The Freelancer’s Guide To Finance

Freelancing offers independence, but it has its own share of challenges. How do you bring structure to your unpredictable finances?

Back-to-back pandemic years and a subsequent funding winter have changed the way the world looks at freelancing. As the world’s biggest employers downsize their workforce, and managements get even more inflexible, an increasing number of white-collar workers are taking the freelance route.

According to the 2022 Freelance Forward report released by freelance platform Upwork last week, the number of Americans who freelanced this year rose to a record 60 million, or 39% of the total workforce. Two in five Gen Z professionals freelanced this year, a trend that is mirrored globally.

To outsiders—the 9-to-5 office people, that is—it might look …