Going 1099 is a book that teaches you how to become a solo federal sub-contractor and gain control of your working life, earn more money and unlock more free time. I wrote it because quite a few people have asked me how they can become a 1099. I figured it was best to write a single book that I can send them and that I can share with others who are interested. This newsletter goes out Monday - Friday and covers topics that will help you succeed in starting and maintaining successful 1099 career.
Checking account buffers
Once you go 1099, your income becomes a little more variable. I say a little more because in the federal space, your work is pretty consistent and likely near full time. But, there are months where you take a vacation and that means you'll get paid maybe 50% less than a normal full time month. If you normally get paid $20,000/month and you take a two week vacation, you'll get paid $10,000. This is not a big deal overall, but if your expenses stay constant and say they exceed $10,000, you will have to transfer in money from savings or elsewhere to cover the difference. I used to do this early on in my 1099 career, but it became annoying to do it because some months I'd save say $10,000 but then another month I'd have to transfer $5,000 out of savings back into checking. It made it hard to get the big picture of my finances and plan for investments, savings, etc. A few years ago I took a page out of Ramit Sethi's personal finance automation system and just stuck approximately two months worth of expenses in my checking account and then automated everything. This way I didn't have to worry about "having" enough in the account if my pay fluctuated. The average balance remained about the same. I recommend you do the same. It will lower your administrative overhead and you focus more on enjoying your life. If you're interested in learning how to get your first solo 1099 federal sub-contract, check out my book: |
I'm Dale, the author of Going 1099
Going 1099 is a book that teaches you how to become a solo federal sub-contractor and gain control of your working life, earn more money and unlock more free time. I wrote it because quite a few people have asked me how they can become a 1099. I figured it was best to write a single book that I can send them and that I can share with others who are interested. This newsletter goes out Monday - Friday and covers topics that will help you succeed in starting and maintaining successful 1099 career.
My approach to short term gigsSource One of the reasons a prime may want to bring on a 1099 is because they have a vacancy on a contract that is ending in less than six months or sooner. Taking on a full time employee may be risky if the contract doesn't get extended or if they lose the re-compete, so bringing on a 1099 is a good compromise. The question is, should you take a short term gig? Here are a few factors I'd consider: If the contract ends and you're out of a job/gig, how easily...
A valuable new skill to add to the resumeSource If you're good at what you do, you probably realized that you can do your job in far less than forty hours per week. The problem is as a W2 employee, you probably have lots of non core tasks to do (meetings, proposal work, etc.). But when you go 1099, you're just expected to do the core job. There is no manager to hover over you and give you extra stuff, so you find yourself with all this free time, even if you still have to be on site with the...
New 1099s as they make their estimated tax paymentSource Many people are under the assumption that if they work for themselves, they can write off all their normal life expenses as "business" expenses. This is not true, and is in fact illegal. You can't write off your weekly Costco run or your kid's birthday party bounce house as a business expense just because you thought about work for a minute during those times. Really, you should have pretty minimal expenses as a 1099. Here are some...