• Home
  • Reviews Index
  • Best Gear
  • Inspiration
  • Learn
  • Disclaimer
  • Staff/Contact Info
  • Media Kit
  • Membership
Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Photography Culture

Realistic Advice for the Freelancer: Photography Can be a Grim Business

Chris Gampat
No Comments
03/20/2019
2 Mins read
Pauleth Ip / The Phoblographer

A recent thread on Reddit traced that professional creatives often have a pretty tough time.

If I were to go back in time and give any sort of advice to my younger self when I first quit my day job to run The Phoblographer full time, it would have involved a whole lot about money and personal health. Luckily, I don’t seem to be alone as a recent Reddit thread echoed the sentiments of many other freelancers in the US. For all of us, it seems very grim because of how our system works. And in general, it’s easy to say that a lot of us are often pretty scared of the things that those with full time jobs don’t even think about yet complain about to their higher ups pretty often.

To clarify, I’m not a freelancer. I own my own company–but so do many other freelancers. The way that the Phoblographer works though is sort of like I am a freelancer with sub-contracts to other freelancers. It’s because I’m the sole partner.

 

So what can you get from the jist of this thread:

  • It’s imperative to have a Roth 401K. That way, you can put away money that won’t be taxed otherwise. The way that US taxes work for freelancers (in layman’s terms) and small business owners that don’t have a corporation is that you can write off a ton of expenses. After those expenses are calculated, you get your profits. Then you incorporate state tax, city tax, federal tax, and self-employment tax. For those of us in NYC, it’s around 47% of our “profits.” But what that often ends up being is the money that we’re actually using to live. So if you only profited $30,000 or so you can expect to be forking over maybe $15,000 overall. In that case, it’s best to put yourself on a payment plan with the IRS.
  • Healthcare insurance is expensive. I personally pay almost $700/month and don’t have a top of the line healthcare option.
  • You need insurance for other things too, like your business or gear
  • If you’re under 26, you can use your parent’s insurance
  • Basically, don’t do anything stupid that is going to put you in the hospital with a ton of medical bills and that won’t allow you to not work.
  • You pretty much should just marry someone with these benefits.

The thread has a number of other pretty awesome hacks; but do keep in mind that a lot of things are really difficult in the freelance life.

company freelancer healthcare insurance reddit roth 401k
Shares
Written by

Chris Gampat

Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
Previous Post

Social Media: A Photographer’s Curse and Why I Chose to Break Free

Next Post

Cheap Photo: We’re Saving You a Ton of Money on Education and Presets

The Phoblographer © 2023 ——Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
  • Home
  • Our Staff
  • Editorial Policies
  • Media Kit
  • Membership
  • App Debug