Contractor Financial Profile Calculator
Score your contractor finances – war-chest months, pension adequacy and protection gaps – benchmarked by day-rate band, with fixes for weak areas.
Many contractors save this as a percentage of each invoice paid — consider a separate savings account, since self-employed income has no automatic PAYE withholding.
Scoring your contractor finances — war chest, pension and protection gaps
Contracting income is inherently less predictable than a permanent salary — between contracts, rate negotiations and IR35 status changes, a healthy financial position looks different for a contractor than for an employee. Rather than a long budgeting form, this calculator takes a few key inputs and scores your position across cashflow buffer, pension contributions and protection cover, benchmarked against your day-rate band, with practical fixes for whichever areas come out weak.
What gets scored
- Your cash 'war chest' expressed in months of expenses covered, which matters more for contractors than employees because there's no notice period or redundancy pay between contracts
- Pension contributions as a percentage of income, benchmarked against what's typical for your day-rate band rather than a flat industry-wide figure
- Protection gaps — life insurance and income protection — given that contractors rarely have any employer-provided cover to fall back on
- Practical next steps for each weak area, linking to our pension, life insurance and IR35 take-home calculators rather than leaving you with a score and no route to improve it
