Finance Archives – Freelancelifemagazine

Get rid of unnecessary freelance costs this way

Freelance Team — Fri, 24 Jun 2022 15:43:07 +0000

Most freelancers rush to find more clients and work once their budget becomes tight. Yet, that’s not always the best solution for getting rid of extra costs in life. We are bringing new ideas that can help every freelancer improve their budget and manage it in a professional manner.

All freelancers must take proper care of their budget, balances, and invoices

Since you are an online self-employed businessman, that means how you should constantly track all your money – from where it comes, how fast it comes, how fast it goes, and how often it comes. It’s no secret that being a freelancer means that you should also do bookkeeper’s work – don’t neglect it because it can save you a lot of hard-earned money.

Freelancers should be very careful about missed invoices, unnecessary subscriptions, and other expenses. Be sure to track for at least one month where your money goes – and especially where it goes online.

New freelancers usually spend a lot of money on different products and services

As a freelancer, ask yourself if you truly need all those advanced tools for your online business. Most often, new freelancers believe that different paid products and services will help them build their remote careers. Some are probably useful, some aren’t – be sure to inspect and react. Check if you can switch to cheaper services as well.

A lot of remote workers spend too much money on co-working spaces

Shared offices may sound attractive to a great number of freelancers, but are those worth the pay? If you can actually work from home, it’s a better idea to create your own workspace. If you don’t have enough space to work from home, check your local cafes and coffee shops. Freelancers definitely need to learn how to use local resources in the best possible manner.

If you are still not good at managing your income as a freelancer, professional financial advice may also save you a lot, by helping you learn smart finance management strategies.

Full article at freelancercorner.co.uk.

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Best investment tips and tricks for freelancers and remote workers

Freelance Team — Wed, 18 May 2022 13:58:30 +0000

It’s no secret that many freelancers don’t have fixed incomes, especially those who are truly freelancing and are not tied to an employer. Besides that, there may come times when a freelancer doesn’t have enough work, so they don’t even cover regular living expenses. The conclusion is clear – freelancers must learn how to save and invest, and this is how to do it:

Freelancers should minimize their expenses and set automatic payments

The first thing every freelancer should do is to create a separate account from their business one, which leads to decreased spending. Tracking all expenses for at least one month can easily show what expenses were not necessary, and where the money goes – but it shouldn’t. Another good piece of advice is to set automatic payments. This is very important for certain bills that can’t stay unpaid, as well as for savings – no matter how small.

Getting rid of debts

There are no smart savings when someone is in debt, no matter a freelancer or not. Yet, with freelancing, you should be even more aware of what debts bring. Rank your loans by the total interest that is required to pay back. Once the debt is paid, and your automatic payments are set, a freelancer should focus on basic life needs.

Freelancers should think about other sources of income as well

Reaching financial stability with freelancing is simple when you have another source of income, no matter how small. Think about investing in a certain hobby or doing some regular part-time jobs. Once a freelancer achieves this, they can start thinking about creating an emergency fund – it’s not hard to make one once you have two sources of income.

Yonkerstribune.com claims that it’s a good idea to think about investing in mutual funds, especially if you are a freelancer. A Systematic Transfer Plan can help freelancers leverage the income from debt. This also creates a great plan for everyone who is thinking and saving for retirement.

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Lili.co – the go-to banking service for freelancers

Stanislava Tsvetanova — Sat, 23 Apr 2022 11:22:08 +0000

Being a freelancer, or a self-employed person, means you have to manage your own financial situation. Managing income that has its high and low periods, keeping money for predictable and unpredictable expenses, and allotting money for taxes – it can be a really challenging task to manage all of that!

Lili.co is designed to offer help for freelancers in navigating their finances in a safe and carefree manner. Let’s dive into some of the characteristics of the app.

What is Lili.co?

It is a mobile-only digital banking service skillfully crafted as help for freelancers. The fintech company was founded in November 2018 and it is officially based in New York City. However you will not find lili.co bank building made of bricks anywhere in the world, it is entirely online-based service. Its founders are Lilac Bar David and Liran Zelkha, and they have raised more than 25 million dollars with the project.

Lili.co comes under the form of an app, so here is the first heads-up for those used to using a desktop in managing their banking service – if you feel uncomfortable switching to a mobile-only financial service, maybe you should consider other options, and not lili.co.

Also, this app is designed for freelancers and small business owners only. Upon your signup, you will be asked if you fall into one of these two categories. If the answer is no, the app will inform you that its service is not for you. If the answer is yes, you can proceed to create your account on the Lili.co platform.

Account ownership and debit card

The account is free of charge with no hidden costs or minimum balance. Also, you get FDIC insurance on your funds up to 250,000$ thanks to Lili.co’s partnership with Choice Financial Group. Like the other banks, Lili.co provides a routing number so that clients can deposit funds on your account. What is outstanding with Lili.co, is that these transfers are delivered very speedily. Customers report a delivery that is up to 2 days faster than a traditional bank.

Along with the account, you will receive also a VISA Business debit card within 10 business days, which will allow you to withdraw funds free of charge from network ATMs. From the mobile app, you can freeze or unfreeze the debit card.

Once you get your card, you can set your PIN code and also set it as a default payment card for services such as Apple Pay.

The first advantage of using the Lili.co service is that Lili charges no monthly fees, and no transfer fees. No return checks expenses, and you are not required to have a minimum balance on the app. There are some fees associated with using out-of-network ATMs and that is $2.5 in the US, on top of what the ATM itself charges you. If you are traveling, these fees will rise to up to 5 USD. However, Lili has more than 33 000 network ATMs in the US. So you are located there, you will need to put some effort into finding an ATM that will charge you.

Lili divides all expenses into categories

When you make purchases with the card, it allows you to categorize your purchases into a specific category. The app has made it very straightforward – you can divide the Life or Work purchases by simply swiping in one direction or the other. You can also select to view more categories to put your expense into a more specific category.

If you put in the effort to mark your business purchases – this will allow the app to generate very accurate quarterly reports of your expenses which can be exported as PDF, CSV or Excel formats and emailed to yourself to be viewed on desktop or handled to your bookkeeping service person.

Manage taxes effortlessly

Lili also splits your funds into buckets for you. Sometimes, when you first start freelancing, setting aside a portion of your income for taxes is not very intuitive. Therefore lili.co can be very helpful in this regard because it can be set in a way to immediately allocate a portion of your income for taxes. This feature of the app is called Tax Bucket. However, you should be mindful of the taxes you owe and set the percentage put aside in a manner it allows you to cover your taxes on a monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis. If you become aware that for some reason there are more funds than needed in your Tax Bucket, you can transfer them out of it any time. And the same is valid also for the other way around! The money in your Tax Bucket won’t display as a part of your main balance, but just below it. It is a simple but very handy tool in managing the taxes and setting aside the required amount when the due date comes around.

Lili makes the habit of saving money easier

Lili also has a feature that is called Emergency bucket. There you can allocate funds for some unforeseen circumstances in life as downtime at work or a period of sickness. This bucket will stay out of sight until you need it. You can also transfer anytime money into your Emergency bucket. This can make saving money a consistent part of your life and make you build this extremely useful habit for freelancers, in case you don’t already have it.

Lili.co has also thought of a way for you to deposit cash – you can do that at certain retailers. And although Lili does not charge any money for the deposit, the retailer does, but it is never more than 4.95USD.

One drawback of the app is reported to be the mobile check deposits. And while the feature is there, you still need to have a minimum amount of $200 in order to access it.

Thanks to some well-thought features, Lili could make life so much easier for self-employed people like freelancers and small business owners in relation to personal finances. However, to make the most out of their service, you should make Lili.co your main banking account for income and withdrawals, and expenses.

Pros

Divides the expenses into Life and Work
Automatically allocates a percentage for Taxes
Makes saving money easier with the Emergency Bucket
No taxes and fees for the account, withdrawal, or transfer
Fast delivery of transfers
Generates reports useful in bookkeeping
Debit card with free-free withdrawal at network ATMs

Cons

To use its full potential Lili.co will need to be your primary banking account
Cash deposits can cost up to 4.95USD
Out of network withdrawals can cost up to 2,50USD
Out of US withdrawals can cost up to 5USD
The service is unavailable on desktop – but only on a mobile device

You need to have at least 200$ to use mobile check deposits

Lili Pro

Lili Pro is a version of the lili.co app that is subscription based and offers some additional features. Some of them include

Cashback rewards at more than 14,000 merchants
Savings account with up to 1% APY
Invoicing for your account without any limits or restrictions
Overdraft up to $200, free of charge
Advanced features for the tracking of your expenses

Lili Pro comes at a subscription of $4.99 per month.

Disclaimer: Freelance Life Magazine is not affiliated to the Lili.co. This review is the result of honest opinion.

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