Many people today decide to pursue a career as a freelancer. Referring to data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) as of August 2020, there were around 33.34 million people working as freelancers. This number increased by 26 percent (4.32 million people) from the previous year. On the other hand, the total population who are permanent workers in companies or similar actually decreased.
The freelance world is becoming increasingly popular because of the various advantages it has. For example, by becoming a freelancer someone will have a flexible work system, meaning they are free to work anytime and anywhere. They can also choose more than one type of job according to their skills and interests. Several types of work that are currently popular among freelancers include videographers, photographers, writers, translators, data entry, graphic designers, and many more.
Even though the freelance world is trending upwards, freelancers should not forget to manage their finances. Because freelance projects or jobs do n't always exist. Apart from that, the company also has the power to terminate the employment agreement at any time. Are you one of them?
So, to keep your pockets healthy, you can pay attention to the following tips for managing your finances.
Make Fund Allocations for Each Need
First, you must create expense items by adjusting the amount of income. For example, Financial Planner Prita Ghozie said, ideally every month a person's income is divided into three allocation posts, namely:
- 50 percent for living (cost of daily necessities).
- 30 percent for savings . Don't forget, allocate from your savings for an emergency fund.
- 20 percent for playing or recreation.
Making an allocation of funds for each need helps your financial condition stay healthy and stay away from being a peg rather than a pole. In this way, you can simultaneously prepare funds for emergency needs, prepare retirement funds and so on.
Control Every Expense
The 50-30-20 fund allocation percentage above will be maximized if you are disciplined and have good self-control . You can try having a different account number, or take advantage of the savings account feature at your digital bank for each of your expenses. Apart from controlling expenses from a predetermined budget, it also helps make bookkeeping easier later.
Keep a Daily Expense Record
Recording your daily expenses can help you stay on track with your spending allocation. These notes become evaluation material if your expenses have exceeded the budget. For example, from the expense records, it turns out that too much money was spent on going to the coffee shop.
Therefore, you can find a solution by reducing the intensity of going to the coffee shop. Another option is to overcome this by increasing your income by looking for extras so that your budget for playing can be increased and will not reduce visits to the coffee shop.
To record daily expenses, use the Google Sheet platform or recording applications, such as Monefy, Finansialku, Wallet, and so on. These various applications provide expenditure categorization features, such as for food and drink, recreation, and others, making evaluation easier.
Check your finances every week
After making a record of expenses, it won't be complete if you don't check your financial condition regularly, for example once a week. You can evaluate the amount of expenses that week and check the remaining balance or cash you have. Then determine the right strategy for the following week. This routine will also indirectly help them build healthy financial habits.
Prepare an Emergency Fund
Basically, every worker, including freelancers, must have an emergency fund. An emergency fund is an amount of money saved to be used in times of emergency, such as accidents, house damage, or when there are no freelance jobs .
Ideally, the size of the emergency fund for single freelancers without dependents can start from 3 times the amount of monthly expenses. This means that if you don't get any income for the next 3 months, your monthly needs can still be met normally. You can increase the 3 month time period according to your needs, if you want to widen your safety net .
Furthermore, emergency funds can be saved into various low-risk investment products, such as savings, time deposits, or money market mutual funds. Choose among these products the most liquid or easy to disburse, and make sure not to use emergency funds for needs that are not intended.
That is information regarding tips for managing healthy finances for you, freelancers and prospective freelancers. In principle, the more disciplined you are in managing your finances, the closer you will be to your financial goals.