A guide to managing your finances as a UAE freelancer
Paying bills can be a challenge for those on an unpredictable income,
The UAE is the fourthbest country in the world to freelance in, according to a recent study by the UK business site Expert Market.
It ranked after Hong Kong, the United States and South Korea on a list of 57 countries, based on a scale weighing the cost of living, cost of starting a business, income tax rates, access to credit, average internet speed, transport networks, how widely free Wi-Fi was available and the cost of a coffee.
Despite the advantages, there is a real challenge freelancers face – how to balance their personal finances with an unpredictable income.
Steve Cronin, the founder of DeadSimpleSaving.com, which helps residents invest their money sensibly, says freelancers have to adopt an approach of managing their own one-person business knowing there is always a risk that people won’t pay or that you won’t charge properly for your time. “As a freelancer you hopefully don’t have high work-related expenses, but you most likely have lumpy or unpredictable sources of income,” he says.
“You have to manage your cash flow to make sure you can pay large expenses like rent.”
He recommends freelancers get familiar with Excel to track current and projected income and expenses, both for work and home. He also advises having at least three to six months’ worth of total expenses – including rent – in a bank account as an emergency buffer and trying to develop small, regular sources of income to offset the times you are waiting for payments from larger projects.
Once a sufficient savings buffer has been reached, he advises investing the rest, making sure the money is accessible in an emergency. Long-term savings plans are not advised, and freelancers need to be careful about tying their money up in
property, too, he says. Here, three freelancers in the UAE reveal how they manage their money:
Toni Malt, 41, a freelance make-up artist from Germany working in Dubai
When Ms Malt set up 10 years ago, she used to worry if too
many days went by without work. These days, with experience having shown that a big job is just around the corner, she has learnt to relax.
“As a freelancer, the rates are quite high,” she says. “And once you hit a multi-day advertising job, you’re fine.”
Ms Malt takes an unstructured approach to budgeting, bills
and saving: any extra money flows into the next month, her bills are always paid and she’s not on a mission to save, secure in the knowledge she has savings in Germany to fall back on.
With two dogs and nine rescue cats, her biggest variable is veterinary bills. Some months, she has spent Dh30,000 on her pets.
“Once a year I’ll do a budget, just to make sure I understand what I’m actually spending monthly, like dog food, vet visits and salaries for maids,” she says. “But during the year I don’t really watch out for it that much, because it always works out. I never get to a point where I run out of money.”
Ms Malt, who is opening her own make-up artistry school next month – Toni Malt Academy in Al Quoz – still faces the same late payment issues all freelancers do.
“Once you are in and you are rolling there’s always going to be money coming in somewhere,” she explains. “But then you might have some outstanding jobs that haven’t been paid for six to nine months.”
Paul Emous, 34, a freelance photographer from the Netherlands working in Dubai
Mr Emous says the first thing he did when he decided to work for himself nine
years ago was create an Excel spreadsheet and look at all his planned costs – housing fees twice a year, visa, business licence, health insurance, transportation, utilities – as well as any unplanned, such as car repairs. He then implemented a buffer, which he considers one of the most important tools for a freelancer having to cope with the ebb and flow of work.
“You need to plan a couple of months in advance and adjust the buffer for slower months and planned expenses,” he says.
Saving in the busy months for the slower times, and establishing a reserve for unexpected costs and late or absent payments – the scourge of freelancers everywhere – is key to riding out the uncertainty of not having a regular pay cheque.
Mr Emous, who established his own company, Mouse Media, and now employs three freelancers, tends to invest in new technology whenever possible as a way to build his business and offer existing clients the best service. He is prone to giving discounts as an incentive for clients to pay within the month, which helps him to handle bigger jobs with more upfront costs.
Mr Emous does try to plan for the future, with an eye to investing in property in Europe, but he has expensive hobbies, such as diving, cave exploring, quad biking, skydiving and travelling, which eat into his income.
“Of course the future is important, trust me. I have a girlfriend, we’re really serious and we are planning for the future,” he says. “But at the same time, people forget that they live today and God forbid if you get hit by a bus, can you say that you were happy with the stuff that you did?”
Evelyn Hester-Wyne, 38, a freelance director/producer from Ireland working in Dubai
After six years in Dubai directing and producing – she recently made a one-hour documentary about Global Village for Nat Geo – Ms Hester-Wyne has learned that to function as a freelancer means being very organised and also very flexible. The organisation comes in making sure the business she formed with her emcee/content producer husband Hisham Wyne is fully compliant with UAE laws – including the VAT introduced this year – while the flexibility involves being able to cope when payments are late rolling in. “You fall behind of course,” she says.
“So you need to behave as a saver who’s paid monthly when in fact you are a freelancer who is not paid monthly.”
Ms Hester-Wyne alternates between being hired to head up projects or being asked to join a team.
That means she sometimes borrows money to fill gaps in being paid, or has large sums in her bank account that have already been allocated to debts and other needs.
“She detests having to keep other freelancers waiting because she hasn’t been paid for the job she hired them for.
“It’s bad enough waiting for payments for myself,” she says. The couple have twins, four-year-old Bernadette and Edith, so school fees are an ongoing concern.
“Believe me, there are many nights where I sit bolt upright and say ‘how are we going to get those school fees paid?’,” she says.
The couple, who have hired a bookkeeper to make sure that they are on top of their VAT requirements and their files are in order, haven’t taken a real vacation since their children were born.
Ms Hester-Wyne is adamant about not paying full price for their staycations or entertainment, either, seeking out whatever vouchers and twofor-one deals she can find.
“I would never do anything unless it has a voucher,” she says.
“I absolutely refuse to pay full price for anything, especially because there are so many good deals around.”