The Knowledge Blog
Posts on finance, investing, business practices, and other oddball topics for freelancers. Grab your favorite beverage and get stuck in.
Latest Posts
The Silver Lining If You’ve Had a Tough Financial Year — Roth Conversions
Did you have a terrible year financially? That painful low-income year might at least have a silver lining. If you had a bad year, your marginal tax rate will be lower than usual, so now might be a good time for a Roth conversion.
Year-End 2025 — Cut Your Tax Bill By Maximizing Your Contributions
Max out the contributions to your retirement accounts before year's end. Now is the time to get your QuickBooks in order and talk to your accountant before the end of the year. Don’t wait.
The freelancer investment trinity — i401(k), HSA, and Backdoor Roth IRA.
2025 and Your Tax Rate — it’s not one rate
It’s often misunderstood how the states and feds tax us. A misconception is that once someone hits a certain income, all of their hard-earned money gets taxed at a higher rate. This is not the case.
The List: Tax-advantaged accounts for freelancers — tax saving, wealth multipliers.
More in our series of ‘More for us, less for you IRS!’
Below is a list of the various tax-advantaged accounts we can have as freelancers. Learn the ways of the force, I mean accounts. As freelancers, investing is our ultimate side hustle.
FinCEN - Beneficial Ownership Information Report—Cancelled!
The Beneficiary Ownership Information Report.
UPDATE: As of March 26th, 2025 the whole thing got thrown out. Now only foreign companies have to fill it out.
Solo 401(k) investors — IRS Form 5500-EZ could cost you a $150,000 fine. EVERY YEAR.
i401k investors — IRS Form 5500-EZ could cost you a $150,000 fine. EVERY YEAR.
My name is Chris Albert. I’m a 52-year-old freelance Director of Photography and studio owner who built a seven-figure portfolio from zero—no inheritance, no financial background, just consistent saving and sensible investing over 30 years.
Financial institutions consider me a ‘high net-worth individual’. At Schwab, as a $1 million+ account holder, I qualify as a Schwab Private Client Services customer, and, under SEC rules, I am considered an Accredited Investor.
Why the website? I built this site because I couldn't find one place that explained what and how freelancers like us should set up retirement accounts (the Solo 401(k), Backdoor Roth IRA, and HSA) and what investments to put in them—without the sales pitch, fees, or the overly-complicated Wall Street products.
We are going to get rich slow. In later years, live more, work less.