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Poll: Freelancers/Consultants – What's your yearly income?

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51–60 of 123 posts

Re: Poll: Freelancers/Consultants – What's your yearly income?

#51

I'm a ruby contractor working in London, charging £400 per day, but I know others that are charging £500. Having such a high day rate means that I can afford to work part time as to have enough time to work on side projects too. I earned just shy of £50k last year, not all the time was part time so this year will probably be less.

Any tips you can share on how you achieved that position?

I was doing Perl. I assume it's pretty similar: go to jobserve.com, type in Ruby contractor, hit enter.

Re: Poll: Freelancers/Consultants – What's your yearly income?

#52
post #46
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They aren't anymore. I've lived both in Poland and countries in western EU, Netherlands be one example, and honestly everyday product prices are very similar. The major difference is housing although Poland is very similar to Berlin housing wise, now compare the average salaries...

Berlin is a bit of a special case though. Living expenses are very low compared to other "rich" EU countries.

Even compared to other big cities in Germany; you won't find Berlin rental prices in Munich or Frankfurt.

Re: Poll: Freelancers/Consultants – What's your yearly income?

#53

As a devops contractor I earn north of 500gbp/day and I have a 1 year contract. Imagining I take a week or two off this year then that works out to about 200k usd How to achieve this? Find a gap in the market, upskill in it, don't be shy about asking for more money than you think the client will offer you (if they're desperate, they will pay)

How does that work out after tax ? I imagine 200k USD would attract a ton of tax. Is there a more tax efficient way to structure it ?

Re: Poll: Freelancers/Consultants – What's your yearly income?

#54

I turned over ~$80k in my first year freelancing. This year will be substantially higher. Battling against imposter syndrome and finding out how much your worth to a company/business is one of the hardest things about freelancing. I still today believe I'm undercharging for my skill set. Especially when I compare my ability/experience to those I'm working with who are earning a similar amount of money. At the same ti…

>At the same time, money really isn't everything.

What about your time? When I was 'freelancing' I couldn't resist piling on hours. I might have stuck with it longer if I could've resisted that temptation (to work all of the time).

Raise you rates and cull some of that work. I know, it's easier to say than do.

Re: Poll: Freelancers/Consultants – What's your yearly income?

#55
post #20

First year of freelancing, so I can only give a projected income, but it should be accurate as I'm on a long term contract until the end of the year: $80k. It's been a very variable year of course. I consider myself as having had a successful year, but I think most people not on long term contracts will have highly variable monthly incomes. My lowest monthly income: EUR 457 (in January too. That month was difficult).…

Beware of having only a single long term contract, please diversify. If your contract ever falls through you need instant back-up, not after the 3 months or so that it will take to get your order pipeline filled. You need several customers in parallel to be stable as a freelancer, not one big one.

It depends on the length of your contract and your confidence in the client. I've had several clients/projects that have lasted longer than a year and since I always bill at least 2-3x what my expected cost of living is I am easily giving enough runway to find my next client. In 2011 for instance I took the year off to focus on personal projects and wait for the right new client to come along. I have now been with that same client for 2 years at 40+/hrs a week.

Re: Poll: Freelancers/Consultants – What's your yearly income?

#56
post #24

Without taking location into consideration, this is probably not going to be a very useful poll, I suspect.

Location is more important for typical employment as opposed to freelancing. As a freelancer, you should be able to break out of that "location" ceiling by working remotely. The stronger your brand (well know dev shops have no problem getting international work) and network, the less important your location is to the client. Also, depending on the situation, you could always fly in to work on site. However, it is easier to land jobs from X city if you live there.

Re: Poll: Freelancers/Consultants – What's your yearly income?

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any tips you can share on how you achieved that position?

I was doing Perl. I assume it's pretty similar: go to jobserve.com, type in Ruby contractor, hit enter.

Then, £400 a day is pretty standard for London? I frequently get offers under that value, hence my belief that this kind of pay doesn't come through normal channels.

Edit: Wrote this before coffee. Thought we were talking hourly rates. Nevermind.

Re: Poll: Freelancers/Consultants – What's your yearly income?

#58
post #20

First year of freelancing, so I can only give a projected income, but it should be accurate as I'm on a long term contract until the end of the year: $80k. It's been a very variable year of course. I consider myself as having had a successful year, but I think most people not on long term contracts will have highly variable monthly incomes. My lowest monthly income: EUR 457 (in January too. That month was difficult).…

Beware of having only a single long term contract, please diversify. If your contract ever falls through you need instant back-up, not after the 3 months or so that it will take to get your order pipeline filled. You need several customers in parallel to be stable as a freelancer, not one big one.

It depends on your market and the depth of your network. Some markets are so hot that you can land one gig after another. Certain types of clients may require a lot of lead time, which lengthens your cash-flow cycles. Sometimes you come across client work where the client can wait for X months. Sometimes the client needs the job done yesterday. Each situation can be beneficial depending on your own situation.

Re: Poll: Freelancers/Consultants – What's your yearly income?

#59

I'm a ruby contractor working in London, charging £400 per day, but I know others that are charging £500. Having such a high day rate means that I can afford to work part time as to have enough time to work on side projects too. I earned just shy of £50k last year, not all the time was part time so this year will probably be less.

Aren't rents in London for even a modest place in a nice part of the city north of £500 a week though? Seems rather touch and go if you're only doing that part time.

Re: Poll: Freelancers/Consultants – What's your yearly income?

#60
post #53

As a devops contractor I earn north of 500gbp/day and I have a 1 year contract. Imagining I take a week or two off this year then that works out to about 200k usd How to achieve this? Find a gap in the market, upskill in it, don't be shy about asking for more money than you think the client will offer you (if they're desperate, they will pay)

How does that work out after tax ? I imagine 200k USD would attract a ton of tax. Is there a more tax efficient way to structure it ?

You do it as a company pay your self minimum wage and take the rest as dividends is the basic idea.
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