Do You Earn a Full-Time Income from Home?
August 5, 2009 by Lorna Doone Brewer
Filed under Fun Stuff
I’m writing today because of a comment left here by Carol Tice. First of all, I’d like to thank her and everyone else who has been commenting on and Tweeting my posts, as my self-esteem and self-worth are directly related to these things. 
Carol wrote (albeit, to Deb) in response to The Glamorous Life of the Freelance Writer:
“I think you need to raise your rates…you’re always blogging about your insanely long hours. I have 3 kids and I work about 30 hours a week and make a very fulltime living, mostly just during their school hours. Remember, one day that afternoon nap will be gone too…you need to work smarter!”
This has left me pondering the phrase “full-time income” for the past several days. How many work from home scams opportunities have you seen advertised that promise you’ll earn a full-time income for a few hours’ worth of work? Not only that, but I’ve noticed that tons of freelance writers talk about whether or not they earn a full-time income from home. (Ha, ha. I just realize that I’ve accidentally optimized this post for the phrase “earn a full-time income.” I guess that’s just an occupational hazard for someone who writes as much SEO stuff as I do.)
That led me to question what exactly constitutes a full-time income. My husband was less than helpful when I posed the question to him answering, “Well, I guess everyone would have a different answer.” Oh, how enlightening, Dear. I figure there must be some kind of benchmark, since so many freelancers and work from home types are basing their decision to leave their “real world” jobs on this mysterious number.
I currently work from home in Washington State, where the minimum wage is (I believe) the highest in the nation at $8.55 per hour. That means that the minimum “full-time income” earned in Washington would be $17,784 per year, $1,482 per month, $342.00 per week, or $68.40 per day. This is based on a five-day week at forty hours and is figured without withholding any taxes or social security.
Of course, many of us would expect to make more than minimum wage. Personally, I have a Bachelor’s Degree and a Master’s Degree, which theoretically means that I should have a “professional” job that pays more, right? Does that mean that a full-time income is really higher than that $1,482 per month? What if lived in Kansas where the minimum wage is—get this—$2.65 per hour? (It’s supposed to go up to $7.25 next year.) In that case, $459.33 monthly would mean I could earn a full-time income from home. Of course, I’d quickly lose that home to foreclosure.
Remember how I said that my self-worth is based on the comments and Tweets I receive? This is where I slyly ask for your opinion so you’ll interact with me and validate my existence. Actually, I am really interested in what you all think. What constitutes a full-time income, in your opinion?
In my case, a full-time income is one that meets or exceeds the amount I would make working outside of the home teaching. Thankfully, I do make a full-time income writing even though I work less hours than when I taught. But honestly? It is not nearly as fun as teaching, and when my toddler gets older, I will be back in the classroom!
To me a full time income is what I can live comfortably off of, i.e. pay my mortgage, bills and save a little. Of course, everyone wants to make more, but I know my bottom line and when I meet that I consider that a full time income.
Somehow I stumbled across the fact that my writing income for last year just barely exceeded the poverty level for a family of two. I guess that counts as a full time income under some definition. I decided to call it a success, anyway.
I consider a full-time income to be one of 2 things.
1) The going rate of full-time jobs in the industry in my area. In Southern California, that would mean somewhere in the vicinity of about $33K – $50K for 40 hrs of work.
2) The amount I need to maintain my lifestyle in my area. In SoCal, that would be for me no less than $50K.
I am very lucky and proud to say that I exceed both of those standards and work about a 40 hr week. I’d say after expenses and factoring in for lack of benefits paid/vacation, I make about $60K – $70K pre-tax. That’s definitely a full-time income in my book! So much so that it has kept me out of the job search game for almost 3 years now.
I feel lucky and hope it keeps up!
I guess I think your husband is exactly right. For me, a FT income would be roughly equivalent to what I was making when I quit my FT job, or about $65K. I quit that because a) I’d always wanted to freelance, b) my kids needed one of their parents home more, and c) I was willing to sacrifice income for more time off and more flexibility.
Since then (about 11 years ago), I’ve been able to supplement my husband’s FT income with anywhere from $25K to $45K per year as a freelancer working only PT hours–except for the terrible 10 months of virtual unemployment I had recently during the recession.
I guess I also kind of agree with Carol, that if you’re working insane hours to make a living, you might want to consider raising your rates or taking other steps to maintain or raise your income while lowering your time commitment. Who wants to work insane hours? Not me. It defeats the purpose of freelance writing, or at least one of the primary purposes.
Hi Lorna!
Wow the minimum wage in Kansas is only $2.56? I thought federal minimum wage was higher than that. (I learn something every day.)
Personally, I try to have a policy of treating myself at least as well as a company would treat me. To me that means earning a decent portion of the income (I’m part of a two-earner household), working sustainable hours, taking breaks from time to time, and (recently) upgrading my equipment or investing in training from time to time.
You make a point when you say that everyone would answer this question differently because I think that you’re right. There may even be places in the world where $2.65 per hour would seem high. Not only would they answer it differently, but some people are only trying to earn a “little extra” each month.
Personally, I just try to focus on improving myself and helping others when I can, but not becoming too worried about what others do.
Good topic.
In my case there are a few considerations.
One: could I find another job that pays so well that I would make more money after spending a fortune on clothes, gas, and babysitting? (of course, getting benefits would also be a huge plust!)
Two: could I find another job that I would enjoy as much as the job I’m doing? (most places don’t want versatile writers: they want PR writers, or marketing writers, or ad writers — which can get very dull very fast).
Three: what is my freedom worth to me? this is a tough one: it changes every day. Sometimes the idea of a steady paycheck and benefits is more attractive than the ability to go on my daughter’s field trips… sometimes not so much.
Bottom line, though, minimum wage won’t cut it, no matter how you slice it. My present income varies from year to year, but it is always at least several times more than that minimum, even in lean times.
Lisa
Thanks for the input, ladies. It seems that we’re all pretty much talking about different amounts, but no one is gauging by what the minimum wage is. Very interesting!
Sure, I could make more if I worked at a full-time job. But there’s this funny thing called a recession going on, and those full-time writing jobs seem to be fairly sparse.
That said, I try to only take on assignments that are worth my time and the amount I’ll get paid for them. Some months are better than others…
I think earning at least as much as your area’s minimum wage at 40 hours per week at 52 weeks per year would constitute a full-time income. For people who do not work from home — that is the baseline earnings for full-time employment.
Well, I just stumbled onto this poking around the freelancewritinggigs site…and I’m very flattered to have inspired a blog thread! (Which I’ve now retweeted, of course!)
My point in raising the issue is that in general, I think freelance writers tend to think in terms of eking out a living. Ooh, if I can just manage to make $20,000 a year, wouldn’t it be wonderful?
Meanwhile, there’s an alternative universe where really motivated, efficient, excellent writers are making four or five times that. We’re making really good livings. Like, I took my family of five on an Alaska cruise a couple summers ago with what I made from just one copywriting client. I make more now than I did as a fulltime reporter.
There seems to be an assumption that freelancing means making less — that you must trade lots of income for the freedom you get. But in my experience, that’s only true if you think it is.
I encourage the writers I mentor to envision how to make a really comfortable living with their work, how to mix in some really high-paying work to enable them to also write lower-paying work they may really love, while not living on bean burritos. I’m definitely a fan of Peter Bowerman and The Well-Fed Writer (http://www.wellfedwriter.com) and share his philosophy that being a freelancer does NOT have to mean starving.
I think the content mills have really encouraged the poverty mindset. But if you change your mindset to an abundance mindset, there is sooo much good-paying writing work out there. I made more than $6,000 in a week earlier this year on just one rush project.
I’ll give you a great example: I had a large client I was billing at $85 an hour. At the end of 2007, I was encouraged by other freelance-writer friends to ask for a raise to $95. I got some resistance, but they went for it — and wow was I glad! I later learned most of their other writers got $125 so I was still a deal…and of course shortly afterward the economy went down and it would have been impossible to ask for a raise at that point. But believing in myself there probably meant an extra $10,000 or so I earned over the course of the next couple years, for doing the very same thing I was before. If I had a poverty mindset, I’d still be earning my old wage, working more hours to get to the same place.
I do still have a couple mentoring slots open for September if anyone would like to learn more about making a really good living freelance writing. I only take 3 mentees a month max.
Carol Tice
http://www.caroltice.com
http://Twitter.com/TiceWrites
Carol, that’s very inspiring! Sometimes I think I undercharge clients because I think, oh, they won’t pay that, or I’ll never get that. I think I need to change my mindset.