a safety net.

My best freelancing years came when I was fully employed but in another field. Weird, that.

 

"The single biggest positive in freelancing is that you can become a "national" name if your work is good enough. Just today, I received a call from a paper out West for a gig or two."


Uh, don't count on that. When papers need a stringer, usually on short notice, their first instinct is to always call the local paper and ask if someone there can do it.

 

Here's what I can advise:

Be organized, ambitious and realistic.

For a month now, I have sent e-mails to papers across the country and Canda offering my stringing servies for games on the East. NFL, College Football, the second half of the Major League Baseball season, WNBA, U.S. Open, Minor League Baseball. Roughly, there are 500 games/series/tournaments. Now, I realize that I cannot cover every game. It's just not humanly possible. If I'm lucky, I might be able to do a quarter (125) of those events. At $100 a pop, I'm looking at pulling in $12,500.

You have to look at your area. What places can you get to easily? If you're in Texas, it doesn't do you any good to cover events in Chicago. And vice versa.

Best of luck.

 

This is excellent advice under any circumstances.

 

But he helps his daughter's softball team, goes on vacations... about the only thing he doesn't do is wear long pants...
He's got as much of a life as any son of Walker County can have....