The Gig Worker’s Nest Egg: a Guide for Making it Golden

First, the bona fides: I left my last full-time salaried job in 1990, at the age of 36, with the goal of never having a boss other than myself again. That was 30 years ago. Today I am mostly retired. My home is a paid-off, comfortable condo in an urban-proximate zip code. I live on Social Security, a small pension from an earlier period of employment, and a small stream of monthly income from writing. My retirement savings approaches the mid six figures but I’m not touching any of it yet; I don’t need to.

Most importantly, I never in my whole working life made more than $50,000 in one year, and most years, especially in the last 25, my annual income was closer to half of that. Your results will vary. Hopefully not by much, especially if you start now.

Minimize your taxes, but not your income

Unless you’re blessed with a dependable self-employment income stream or some fat ongoing gigs, your income might swing wildly from year to year — mine certainly has. Your instinct when this happens is to minimize your net income in order to minimize your taxes. Take every legitimate tax break and write-off expense available to you, but keep your eye on the bottom line. It may seem painful to pay taxes now but the higher your taxable income, the greater your contribution to Social Security. The benefit that…