30 Posts In 30 Days – Day 3: Money

This is Day 3 of the 30 Posts In 30 Days Challenge I set for myself to start writing online. This post was originally published on X.

How much money do you need as a freelancer?

Is it 10k per month or 100k per year? These are the two numbers that get thrown around a lot on the internet. But as good as they look, they seem kinda arbitrary to me.

How much do you really need and what for?

The first few months of freelancing were tough for me financially. Given the little amount of projects I started with, I knew I had to keep an eye on my money all the time. I wanted to know how much I was making and how much I was spending.

I started tracking two things: All money in, all money out.

I quickly realized there was little to no room for savings. But I learned how much money I needed to get by. And that’s exactly how much I made the next month.

With time my needs (and goals) started to shift. The pressure of making just enough money “to survive” was very stressful. What if I didn’t find a new project to work on next month?

I knew it wasn’t enough anymore.

And so I started to work towards one month of “income” on the side. I raised that number to two full months and then to three, in no time. I started to feel much more comfortable.

Getting a clear idea of my financial situation helped me set the right intention for what I was doing.

Making 10k per month would have been an unrealistic goal, driven by the tempting idea of a fat paycheck. Making enough to survive was powerful and realistic enough and forced me to take action. And with time I learned how to build wealth as a freelancer, getting closer and closer to 10k per month.

Sometimes surviving is all you need to thrive.