From The Blog...
Hit the Easy Button on your Money
Ah January – the month where every retailer pushes deals on their storage and organization products after the mayhem of Christmas gifts and decorations. I’m
Get Ready For Monday Money Moves
I’m a huge fan of small, consistent moves that keep me organized and moving forward. Given that we all have dozens of things vying for
To Budget, Or NOT To Budget
Are you a budgeting minimalist? Because I am! So if “budget” is just a nasty B-word to you, here’s the most painless way to go about it.
Welcome to the Solopreneur Cafe!
You found a great little corner to set up with your laptop and coffee to sift through your freelancer finances. I’m Katie McCarthy, your “near peer” – which means I’ve floundered, made mistakes, and found my way to some great methods and resources to help other solopreneurs get out of those weeds. I’ve been self-employed since 2003 and became active in the personal finance community in 2008. I’m not here to promise you a 6-figure income, but I can show you how to get more from your 5 figures than you currently think is possible.
Coffee Break At The Solopreneur Cafe
Personal finance and budgeting when you’re self-employed don’t fit nicely into the 50-20-30 system or any other popularized method you’ve come across. We need our own way to manage our goals and responsibilities, so I’ve established the virtual Solopreneur Cafe to take the headaches out of that. Like you, I’m not an accountant or a bookkeeper or a financial advisor, but I wear all of those hats in my own ventures. Fun, right? *Eye roll*. And then there’s all the other money stuff you need to think about from time to time, and you might not even know what that should be. It’s a lot, but it’s very doable and, around these parts, will not be a drudge. Just grab a cup of your favorite freelancer fuel, and let’s do this!
Finance Fun
No 10-module foundation course here - we've got challenges and coffee chats that won't overwhelm.
Plus snazzy spreadsheets and printables if you're into those!
Podcast
Every Monday a 10-minute podcast drops for everyone's edu-tainment. A practical tip, new trend or burning question will be explored. You can find 10 minutes, right?
Community
Our private Facebook group gives you access to the "hive wisdom" and experience of your fellow solopreneurs - and me! I'm very engaged, always happy to help.
Lappy Hour
Every week, we'll hang out on Zoom and hash over that week's podcast and any other hot topics that have cropped up in the group. This is not a lecture - you participate too 🙂
The Important Stuff
- From Little Silver, NJ
- The one thing I hate about living in the desert: no rainstorms!
- I have dual citizenship (UK), which was way more awesome before Brexit!
- Tea drinker all my live, drank coffee 2006-2021, now it’s caffeinated hot chocolate (yes, it’s a thing!).
A Bit About Katie, Your Freelance Finance Guide
Money is a tricky subject to bring up with most people, especially if you’ve grown up in a family that treated it as taboo. I too was taught not to ask about money stuff, but I was too curious about it to follow that rule. That’s probably how I’ve ended up as the go-to money person in my circle of family and friends – what credit card should I get, is this a good deal, where can I get a better interest rate, what should I do about all this credit card debt, what do you think about crypto.
Now I’m going to tell you something really unsexy about me – I’ve never made more than 5-figures. In today’s online hustle culture where it’s all about 6 figures, I’ve never even come particularly close. And yet, I had Wall Street bankers asking if I was financially independent because I never set an alarm clock, had a great apartment in midtown Manhattan, and took frequent exotic trips. And they didn’t even know that I was also socking money away in a Roth IRA, saving for a rainy day, carrying no consumer debt, and other responsible stuff.
So I’m not here to offer advice on how to make more money – that is not my superpower. But getting a lot of mileage out of what you earn, well, that is. So let’s get your freelance finances organized and maximized!
Is the solopreneur Cafe for you?
If you find yourself answering YES to most of these questions, you’ll get a lot out of becoming a member of the Solopreneur Cafe:
- Are you self-employed, a side hustler, a freelancer, a gig worker – in other words, a big chunk of your income is unpredictable?
- Is April 15th the only day of the year you know where you stand financially?
- Do your eyes glaze over when you hear about the “shoulds” like emergency fund, assorted insurances, quarterly estimated taxes, retirement accounts?
- When you’ve had a good month, are you not quite sure what to do with the “extra” money?
- Do big expenses make you nervous because you’re not really sure if you can afford them?
- Is your relationship with spreadsheets “love-hate”, but mostly hate?
Oh, there's a lot of opportunities, if you know when to take them... You know there's a lot of opportunities, if there aren't, you can make them