Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Psychological Trap of Freelancing

thecut.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 254 posts

Re: The Psychological Trap of Freelancing

#141

Post by zerkten »

balabaster wrote: post #109
clojurestan wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like a shitty spouse

It's easy to make a judgment on one scenario, but being unable to get out of that mindset doesn't make her a shitty spouse, it's a fear that's been brainwashed into her by her upbringing. She is more than her fears. Thankfully though, I'm no longer in this position. I was rather more pointing out a toxic mindset that you need to overcome not just in yourself but potentially in your spouse and the rest of your familie…

FWIW I don't think this has to be tied to a spouse or partner. I've pushed myself close to that place for other reasons.

I had a very comfortable childhood and watched moderately successful parents in a place which has little entrepreneurship fall apart over time. I was protected by good skills and work performance, but in combination with the financial crisis this pushed me to a toxic place as I looked to protect me and my family.

First, my father got so ill that my mom and brother had to be his caregiver. For a while the family business continued to some success, but my brother was never invested in it. I realize now that I worked my ass off to escape and do my own thing and my brother didn't have direction. Over time with the failed economy and then my Dad's death they ended up closing down the business. My brother has drifted and my mom gets by, but it's not the life they expected.

Re: The Psychological Trap of Freelancing

#142

Post by perfunctory »

I have been freelancing for more than 10 years and I don't share these feelings at all. I don't know how to explain the discrepancy. There was a period of about half a year when I voluntarily worked just two days a week, while my client was happy to have me full time. I do take vacations, at least a month every year. I never work on the weekends.

I think the most interesting part of the article is this:

"While time versus money anxiety may be more acute for freelancers, we aren’t the only ones who struggle with it."

It seems that the time anxiety is not something unique to freelancing but rather a symptom of a broader problem with our culture/economy/politics where business/market plays ever more central role in our lives.

Re: The Psychological Trap of Freelancing

#143

Post by yayr »

The ultimate constantly limited resource in life is time. So one should maximize most of the value out of it. Money is just one possible means toward that goal. Unfortunately, it is easy to get so attached to it, that the goal is easily forgotten...

Re: The Psychological Trap of Freelancing

#144

Post by tombert »

I did freelance for about 4 months five years ago, and I felt that this mindset became really hard to avoid. I would end up waking up at around 7AM, start working at 7:15am, take a 15 minute break to make a sandwich for lunch, then work until 10pm.

Doing this long enough gets really depressing, and I found it difficult enough to "turn off" that I ended up working a 9am-6am regular job again.

Re: The Psychological Trap of Freelancing

#145

Post by mancerayder »

zilian wrote: post #92
mancerayder wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Freelancing can be highly stressful and demoralizing, unless you take the steps to go into consulting or beyond. It's a ladder, just like your corporate gig, you gotta do the work to move up or suffer where you are stuck. I have one sticking point I'd love to hear what the HN crowd does to deal with it. I'm freelancing and I find gigs that are long-term via recruiters / LinkedIn. And never directly with companies. Wh…

Outsource this to a profiler/marketer to build yourself an identity Don't work under your name but create a brand even if it's just you ;)

I think the problem is that, in the U.S., recruiters have captured that market. Since they captured it, they also capture 20-40% + of the rate because of this "added value." And I say that with the maximum possible cynicism.

How do individuals compete against recruiters? Why would this marketing person take a few grand from me, when they can be a recruiter and take 20-40% + of my rate for doing nothing but the intro?

Re: The Psychological Trap of Freelancing

#147

Post by nightski »

icedchai wrote: post #140
nightski wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While it's true the market has given guaranteed returns well north of 2.2% average for 30 years or more (the single worst 30 year period would of been higher than 2.2% average). However, when you cut that down to a decade it changes the picture significantly. There are decades where you could of actually seen a loss. So without giving financial advice, I'd say it's more complicated than throwing it in an index fund i…

Don't overthink this stuff. Most of the decades you wouldn't see a loss, so you're better off investing a good chunk. Keep 10 to 20% of your holdings in cash getting 2% interest if it helps you sleep at night.

I wasn't trying to overthink. But the market is volatile at the moment and the next decade is rather uncertain. Thinking you can just throw your money in and get 7% over the next decade and get to $1M may not be the best strategy.

We aren't talking about losing sleep over volatility here. We are talking about a situation where someone specifically wants to hit $1M in a decade.

Re: The Psychological Trap of Freelancing

#148

Post by gk1 »

OJFord wrote: post #70
stevage wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's interesting. My experience has been the opposite on all four points. - My total pay in the first year was about 30% higher than when salaried, and will probably be 50% higher this year. - Most of my projects are way more interesting than when salaried. - I've never had to chase down any payments. I've instead been chased down to invoice a couple of times! - I have never put any effort into finding clients.

> My total pay in the first year was about 30% higher than when salaried With or without benefits/bonuses/... factored in?

Not the person you asked, but... Yes. If you do things right and get a little lucky, you can make much more as a freelancer or consultant.

Re: The Psychological Trap of Freelancing

#149

Post by rconti »

I've always said I could never be hourly (or freelance) because I'd never take a vacation; instead I'd just be thinking about how much money I was losing. Same would apply if I had a work arrangement where I (say) got 3 weeks of PTO but arranged for enough extra pay to cover a 4th week of vacation "unpaid".

I'm sure if I had enough in the bank, and was on a quasi-sabbatical or quasi-retirement, I could view extra freelance income as the "cherry on top", but in terms of money to pay the bills, it would be incredibly hard.

I appreciated the author's comments on paying for time saving things that make you happier (I HATE doing the laundry, but we cook almost every day), as well as the comment about dog walking.

I think this just means you have to find the joy in things you choose to do with your time. For example, I once mentioned that I feel I don't find enough time for hobbies, but a friend mentioned cooking dinner every night, working out, and a few other things that are part of my daily "routine" as things that I choose to do, things that are "productive", but in a way that we don't typically give ourselves credit for. In other words, recognize how you are spending your time, give yourself credit for the good things you do, don't take them for granted; not everyone does those things.

Re: The Psychological Trap of Freelancing

#150

Post by bonestamp2 »

scottlocklin wrote: post #127
nickdandakis wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the vast majority of people would find it incredibly difficult to save ~7.5k per month for 10 years (assuming an annually compound savings interest of 2.2%), to hit 1M. That type of savings goes beyond "no Ferraris/Great-Gatsby-parties".

Depends. If you have a SEP-IRA, half of that is pre-tax. If you've optimized your location away from California/New York on a normal tech billing regime (2x salary, maybe 3/4 the billable hours), you're almost there on tax savings alone; let alone housing expenses.

I didn't realize just how big a difference that pre-tax savings makes until recently. A couple weeks ago I thought there was an error when I increased my pre-tax savings and I noticed my take home pay only went down 66% of what I increased my savings by. I logged in and realized that the full amount I increased by was coming off, but I was saving 33% in taxes so my take home only went down 66% of what I expected.

For example, let's say I increased my bi-weekly savings by $150. Because it was pre-tax, with the tax savings I was still saving $150 but my take home only went down $100.

By the time I want that money, I shouldn't have a mortgage payment so I'll need far less money than I'm making now and my income tax should be much lower, not to mention the additional gains on a higher principle.

Post reply on HN