Savings Makes It Easier To Stand Your Ground On Writing Fees

(www.thegoldenpencil.com)

The other day a writing buddy of mine called. He was tempted to take a writing gig that paid way less than half of what she normally gets. True, it was a rather unique opportunity with a major trade publisher. If he did this job well he’d have an excellent contact which might lead to more lucrative work in the future. It wasn’t, however, a book, nor did it earn royalties. In my mind, the “might lead to more lucrative work” some day, some time down the road is, well, most often futile.

We’re close so I asked him what was really up. It turned out he was feeling cash poor. I asked if he had any savings, and he said he did, but he didn’t want to dip into them.

I understand not wanting to spend savings – it’s hard enough to get the money saved and horrid to see it disappear. I finally realized, however, that I have to have a savings account I’m willing to use to smooth out the ups and downs of my freelance writing income. Once I opened a savings account (I use Ingdirect.com) that I created just to smooth income I no longer worried as much when I had to use it for that. After all, I earned a bit of interest and often found I didn’t have to use it right away. I call it my Prudent Reserve account.

It took awhile to build it up to the point it actually helps fill in dips in income, but once it was big enough to do so, it made my life and my pricing so much easier. Now I rarely feel pressured to under price myself.

Of course, my Prudent Reserve account isn’t my only savings. I regularly put 12% in a retirement account and a tax savings account as well. I don’t always manage to stick with these percentages, but often enough so it works.

What I hadn’t anticipated is how secure that savings account would make me feel when I was setting prices. Because of that account, I’m free to turn down poorly paying work, or work I simply wouldn’t like. That’s freelance freedom.

Write, and save, well and often,

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