7 ms·

As always, I'm happy to answer any questions. :)

by nathanbarry 14y ago

braveheart1723 14y ago
how much tax you paying ?
- nathanbarry 14y ago
  A lot. I don't know exactly how much, but it will be far more than any other year.
  - nwhitehead 14y ago
    These are the problems you want to have.
  - jrockway 14y ago
    Wouldn't it be good to figure this out before claiming to have doubled your salary? When you have a W-2 job, your employer pays a lot of taxes that are not included in your salary. When you switch to 1099 or self-employment, you now have to pay those taxes yourself.
    - stevenwei 14y ago
      The employer pays 6.2% of wages up to $110,100 for Social Security and 1.45% of wages (no limit) for Medicare. It's small but known quantity.
    - greenranger 14y ago
      Nitpick much? If he's grossing twice as much as he did last year, then he doubled his salary regardless of what taxes him or his past employer were required to pay in a given year.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  - zulfishah 14y ago
    For next year, you probably want to talk to an accountant about paying estimated taxes. If you drop 20k in taxes to the IRS at the end of the year, they're not going to be happy. In fact, you can get fines for doing that.
zallarak 14y ago
If you were in the bay I'd definitely ask you to coffee / be intrigued to hear of your experiences. Congrats, that is so legit!
16s 14y ago
When I see young men and women consulting, I'm always curious how it's working for them. Do your consultation customers care that you are so young? I'm genuinely curious about this. Most successful consultants (that I know) have decades of experience in a specific industry or specialty, thus they have a large amount of knowledge based on actual, real-world experience and that is why clients seek them out. They are very successful, but that success seems solely based on their years of experience and insight.
- nathanbarry 14y ago
  Most of my consulting comes from people I've met locally. I have a pretty good reputation from speaking at user groups and code camps, so a lot of people know me. Age hasn't really been an issue (I'm 22). When I first did freelancing I was 15 and 16, so it was much more difficult then.
- Swannie 14y ago
  I think the confusion comes from the term 'consulting'. In my opinion: Freelancing is not consulting. Technical problem solving (e.g. scaling db, infrastructure improvement, assisting in migrating to a more recent version of a framework, etc. borderline. Providing advice to a team of developers, and doing a little of that work is consulting. I see so many people claiming they consult, when infact they freelance. They get assigned work, as a temporary employee. Nathan sounds like he started freelancing and now he gets a bit of consulting in the mix too.
  - 16s 14y ago
    Very well put. I agree. Freelancing is a much better word. After gaining many years of experience, then one will have the insight and ability to actually consult.
    - nathanbarry 14y ago
      Based on that distinction (which I think is accurate) I probably do 50% consulting and 50% freelancing.
tinco 14y ago
With $4000 monthly expenses, you should have about 100k left in savings or some non-monthly expenses and probably a bunch of taxes, what do you do with your excess? Is it something mundane like saving for a bigger house, or your pension, or are you reinvesting?
- nathanbarry 14y ago
  Currently I have about $85,000 in the bank. Most of that showed up in the last couple months. Another $15,000 has been earned, but not transfered over to my account yet. The trip to Europe took quite a bit of money, so I didn't have much around July or August of this year. I'm not sure what I'm saving for, but the more money I have, the more reluctant I am to purchase things. For example, I have wanted to buy a Lotus Elise for a long time. My theory was I would get a used one for about $30,000. I convinced my wife that I could buy one when we had $100k in the bank. Now that we are close to that number, I don't want to spend it on something so frivolous. We'll probably continue saving for a house. For now I am going to do some more traveling and continue to live as inexpensively as possible. For example, my current rent is $650 a month.
  - mgkimsal 14y ago
    Your goalposts are moving, and I've noticed that in myself. I have freelancers I work with who tell me: "I'll just be fine when I've got 2 months of expenses in the bank". I tell them they probably won't, then they laugh, then eventually some of them see what I mean. Sounds like you've got about 2 years of 'runway' in the bank - with no income and stable expenses, you could go for 2 years. I'm in a similar situation, and have found myself wanting less and less to spend any money. Some of that comes from simply remembering the effort it took to build up that amount, and then spending it literally in an instant on anything feels weird now. Yeah, I'd like a bigger TV (ours if 42" but 7 year old "ED" TV, not HD), but see little point in it as this one still works. Newer car? Yeah, would be nice - I can pay cash for a nice used car, but will probably hold on to this 8 year old one for another year or two. The only things I'd like to buy, I want to pay cash for, and I'm still a long ways away (things like a private airplane, much larger house, etc). We do travel some - my wife will be going to Australia and I'll be going to Russia - buying those sorts of experiences with our families is one of the few things that we agree on spending money on. Outside of that, just continuing to pile up cash until there's a compelling case for spending it (or a true emergency need) is probably all you can do.
vclortho 14y ago
What about taxes and health insurance?
- nathanbarry 14y ago
  I will have to pay a lot in taxes this year. Still need to do them... For health insurance I have a high deductible plan that comes out to about $280 a month for my wife, son, and I. We also keep about $5k (and growing) in a medical savings account to meet the deductible.
  - stevenwei 14y ago
    It probably makes sense at this point to talk to an accountant (if you don't already have one). I don't know how your business structure is set up, but you may want to look into setting up an S-corp and/or a retirement plan like a solo-401k.
  - ja27 14y ago
    $280 a month? Is that maybe an employer plan that your wife is on? If not, I've got to get more agressive in my insurance shopping. We haven't gotten a quote below $1000 a month for a family of four.
    - nathanbarry 14y ago
      That is an individual plan for myself, my wife, and our 1 year old son. We are both young (22) and have no health issues. Also it has a $5k deductible and we live in an inexpensive state (Idaho).
pgrote 14y ago
How did you handle health insurance?
- mgkimsal 14y ago
  I'm going out on a limb here and supposing that he buys it from an insurance company. Not trying to sound snarky, but it's just not that big a deal for most people - it's a service and you buy it. Yes, it gets expensive for some people with certain conditions or over a certain age, but it's just a cost of doing business for a huge number of people. Get a high-deductible policy ($3.5k - $10k) and your premiums for an average family could be between $300 and $600/month. (blue cross blue shield in north carolina, husband and wife in 40s and 2 teenage kids - sample quote).
karolisd 14y ago
What did you use to make the ebooks?
- nathanbarry 14y ago
  iBooks Author, then exported it to a PDF. It's great software.
sorenbs 14y ago
Would be interesting to hear more about how the different book packages worked out. Was it worth it to make the instruction videos and interviews?
- nathanbarry 14y ago
  Yes, very worth it. Checkout this post: http://nathanbarry.com/behind-the-scenes/ http://nathanbarry.com/behind-the-scenes/
  - sorenbs 14y ago
    Tank you.

As always, I'm happy to answer any questions. :)

braveheart1723 14y ago

how much tax you paying ?

nathanbarry 14y ago
A lot. I don't know exactly how much, but it will be far more than any other year.
- nwhitehead 14y ago
  These are the problems you want to have.
- jrockway 14y ago
  Wouldn't it be good to figure this out before claiming to have doubled your salary? When you have a W-2 job, your employer pays a lot of taxes that are not included in your salary. When you switch to 1099 or self-employment, you now have to pay those taxes yourself.
  - stevenwei 14y ago
    The employer pays 6.2% of wages up to $110,100 for Social Security and 1.45% of wages (no limit) for Medicare. It's small but known quantity.
  - greenranger 14y ago
    Nitpick much? If he's grossing twice as much as he did last year, then he doubled his salary regardless of what taxes him or his past employer were required to pay in a given year.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- zulfishah 14y ago
  For next year, you probably want to talk to an accountant about paying estimated taxes. If you drop 20k in taxes to the IRS at the end of the year, they're not going to be happy. In fact, you can get fines for doing that.

zallarak 14y ago

If you were in the bay I'd definitely ask you to coffee / be intrigued to hear of your experiences. Congrats, that is so legit!

16s 14y ago

When I see young men and women consulting, I'm always curious how it's working for them. Do your consultation customers care that you are so young? I'm genuinely curious about this. Most successful consultants (that I know) have decades of experience in a specific industry or specialty, thus they have a large amount of knowledge based on actual, real-world experience and that is why clients seek them out. They are very successful, but that success seems solely based on their years of experience and insight.

nathanbarry 14y ago
Most of my consulting comes from people I've met locally. I have a pretty good reputation from speaking at user groups and code camps, so a lot of people know me. Age hasn't really been an issue (I'm 22). When I first did freelancing I was 15 and 16, so it was much more difficult then.
Swannie 14y ago
I think the confusion comes from the term 'consulting'. In my opinion: Freelancing is not consulting. Technical problem solving (e.g. scaling db, infrastructure improvement, assisting in migrating to a more recent version of a framework, etc. borderline. Providing advice to a team of developers, and doing a little of that work is consulting. I see so many people claiming they consult, when infact they freelance. They get assigned work, as a temporary employee. Nathan sounds like he started freelancing and now he gets a bit of consulting in the mix too.
- 16s 14y ago
  Very well put. I agree. Freelancing is a much better word. After gaining many years of experience, then one will have the insight and ability to actually consult.
  - nathanbarry 14y ago
    Based on that distinction (which I think is accurate) I probably do 50% consulting and 50% freelancing.

tinco 14y ago

With $4000 monthly expenses, you should have about 100k left in savings or some non-monthly expenses and probably a bunch of taxes, what do you do with your excess? Is it something mundane like saving for a bigger house, or your pension, or are you reinvesting?

nathanbarry 14y ago
Currently I have about $85,000 in the bank. Most of that showed up in the last couple months. Another $15,000 has been earned, but not transfered over to my account yet. The trip to Europe took quite a bit of money, so I didn't have much around July or August of this year. I'm not sure what I'm saving for, but the more money I have, the more reluctant I am to purchase things. For example, I have wanted to buy a Lotus Elise for a long time. My theory was I would get a used one for about $30,000. I convinced my wife that I could buy one when we had $100k in the bank. Now that we are close to that number, I don't want to spend it on something so frivolous. We'll probably continue saving for a house. For now I am going to do some more traveling and continue to live as inexpensively as possible. For example, my current rent is $650 a month.
- mgkimsal 14y ago
  Your goalposts are moving, and I've noticed that in myself. I have freelancers I work with who tell me: "I'll just be fine when I've got 2 months of expenses in the bank". I tell them they probably won't, then they laugh, then eventually some of them see what I mean. Sounds like you've got about 2 years of 'runway' in the bank - with no income and stable expenses, you could go for 2 years. I'm in a similar situation, and have found myself wanting less and less to spend any money. Some of that comes from simply remembering the effort it took to build up that amount, and then spending it literally in an instant on anything feels weird now. Yeah, I'd like a bigger TV (ours if 42" but 7 year old "ED" TV, not HD), but see little point in it as this one still works. Newer car? Yeah, would be nice - I can pay cash for a nice used car, but will probably hold on to this 8 year old one for another year or two. The only things I'd like to buy, I want to pay cash for, and I'm still a long ways away (things like a private airplane, much larger house, etc). We do travel some - my wife will be going to Australia and I'll be going to Russia - buying those sorts of experiences with our families is one of the few things that we agree on spending money on. Outside of that, just continuing to pile up cash until there's a compelling case for spending it (or a true emergency need) is probably all you can do.

vclortho 14y ago

What about taxes and health insurance?

nathanbarry 14y ago
I will have to pay a lot in taxes this year. Still need to do them... For health insurance I have a high deductible plan that comes out to about $280 a month for my wife, son, and I. We also keep about $5k (and growing) in a medical savings account to meet the deductible.
- stevenwei 14y ago
  It probably makes sense at this point to talk to an accountant (if you don't already have one). I don't know how your business structure is set up, but you may want to look into setting up an S-corp and/or a retirement plan like a solo-401k.
- ja27 14y ago
  $280 a month? Is that maybe an employer plan that your wife is on? If not, I've got to get more agressive in my insurance shopping. We haven't gotten a quote below $1000 a month for a family of four.
  - nathanbarry 14y ago
    That is an individual plan for myself, my wife, and our 1 year old son. We are both young (22) and have no health issues. Also it has a $5k deductible and we live in an inexpensive state (Idaho).

pgrote 14y ago

How did you handle health insurance?

mgkimsal 14y ago
I'm going out on a limb here and supposing that he buys it from an insurance company. Not trying to sound snarky, but it's just not that big a deal for most people - it's a service and you buy it. Yes, it gets expensive for some people with certain conditions or over a certain age, but it's just a cost of doing business for a huge number of people. Get a high-deductible policy ($3.5k - $10k) and your premiums for an average family could be between $300 and $600/month. (blue cross blue shield in north carolina, husband and wife in 40s and 2 teenage kids - sample quote).

karolisd 14y ago

What did you use to make the ebooks?

nathanbarry 14y ago
iBooks Author, then exported it to a PDF. It's great software.

sorenbs 14y ago

Would be interesting to hear more about how the different book packages worked out. Was it worth it to make the instruction videos and interviews?

nathanbarry 14y ago
Yes, very worth it. Checkout this post: http://nathanbarry.com/behind-the-scenes/ http://nathanbarry.com/behind-the-scenes/
- sorenbs 14y ago
  Tank you.