Jay-Z said it best, “Life's like a treadmill, n***as runnin’ in place. Gettin’ nowhere fast, a whole year done past, I vowed to never stop winnin’, 'til the earth stop spinnin’. My motto is simply I will not lose.”
We’re guessing that if you’re currently a gig worker then you were one of the kids that didn’t complain and instead made moves to get you one step closer to the life you want and deserve. Are we right? Yeah, we are. And, while being your own boss, hustling to build an empire through different gigs, can be exciting and profitable, you’ve gotta understand where your money is coming from and going to really be successful.
Working for yourself as part of the gig economy is great until you remember that you can’t just spend the money. You’ve gotta manage it. And, yeah, while you’re just starting out in your side hustles, you’re probably going to have to manage it yourself. Until you can afford a good accountant, here are a few financial tools for gig workers and freelancers that’ll help you stay on top.
Already have your freelance finances under control and want to learn how to make your savings grow exponentially? Download the Wealth Stack app to start investing.
The Best Financial Tools for Freelancers
PayPal
What it does: Allows you to easily send and receive money.
How it helps: PayPal is essentially your financial leash—one end goes to your clients or customers (you’ll need their financial info too), and the other end will be connected to either a checking account or credit card.
PayPal is helpful for freelancers who aren't thinking of setting up a full registered business just yet. However, once you scale your side hustle, you can switch to a PayPal Business account, which has all of the basic features of a PayPal account and more. You can set up subscription payments and manage your finances a bit better with a PayPal Business account.
Do keep in mind, though, that while PayPal is a financial tool, it is not a financial management tool. They do offer some business tools to attach to your account, but these are aimed more at small businesses than freelancers and gig workers. Once you’re ready to really build that empire, move on to the other financial tools on this list.
Wealth Stack
What is it: A financial platform and app where you can learn how to create wealth for yourself while also investing in your future.
Why you should use it: Wealth Stack is the first finance platform built specifically for Generation Hustle, for the non-traditional workers who want to invest in themselves while they side giggin’ and freelancing their way through life. After all, you’re non-traditional, so why should your financial and investment options be?
The Wealth Stack app is a place where you can learn from free, engaging videos that’ll teach you everything you need to know about managing your finances. Then, once you’ve got that under control, you can learn how to invest. Our investment pros are working hard for you so that you can invest in stocks that will only help you grow your hard-earned wealth.
Mint
What it does: Allows you to track all of your spending and financial movements in one place.
How it helps: If you’re a freelancer and are looking for an all-in-one tool that allows you to track your financial movements across different accounts and cards, Mint is definitely the app for you.
The best part? It’s a free financial tool. You just create your account, link the cards and accounts that you want to track, and set up budgeting limits so that you can receive notifications when you’re about to go over your budget for the month.
We suggest using this to really be smart about where you’re spending money on your side hustle. Set realistic budgets for things like transportation, marketing, and business equipment, and let Mint help ensure that you don’t go over your limits.
Quickbooks
What it does: Like Mint, Quickbooks Self-Employed helps freelancers stay on top of their financial accounts and transactions, particularly when it comes to freelance taxes.
How it helps: This financial tool offers users the ability to track mileage, tax deductions, track invoices, and more. Quickbooks Self-Employed can also help you estimate your taxes, support the tax deductions that you claim, and help ensure you aren’t overspending on expenses like transportation or business equipment.
Building out your freelance business to include other freelancers? This financial tool allows you to manage other 1099 contractors easily so that you can ensure you’re reporting everything correctly.
Square
What it does: Does your side hustle require you to accept in-person payments? If so, Square allows you to accept credit cards for payment. It’s one of the best and most secure credit card processing platforms for small business owners and gig workers.
Why you should use it: This financial tool can help freelancers avoid overspending on business expenses. Freelancers may also need to keep track of receipts and invoices, which can be difficult if they’re working at multiple jobs or don’t want to carry paperwork everywhere. And, accepting payments via Venmo or PayPal isn’t super professional all of the time.
With Square, you can be out and about selling CDs or at your new coffee shop popup. When someone wants to make a payment, you just connect the dongle they give you to your phone. It’s payment processing on the go, and that’s super freelancer-friendly.
Expensify
What it does: Allows freelancers who need to keep track of mileage, receipts, and invoices to do so easily.
Why you should use it: It’s super easy! Just snap a picture of the receipt on your phone, enter some basic info about your purchase, and you’re good. The app keeps track of all of your expenses in one place. You can even organize them by financial categories, which is helpful if you really want to get smart about what you're spending and where.
Other perks of Expensify? You can fill out mileage forms, track hours, and send them to clients or yourself for billing purposes, and keep receipts so you can prove expenses later. And, you can do all of that for (pretty much) free. Expensify’s free version is pretty robust and seems plenty enough for most freelancers who need a financial tool on the go.
Wave
What is it: Wave is another accounting app for freelancers that is integrated with invoicing, receipt scanning, payment processing, and more. It's one of the best financial tools for those focused on bookkeeping.
Why you should use it: Wave is free to use and comes with all of the features we’ve mentioned above with the other apps. Not only can you seamlessly manage payroll and invoices, but you can design super cool-looking invoices to send to your clients, too.
Plus, Wave’s credit card processing fees for accepting payments via credit card are pretty similar to PayPal’s. With the free version, you get access to accounting and invoicing. For payroll features, the price goes up to $20-35 a month depending on the state that you live in.
Take control of your financial future. Download the Wealth Stack app today, the financial tool for freelancers looking to build something truly big.
