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Comment by lrobb | Hacker News Reader

I'm surprised at some of the low points on here... The general rule is to take your desired annual income and divide by 1000 to get your hourly rate. So if you want to make $120,000 year, your hourly rate would be $120.

I think a lot of "freelancers" must end up going through headhunters instead of finding clients directly? You might want to ask what your headhunter is making if that's the case -- I know of one body shop that only offers $50/hr to its contractors, while the client company is paying the headhunter $150/hour.

You can't even get a desktop support person out around here for less than $75/hour...

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Previously I was placed by a "staffing" company that took 33% of what the company I was working for was paying.

I only know this because the person who was my supervisor slipped up and told me... I didn't stick around there too long after that and have built up a great group of consistent clients of my own.

So if you want to make $120,000 year, your hourly rate would be $120.

And when you're considering what you think your annual income should be keep in mind that you have to cover your own vacation, insurance, self-employment tax (depending on where you file), and assorted other expenses.

Correct... and that rule of thumb factors that into account.

How many billable hours a day does this assume? Most people won't be doing 8 hours a day, five days a week, like a regular job.

If we assume 4 hours a day, five days a week, 50 weeks a year of billable time you'll need to up the rate to make that amount as in-your-pocket cash.

Some quick math says: ~83h/month = 4.15h/day (conservative approx. - assuming 4 workweeks / month and 5 workdays / week) I think this rule of thumb works pretty well, factoring in some holidays or illnesses.

The factor of 1000 assumes a 4 hr, 5 day week. The typical way of figuring out your hourly rate (given a fixed salary) is to divide by 2000 = 50 weeks (assuming 2 weeks vacation) * 40hr/week.

The factor of 1000 assumes a 4 hr, 5 day week.

    50 * 5 * 4 * 120  = 120,000.00

That's what the clients will be giving you. Out of that comes insurance and self-employment tax and additional social security (in the USA, as an example).

If you are working backwards from a fixed salary you have to also add in the dollar value of additional taxes and insurance, plus whatever other benefits you might be getting.

$120K salary at a regular job > $120K in paid invoices from clients.

If you're a consultant or contractor or whatever, even if you work 8 hours a day they are not all billable hours. There's the tedious business work to look after (record keeping, business development, etc.)

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