Retirement for freelancers: How did you prepare for it?

TommyCarey

Retiring as a freelancer means you need to start saving now. I don't care if you are 18 years old and just starting off or you're a veteran and have been doing this for 15 years. If you're not saving now, you won't have any money later on when you do plan on retiring.

The way I look at it, you will never stop being a freelancer, you will just take a more hands-off approach to your work. You will need to build up your passive income streams so you can collect checks without having to do as much work as you would need to do at a "normal" 9 to 5 job. I always see people talking about how they make $100,000 a year and they just bought a house and a new car, but they probably aren't saving much of their money which means they will be working constantly after the age of 60.

I personally preach that everyone should start building up passive income streams so they can take a more hands-off approach to making money online, and be less stressed. Building up these passive income streams isn't an easy thing to do, this is why you need to start doing them as soon as possible. Starting to build a passive income stream when you're about to retire means you might not have the motivation or time to do it right. You might not have the motivation because it takes a lot of work to do it right, and since you're going to be older, you might not have the drive you did back when you were younger. You might not have the time to do it right because you'll always be with family, or you might actually be leaving this world sooner than you think

When people ask me when I think I'll retire, I always tell them "I don't think I will ever retire. I tun my company and I will always run it, unless I sell it for a massive amount, enough to support my family and my children's families. I work a lot as of right now, and I don't even have any big authority websites bringing in a ton of money lol. If I were to get one of these types of websites, I'm sure I could sell it later on and live a nice life, but I don't know if it would be enough to purchase a house, a couple cars, have enough to live off of and also have enough left over to help settle my children and their children. Of course, I would make my kids work even if I were a millionaire, I wouldn't want them to get used to handouts because those types of people are simply annoying

At the end of the day, you need to make more than you're spending in order to consider yourself some sort of successful. If you can make exponentially more than you're spending each day, you will be on your way to success and live a better lifestyle than most, because you won't have to worry about retirement as much as the next guy

Retiring as a freelancer means you need to start saving now. I don't care if you are 18 years old and just starting off or you're a veteran and have been doing this for 15 years. If you're not saving now, you won't have any money later on when you do plan on retiring. The way I look at it, you will never stop being a freelancer, you will just take a more hands-off approach to your work. You will need to build up your passive income streams so you can collect checks without having to do as much work as you would need to do at a "normal" 9 to 5 job. I always see people talking about how they make $100,000 a year and they just bought a house and a new car, but they probably aren't saving much of their money which means they will be working constantly after the age of 60. I personally preach that everyone should start building up passive income streams so they can take a more hands-off approach to making money online, and be less stressed. Building up these passive income streams isn't an easy thing to do, this is why you need to start doing them as soon as possible. Starting to build a passive income stream when you're about to retire means you might not have the motivation or time to do it right. You might not have the motivation because it takes a lot of work to do it right, and since you're going to be older, you might not have the drive you did back when you were younger. You might not have the time to do it right because you'll always be with family, or you might actually be leaving this world sooner than you think :( When people ask me when I think I'll retire, I always tell them "I don't think I will ever retire. I tun my company and I will always run it, unless I sell it for a massive amount, enough to support my family and my children's families. I work a lot as of right now, and I don't even have any big authority websites bringing in a ton of money lol. If I were to get one of these types of websites, I'm sure I could sell it later on and live a nice life, but I don't know if it would be enough to purchase a house, a couple cars, have enough to live off of and also have enough left over to help settle my children and their children. Of course, I would make my kids work even if I were a millionaire, I wouldn't want them to get used to handouts because those types of people are simply annoying :D At the end of the day, you need to make more than you're spending in order to consider yourself some sort of successful. If you can make exponentially more than you're spending each day, you will be on your way to success and live a better lifestyle than most, because you won't have to worry about retirement as much as the next guy :D

7 years ago

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Corzhens

I cannot imagine myself retiring from freelancing because my earnings are so meager that I don’t think I could save even a dollar every month. That is the reason why I am studying other options so that I can do other things aside from my main line of paid forum posting. Affiliate marketing I my target activity because it can be regular and consistent although I cannot say if it is also consistent in earnings. I can also work as SEO specialist when I finish my study of SEO methods.

6 years ago

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overcast

I am personally not yet prepared for it. I have no home, I have no funds. I have some savings and that is all to there. And I don't even have the family yet. So things are not that good. I have dependent parents and that is more or less things making harder. And from there it'd be harder to work with that for the retirement. I can tell you that I have to work as many jobs as possible to retirement. And I am not sure if that is even going to meet the amount. Things are getting expensive here. And it's really hard to do away with that level of spending.

7 years ago

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ColdFlameChris

That's gonna be the problem when you retire as a freelancer since you won't get any benefits or pension not unless you pay for it by yourself. You should make sure that before you retire, you do have a tremendous amount of your savings as you won't get anything once you retire. I advise that you should still have a regular job and pay for all the benefits that you'll eventually get from your retirement so you won't have to worry once you retire. Freelancer should only be your part-time job and not as a regular one.

7 years ago

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DarthHazard

That's the problem, unfortunately, it's the same for self-employed people really. Unless they are paying for a pension, most of the time they will have to rely on money that they have saved themselves to survive in the future when they decide to retire. If you are a freelancer then I would recommend that you start paying for benefits or start saving up quite a bit every month.

7 years ago

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augusta

Retiring as a freelancer takes the same shape as any other retirement and we shouldn't think differently about it.The only difference which is not working 9-5 jobs or the regular kind of job shouldn't make one think differently. It all boils down to saving up for latter days, buying a good insurance policy which life assurance must be one of it.Getting a mortgage for assets and trying to pay them off gradually or outrightly investing in fixed assets like buildings and lands but most importantly having funds for Medicare since one is a private entity.

7 years ago

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overcast

I think freelance income being uncertain, you have to earn 20 times more for the retirement. And save even more. And that is what is leading to the better retirement options. You can see that not a lot of people can reach that target. So we have to learn to deal with those issues and help those who are working towards their retirement. I am sure that by taking the proactive approach many of us can retire as an freelancer.

7 years ago

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Pixie06

As a freelancer, you have less financial security. This is the reason I have started saving up and investing. There are many ways in which you can invest. We must not concentrate only on the present. The future is uncertain and that's the reason we must plan for it.

7 years ago

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DarthHazard

Freelancing is quite a difficult industry unfortunately and that means you really should be starting to save money. Like someone said above, no matter what age you are, it might be wise to put a bit of money aside every month so that you have a retirement fund you can live comfortably off. Of course, unless you're making a lot of money, it might not be much which can be a problem

7 years ago

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overcast

I agree it is one of the difficult industry to get in. Because it gives me an option for the free time. And that is usually unpaid. Which often jobs get paid for. And that makes it harder for the freelancers to match the retirement money same as that of the job people. And that in itself can be really harder in many ways.I guess if you can understand that part then surely you can prepare for the same.

7 years ago

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kgord

I am not making the money I need to do as a freelancer to prepare for retirement. I am looking at a home sale as a primary vehicle for retirement and the social security I will have coming in when I worked a regular job. Right now I am just concentrating on trying to keep all my bills paid.

7 years ago

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wiseagent

I think guaranteeing a retirement working only as a freelancer requires a very high level of organization and a lot of willpower not to give up on the middle of the road (after all, it will be - possibly - your only
income).

7 years ago

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kgord

Yeah, I don't plan for it to be my only income though. Maybe at some point..but I probably will have to work a regular job for awhile in order to save enough for retirement and be able to live well.

7 years ago

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wiseagent

A regular job (although often be annoying, depending on the function you perform) is still the best option for this, even though being a freelancer is something more interesting and fun (at least for me).

7 years ago

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Judas2018

I don't think a freelancer should ever think about retirement. It defeats the purpose, kills the hunger. You should 'grind' until you can't grind anymore. There are people in Hollywood writing scripts and directing films at age 90 and over. Surely, if you're a freelancer in your 20's or 30's or even 40's - retirement should be FAR away in your sea of thoughts.

7 years ago

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wiseagent

That's a very interesting and curious question, but I since I don't work solely as freelancer... I never stopped to think about it. But I think a retirement plan needs to be thought out well in advance so as not to have bigger problems as the age comes, haha.

7 years ago

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vinaya

I don't think I will ever retire as long as I can work. I am a writer and internet marketer. I will continue to work as long as I can write and perform internet marketing. If a freelancer wants to retire, he needs to concentrate on a couple of things:
having a good source of passive income. Passive income means you continue to earn even if you do not work. passive income can come from book royalties, revenues from websites, online articles etc.
Having a bank balance. You need a bank balance before you retire
You need to have investments on income generating projects such as shares and bonds.

7 years ago

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Baburra

I don't do much other than just save up what I can. I also try looking into what I could invest in from time to time. However, unfortunately, I am not really good with business and my skills for it are very limited so I mainly just try and look for what I can do that is more suited for me in terms of making a good retirement plan. It's very difficult since I never really got any lessons or training from my parents or any schools I went to. I think they all just expected me to work until I die.

7 years ago

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potentialwriter

A major fact everybody must know about the freelancing stuff is that you don't have to be a writer before you can make money online. Branding yourself online works for a long-term goal. You never can tell where your online brand can take you. Your own website is your personal brand online and your future online success for that matter. Being a freelancer will just be an added advantage to the success of your branded website.

7 years ago

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vhinz

It would be best for a freelancer to save and invest in a business that will give continuous earnings even he/she quits from being a freelancer. A freelancer still works or render services to other people. If you are planning to quit or retire from being a freelancer, but still eager to earn, you probably need to invest in a business that will able to support your lifestyle. That's why for me, the ultimate goal would be to establish a business that will allow me to earn passive income even I quit from working or from being a freelancer.

7 years ago

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vinaya

That's right, before we retire we need to have a good income source. savings can be good but if you do not have a regular income, your savings will soon end. Investing in income generating programs and reaping the profits is a better retirement idea for a freelancer.

7 years ago

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vhinz

Yeah, we should learn how our hard-earned money will generate another source of income that will allow us to stop from working until we get old. We should invest our money in businesses that will give us passive income.

7 years ago

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vinaya

Building a passive income source can be a good retirement plan for freelancer. I published 150 articles on hubpages between 2012-2014. These articles are still earning me money. I have a handful of websites, if these websites earn me revenue, they will continue to generate income for many years. I have published books on Amazon, if these books sell well they will bring me royalties for many years. These are my retirement plans.

7 years ago

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vhinz

That is really great. Having a source of income that does not always require my presence is all I ever wanted that's why I decided to take this online journey.

7 years ago

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potentialwriter

In order to have something meaningful and worthwhile that you can be doing to generate some extra income daily at the comfort of your home after retirement, freelancing is one of those legitimate jobs you can start doing online, but is not enough to live a more meaningful life. You only earn a few bucks daily from freelancing which cannot settle a lot of things. So, it's better to find and prepare for a better online job than freelancing. Freelancing is good as well, but not sufficient to live a life.

7 years ago

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DenisP

While I don't necessarily disagree, I feel like that is too broad of a statement to really be considered true. The fact is that it is going to depend on a number of circumstances.

For one thing, if you're only earning a few bucks a day from freelancing you're either new to it or doing something wrong. According to data from Payoneer, "the average freelancer works 36 hours a week at a rate of $21 per hour, giving them an annual pretax salary of more than $39,000" as of June, 2015.

Another factor is that it is going to vary on cost of living in your location, and being that freelancing is mostly online work, you could work from anywhere. For example, I currently live in a country where the average person lives on around $300 a month. This basically means the average freelancer could work one month and be set for the next 10 months.

It also depends on what you expect out of life. I'm happy with paying bills and eating good food, and I don't find happiness in material things so I don't need much money. Someone who only derives happiness from shopping and material gain is obviously going to need more money to maybe achieve the same level of contentment.

7 years ago

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JoeMilford

I think you have to prepare for retirement as a freelancer in the same way that you have to plan for retirement in any profession. You must invest, save, budget, acquire assets, etc. This is tough for many of us. I lost a job a few years ago and had to cash in my 401K to survive and support my family until I found another job. Now I am building back up again, but it is a slow process. There is no way that I could make my entire living and save for retirement on the freelancing that I am currently doing--my freelancing money is just supplemental income so far. I think it is great advice to consider your living expenses and cost of living because, if you are able to relocate, since your office IS your laptop or desktop, then you could live in a cheaper spot and save even more. Lots of great advice in this forum, to be sure.

7 years ago

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tiffiecute

Gracias!

Thank you peeps for your well-effort responses to my query for discussion. Though you have different points of view, I am still glad for your utmost participation. You did quite help enlighten me towards preparing for my retirement age. Hoping you can help me next time when I have some points to ponder.

tiffiecute

7 years ago

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jaymish2

I think the best way to prepare for retirement is to use the money you earn from freelancing to generate more income. Let your money work for you. This is true wealth. Don't put your eggs in one basket. Invest in shares, bonds, in real estate, get insurance, and start a company or invest in one. They are so many ways to invest. Build or buy your own home so you don't need to worry about rent. Put aside money to fund your children's education until university.

I read a story last week about a freelancer that works and does freelancing part-time. He lost his job, but from his freelancing savings will be able to continue with his lifestyle for 3 years and still be on course to retire in the next 5 years. Of course in those three years, he will continue to work online and will probably get another job. These are goals!

Tim Ferris is one of the people I admire most in the world. His philosophy is not to retire but have many mini-retirements. His emphasis is on enjoying life and doing only what you enjoy doing. I recommend his book the 'four hour week'

7 years ago

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seolads

This is exactly what i am thinking of for last few months and trying to figure out what could be done about this matter before it's too late

To be honest, i didn't come up with some good idea, because in my country it's kind of difficult and works differently with the low. I should have registered as small business owner to be able to receive pension or retirement package, but then i would spend hips of money for all fees, taxes and pension fund, which is really something i can't afford right now...

7 years ago

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Krisleen

The best thing you can do to prepare for retirement is to create a source of passive income thru a business. Retirement means you can earn continuously whether you work or not and business is the way to go. You can start a business while freelancing on the side. I have my own business and I actually do online/offline freelancing for extra income. When my business becomes stable, I can quit freelancing one of these days. I plan to just occasionally monetize painting for fun while I enjoy life doing the things I love while earning passive income from a business.

7 years ago

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Corzhens

Pardon me for this comment. This is not meant to discourage freelancers, just being honest. With the way I am earning as a freelancer, I don’t think I can live with the small earnings that I get. That’s why I have plans when I retire from my office job because freelancing will be my retirement occupation. I think I can work as a freelancer even up to age 80 or even more as long as my faculties are intact. Right now, I have an office job and that retirement is still far ahead.

7 years ago

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jaymish2

I was reading an article the other day in the Business Insider about freelancing. It was giving advice about money management.It recommended that when you get retainers or projects you work out your costs in such a way that you have enough to live on for six months and a percentage should go to your savings. So you need to start thinking in these terms. I put a percentage of my earning aside and put it in an account for retirement.

6 years ago

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SEOClerks

Retirement for freelancers: How did you prepare for it?