Is your Writing Career Financially Sustainable?

Posted by John Hewitt on 11/7/2008 under Freelancing, Productivity, Sustainability, Writing Business |

Whether you are a freelance copywriter, a contract technical writer or a full-time reporter, you should be considering the financial sustainability of your career. There are many types of writing careers, and there are issues to be faced in every one of them. Even the safest sounding of careers can have sustainability issues. Much of it depends on you, and the way you approach your career.

How long do you need your career to be sustainable?

When considering the sustainability of your career there are some questions you need to ask. The first question is how long do I want this career to last? Most people don’t intend to stay in the same job, or even the same career for their entire life. You might want to be a freelance writer today, but you may not want it ten years from now. When considering sustainability, it is good to have a finite period of time in mind. If you don’t have a specific idea of how long you want your career to last, then a good time period to use is twenty years. Feel free to pick your own value though. If you do have an idea of what you want to transition to next, and when, part of your consideration should be about how you are going to position yourself for that next change.

How much money is enough money?

Money will always be a primary issue. You not only need to consider your income, but you need to consider your spending as well. You also need to ask how much damage a major crisis would have on your income.

For almost three years, I managed to live strictly off money I made from my web sites and money I made freelancing. I never had enough money to put much of anything aside. I just managed to meet my obligations and no more. There was more than one point at which I thought I wasn’t going to meet my obligations, but somehow money always came through. That doesn’t mean that the career choice itself was unsustainable. I was very careful with the money I did have coming in, and that helped. I spent money only on essentials, and made do without almost anything else.

Now, I work full time in addition to blogging part time. I make a considerable amount of money, so income isn’t a sustainability issue. That doesn’t mean that finances are no longer an issue. When I hade very little money coming in, I spent very little and I did my best to avoid debt because I knew how difficult it would be to pay back debt with so little money coming in. Unfortunately, the lessons I learned as a frugal freelancer did not carry over when I moved to a full time income. I have acquired debts and spent money on items I never would have considered when I had less income. Financially, there are still sustainability issues in my life.

Can you weather a crisis financially?

One of the key improvements that a full time job has provided, is insurance. As a web publisher and freelancer, I lived without it. If I had gone through even a minor medical emergency, it would have crushed me financially. Now, I have a job with paid time off and good health insurance as well as short and long term disability insurance. I can handle a minor or even a substantial health emergency.

Can you save for your future?

Another advantage of my current situation is that I now have retirement savings. I have access to a 401k, a pension program and even a profit-sharing program. Saving for the short term has been a problem for me, but saving for the long-term has been somewhat better because of all of these programs. There are similar steps that freelancers can take, but it is more difficult.

It isn’t about career choice, it is about career development

It may sound as if I am knocking my career as a freelancer. I am not. Being a freelancer was not the central problem that I had. The central issue was one of income. I did not take the steps that would have added to my income and helped me save for emergencies or get insurance. Had I run my career more wisely then, I may never have needed to move to a “more secure” job.

Next time I’ll look into some of the ways that you can make your career more financially sustainable.