This Graph Shows What It’s Actually Like to Be a Freelancer
Switching careers meant fundamentally changing my relationship with money. Here’s how I’ve adjusted to having a salary that fluctuates so much.
By Jared Lindzon
Though it may look like a crude drawing of a mountain range, this is actually a graph that represents my salary as a freelance journalist, starting from the day I quit my full-time job in January 2013, right up until the end of June 2019.
While the wide swings between peaks and valleys might induce severe anxiety in some, to me (and millions of other freelancers out there) they represent boundless opportunity, complete autonomy, and believe it or not, job security. Okay, and maybe a little anxiety too, but it’s a small price to pay.
As a freelance journalist I’ve outearned what I expected to make in this struggling industry, and in an era of unprecedented downsizing, it would take about a dozen strangers around the world banding together to cut me loose all at once for my income to disappear entirely.
