Working For Yourself Means Freedom — But It Doesn’t Come Free
Perhaps the greatest advantage of hanging out your own shingle or making that consulting business full-time is the independence that comes with being your own boss. But higher expenses and other costs come along with your newfound liberty. You may not be able to sock away as much pretax for retirement, and you may have trouble refinancing your mortgage. Your higher tax bills may shock you, too.
All in all, if you go out on your own, you may need to bring in up to 20% more than before just to break even, especially if you can’t piggyback on your spouse’s health insurance, says David Strege, a financial planner in West Des Moines, Iowa.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. There are few more gratifying accomplishments than making it on your own. But here’s what you should keep in mind as you figure out what to charge for your work and how to budget for your future.
As an employee, you will pay 6.2% of your earnings (up to $106,800 this year) for Social Security and 1.45% of your income (with no limits) for Medicare, while your employer will pay an equal amount. But when you say goodbye to the Man, you will pay the whole 15.3%.
The good news is that the taxes apply only after you deduct your expenses, and your “employer” half is deductible from your federal taxes. But if your expenses aren’t especially high, your total tax costs will go up.
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Sahail on July 2nd, 2009 2:24 pm
Like what you guys do, but dispute the necessity of this WSJ article. A true entrepreneur wouldn’t give a fig about extra costs. They will be too pleased about losing ‘the man’. You show me a home business success who frets about extra tax and I’ll eat my hat (I’ll buy one, just in case).
Anyone else agree/disagree?
RedHotFranchises on July 2nd, 2009 6:21 pm
It does take a lot of responsibility to be self-employed, It’s best to spend a few hours per day building your start-up business while on a full-time job. Once your system is in motion, pull out all the stops, take a leap and don’t look back.
Jaclyn on July 6th, 2009 8:45 am
In business whether working for “the man” or working for yourself, there will be sacrifices to be made…there is no way to avoid that. Anyone who thinks working for themselves has no sacrifices to make…they are lying to themselves because it is never going to be the case. The only difference is making sacrifices while working for someone else always seems to be a little bit harder to swallow at the end of the day versus making these sacrifices for you and only you.
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