Money Management

Freelancing requires a lot of discipline to make sure you’re working enough. But find out what happens when you lean too far in the other direction. [[{“value”:”

The perks of freelancing have been written about in great detail. No more commuting! Set your own schedule! Wear lounge pants all day! These and many other perks make the pros column for freelancing long and enticing, but there are plenty of cons to keep in mind, too. Fluctuating income, no health benefits, and more complicated taxes are just a few downsides that keep the list balanced.

I’ve been freelancing for more than five years now, and I feel like I have a fairly good handle on things at this point. But there’s still one mental hurdle I struggle with every day.

Taking time off when you don’t actually clock in or out

A few months after I started freelancing, I set up a budget so I could track my income and expenses and see how they lined up. As the months and projects went by, I was able to get a more accurate picture of what my average hourly rate was for all the clients I worked with. This was great for helping me project what my annual “salary” would be as a freelancer, but it also had a negative effect: Now I knew exactly how much my working time was worth, and I couldn’t stop thinking about my downtime in these terms.

If I needed to bring my car in to get serviced, I was going to be down $60. If I wanted to take a summer afternoon off and go to the lake, I’d lose out on $150. I got so focused on counting my time this way that I was cutting my morning workouts shorter or eating my lunch faster because I’d calculated how much those extra 10 minutes of work would be worth.

As a freelancer, it’s true that you can generally take time off whenever you want to, but it comes at a literal cost since you don’t have an employer covering your paid vacation or sick days. Any time you’re not working is time you’re not making money, which can be a scary thing when you don’t always know when your next paycheck will come in or how big it will be.

The importance of work-life balance

I’ve never been a very career-first type of person, and I’m a big believer in taking all the vacation time owed to you at work. But when I started freelancing, I no longer had clearly delineated “vacation time” or “work time.” It was all just…time. Time that I could fill with as much or as little work as I liked. And I was slowly tipping the scales too much in one direction.

After a while, I had to take a step back and reprioritize. Yes, I wanted to earn as much as I could, but it was more important to me to rest, to take a day off just because, to enjoy my downtime without guilt. I have years of work still ahead of me before retirement; there’s no sense in burning out now.

Make freelancing work for you

A December 2023 study by Upwork found that 64 million Americans freelanced in 2023, which was 38% of the workforce and up by 4 million from the year prior. Clearly, freelancing is popular, and only getting more so.

If you’re a freelancer or are considering making the move, there are steps you can take to shore up your personal finances and give yourself a bit more peace of mind. Build up an emergency fund that can eventually cover three to six months of necessary expenses so you know you have a cushion to fall back on during any lean work months. And store that cash in a high-yield savings account so you can access it at any time, but it can grow at a steady rate until you need it. It’s also a good idea to invest any money you won’t need in the near time, whether in a brokerage account or retirement account, so you can set yourself up well in your later years.

While I still fall into the habit of seeing my time in dollar amounts, it helps to remind myself that I have plenty of savings and I’m investing for my future. It’s more important to take time for hobbies, adventures, and rest than to squeeze out a few more bucks from my day.

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Meal kit subscriptions are a great idea for some people. Keep reading to see what one writer found out about them when she got a free trial. [[{“value”:”

I love to cook — it’s one of my favorite hobbies. So when some friends of mine started using HelloFresh and offered me a trial coupon code for three free meals, I figured it was a chance to see what all the subscription kit fuss was about.

I’d never cooked from a kit before. Instead, I have a beloved set of cookbooks from my favorite TV cooking show (Good Eats, with venerable geek Alton Brown), and I also use the New York Times Cooking app. Both of these recipe sources, plus the internet at large, have been more than sufficient to help me track down new recipes to try and potentially add to my regular rotation.

I’m glad I got to try this popular meal kit service — my colleague Steven Porello recently detailed his own experience with HelloFresh. It works well for him, but unfortunately, HelloFresh was in no way a fit for my life. Here’s why.

I prefer batch cooking

The best thing about cooking, to me, is the leftovers. While I do cook one-off meals from time to time, the vast majority of my kitchen activities result in extra bits and bobs I can turn into additional meals. For example, I hosted brunch a few weeks ago, and the leftover sauteed mushrooms and shredded cheese became two more omelet meals for yours truly later that week. I also cook big batches of soup with the intent to stock my freezer with easy lunches for the coming weeks.

HelloFresh meals aren’t intended to generate leftovers — which makes sense, as the appeal of the service is a fresh and creative meal, not eating the same thing three days in a row. When you pick a plan, you can choose between a meal for two or four people. And yes, you could ostensibly opt for meals for four even if you’re only feeding two people, and then bank the leftovers. But don’t forget, you’ll still need to find time to eat those leftovers on top of making the new meals you’re receiving.

When I picked my three free meals, I had to really dig in to find options that would allow me to save the extra portion and ensure its quality. I ended up picking a pasta dish (fairly easy leftovers), a soup (very easy leftovers), and a salad — and I made the salad when I had a second person over to eat with me.

I like being the master of a few recipes

While I like trying new recipes, I can happily claim to be the master of a handful of “signature” ones that I make often, and I usually have the ingredients for them on hand (at least, nonperishable ones). My chicken chili has fans in three countries — ditto for the brownies I make from scratch. I am constantly testing and refining my favorite recipes, adding new ingredients and processes along the way. That chicken chili recipe has come a long way in the more than 10 years since I started making it!

HelloFresh puts a lot of time and effort into crafting new and exciting dishes. The company has chefs on staff tasked with creating and testing new recipes — the HelloFresh website says recipes are tested 200 times before being dispatched to the world. This is wonderful, and makes the service a good option for people who like to cook new dishes every week. Unfortunately, that’s not me. And as a side note, the meals I tried were pretty tasty — but they were so fussy to make! So many little packets to open and things to chop.

I have other ways to save on groceries

Along with batch cooking and making the same dishes frequently, I can save money on food in other ways. One big part of my grocery strategy the last year and a half or so has been to rely on a grocery rewards credit card. And since one of my personal mottos is “go big or go home,” I got a card that offers the top cash back rate on grocery purchases. Whipping this card out in the checkout lane leaves me with visions of high cash back dancing in my head.

I’m also a member of my neighborhood grocery store’s rewards program, and by paying attention to sales and stocking up on my usual buys when they’re cheaper, I can save money. I actually managed to shave $19 off a recent grocery run this way (and paid under $100 for a week’s worth of groceries — it’s been forever since I pulled that off). Meanwhile, HelloFresh’s most popular meal plan (three meals a week for two people) would have me paying more than $70 per week. For six meals.

RELATED: Best Budgeting Apps

Ultimately, I enjoy planning out my own meal situation for a given week and leaning on my favorite recipes, pantry, and freezer. HelloFresh offers a great product, but it wasn’t right for my personal finances or preferred cooking style. If you’re curious about it, I recommend asking a subscribed friend if they have a coupon code so you can try it out for yourself.

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An uptick in housing inventory is a good thing. But buying might still be a problem. Read on to learn more. [[{“value”:”

If you’ve been in the market for a home, you may, at this point, be extremely frustrated. And who could blame you?

Buyers today face the double whammy of elevated home prices and expensive borrowing rates from mortgage lenders. And while mortgages may get a bit less expensive to sign later on in 2024 as the Federal Reserve gears up to cut interest rates, there’s still the issue of higher home prices to contend with.

But a big reason home prices are so elevated is that there’s not a lot of inventory to choose from, which gives sellers an upper hand. And even though real estate inventory actually rose in January, there’s still a pretty major shortage of available homes overall.

Inventory remains sluggish

In January 2024, the inventory of unsold existing homes increased 2% from a month prior, reports the National Association of Realtors. The problem, though, is that even with that increase, the market is looking at just 1.01 million homes for sale, or the equivalent of a three-month supply.

It often takes a six-month supply of homes for there to be enough inventory to meet buyer demand. So clearly, even with an uptick, the market still lacks inventory.

And a big reason boils down to mortgage rates. Because it’s still an expensive time to put a mortgage in place, many existing homeowners aren’t budging. Rather, they’re staying where they are to hang on to the lower mortgage rates they currently have. So until mortgage rates come down to a notable degree, housing inventory is likely to remain stagnant.

How to navigate a real estate market with limited inventory

Limited real estate inventory is a clear challenge for buyers today in part because it’s driving home prices up. But one thing you may want to consider when searching for a home is adjusting some expectations and being open to a starter home.

Starter homes tend to be less spacious and updated. But they’re a great way to break into homeownership and get used to the work involved in owning a place of your own.

If you buy a starter home with the intent to stay for only five or six years, that gives you an opportunity to build up some equity in your home that might make it easier to upsize down the line, once borrowing for a home becomes more affordable and inventory opens up. If you’re set on buying a larger and more updated home in today’s market, you may end up in over your head financially.

Another thing you can try to do is negotiate with your seller if you’re a buyer with flexibility on when to move (such as if you have a month-to-month lease and your landlord is in no hurry to see you go). You may, for example, be able to get a buyer to lower their asking price if you’re willing to be flexible with your closing date to suit their needs.

As mortgage rates start to drop, housing inventory should start to open up. But we’re not there yet — not even close. So for now, your best bet may be to look at a starter home as an opportunity to get your feet wet and set yourself up for a more desirable property down the line.

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This credit card is not just good – it’s so exceptional that our experts use it personally. It features a lengthy 0% intro APR period, a cash back rate of up to 5%, and all somehow for no annual fee! Click here to read our full review for free and apply in just 2 minutes.

We’re firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers.
The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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