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Self-Employment

July 16th, 2013 at 04:48 pm

The economy is still pretty slow for construction and building here so I don't have that "one big project" which will keep me going for a year or two. I'd come to sort of expect that type of project... about $3 million construction cost with a two year timeline from design through construction.

Still - I'm happy that I do have work, even if it's smaller projects (but more of them).

Right now:
- just got a fire station renovation/addition - our kickoff meeting is Thursday! - about $350,000 construction cost
- finishing up construction on two other fire stations
- did a little bit of work for the Community Art Gallery - about $500 fee - need to bill this at the end of the month
- picked up some work for a local hotel - today I am doing a history display for them (it's a historic hotel)

And of course I'm always looking for more work!

I pay myself a steady wage from my business rather than just taking out money randomly, which helps me budget on a personal level and means that the business has money to pay me even when I'm not billing a lot (since the money stays in the business account). It's a small wage, and I also take a distribution. (Business income is reported on a Schedule K).

My husband reports on a schedule C (he's also self-employed) and he also moves a set amount each month from his business account to our personal account.

I wonder, though, if I'll ever feel comfortable giving myself a raise given the unsteady economy... I guess since we can live comfortably on what we pay ourselves, we don't need to worry about raises. It's just a morale thing.

Posted in Life among the Self-Employed | 3 Comments »

3 Responses to “Self-Employment”

  1. ThriftoRama Says:
    July 16th, 2013 at 08:24 pm 1374002649
    1374002649

    It's interesting to here someone else talk about self-employment. I am self-employed, but in journalism, so my projects and pay life are very different from yours! I have to accept the rates of the publications I work for, and frankly, those haven't gone up since 2000. It's pretty frustrating.

    I'm sure we still have some of the same issues, though, like self-employment taxes and retirement accounts. I also see we share the goal of paying off our only debt-- the house. We're at about $63k now.

  2. Buendia Says:
    July 16th, 2013 at 08:37 pm 1374003473
    1374003473

    Oh! My husband did some journalism (first the Irish Times in Dublin, but also some magazines here). The pay is not great, and I think he was frustrated, too. The pay in architecture hasn't gone up either and the work has dried up. A lot of my friends are exploring other options, but I've still got enough to keep me busy and a good reserve in the business. I feel like if I can wait it out I'll be here when things recover and the work comes back. I do a lot of renovation, and mostly government work. That has to pick up eventually, right? We can't let our public buildings fall into decay!

    Besides the self-employment taxes and retirement accounts (no pension!), there is the health insurance - ugh! That's the hardest one for me.

    Anyway, it's good to know you! Love that we share that goal of paying off the mortgage, too!

  3. Baby_nurse Says:
    July 17th, 2013 at 07:22 pm 1374085343
    1374085343

    My DH is self employed, but the money is too unpredictable to pay him a regular salary. Our choice has been to take his payments and sweep them in to savings and towards our debt while living off of my wages. Some day I'd like to be able to reverse that!

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