Freelancer Financial Health Check
Check your 2026 freelancer finances in one view — tax set-aside percentage, runway in months, effective hourly rate and a benefits self-funding gap.
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.
A Financial Health Check Built for Irregular Freelance Income
Generic budgeting tools assume a steady paycheck arriving on a predictable schedule — which doesn't match how most 1099 and freelance income actually works. This calculator is built around the specific numbers that matter for irregular income: how much to set aside for taxes, how many months of expenses you have in reserve, and what you're really earning once you factor in unbillable time.
Because there's no employer withholding taxes from a 1099 payment, one of the most common freelancer mistakes is treating gross income as spendable income. Between the 15.3% self-employment tax and federal income tax under the 2026 brackets, a meaningful share of every payment needs to be set aside before it's ever available to spend — this calculator estimates that set-aside percentage from your actual numbers rather than a generic 25-30% guess.
What this profile measures
- Tax set-aside percentage — an estimate, from your real 2026 federal income tax and self-employment tax figures, of how much of each payment to hold back before you spend it
- Runway in months — how long your current savings would cover expenses if income stopped, which matters more for variable freelance income than for a steady paycheck
- Effective hourly rate after accounting for unbillable admin time, since your quoted rate and your actual per-hour earnings are rarely the same number
- A benefits self-funding gap — an estimate of what health insurance, retirement contributions, and paid time off would cost you to replace what an employer typically provides for free to a W-2 worker
