#giggers #SelfEmployed #SoloPractitioners #NonEmployerEstablishments
South Florida is loaded with “giggers.”
Atlanta, Dallas, Washington and Boston have also seen a surge.
What are “giggers?” They are one-person shops or, in bureaucratic parlance, “non-employer establishments.”
“Between 1997 and 2015, the number of non-employer establishments – that is, self-employed, freelance workers and independent contractors that aren’t often counted in traditional government measures of job growth – in the Miami area rose 142 percent,” writes Nancy Dahlberg in an article for the Miami Herald. The article was also published Dec. 25, 2017, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
That growth is more than twice the national average of 58.6 percent, Dahlberg writes. The other metro areas showing growth behind Miami include Atlanta (126 percent), Dallas (95 percent), Washington, D.C. (78 percent) and Boston (31 percent), according to the article.
This trend shows that people with imagination and a marketable skill who want to work, but don’t want to be employed or are having trouble finding a traditional W-2 job, are using their skill and imagination to help others, while earning money.
The article also quotes a 2016 McKinsey Global Institute report that found about 27 percent of working-age people in the U.S. and Europe engage at least partially in independent work. It also quotes a 2016 study by the Minneapolis Fed that found the engagement at 37 percent in the U.S. alone, and government estimates show that rate could rise to 40 percent by 2020.
The 2008 recession has had lots of effects on lots of people. Some chose to continue to look for new jobs, with varied success. One should consider himself or herself incredibly fortunate if he or she had lost a good job, but subsequently found a better one. For many, if they have found new work at all, it pays less than they were making before. Therefore, a lifestyle adjustment became necessary.
But suppose you have some imagination, but don’t have a really marketable skill that you can peddle on your own? Or, what if the skills that you have are difficult, if not impossible, to ply in an independent setting?
Fortunately, there are many ways out there that you can earn a potentially significant income – perhaps even more than you’d ever earned before – without having a W-2 job or any specific skill or background. To check out one of the best, message me.
Most of us dream of working until a certain age, then perhaps concentrating on a favorite hobby or hobbies to occupy our time after working. For some, retirement came before they wanted, or were ready, and they are using their hobbies or skills as a solo practitioner.
For some, a lifestyle adjustment was required. Many of us dream of the time when we make a lifestyle adjustment only for the better.
We are moving toward a more “you economy,” in which you call your own shots, you solve your own economic problems and you advance your lifestyle.
What if you could do all those things, and help others do the same?
What if the “you economy” were not forced upon you by necessity, but presented to you as a gift?
What if that bad situation – a job loss – became the best thing that ever happened to you?
To borrow from John Lennon, you may say you’re a dreamer, but you’re not the only one.
Peter
Tag Archives: Washington
STATES RESPOND TO RETIREMENT CRISIS
#retirement #pensions #401(k)s #SocialSecurity
“It’s clear there’s a retirement crisis,” Illinois State Treasurer Michael W. Frerichs told small business owners. “This is a problem not only for families but for all of us,” the quote continues.
Frerichs was quoted in an Associated Press article on the subject by Maria Ines Zamudio. It was published Feb. 22, 2017, in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Zamudio’s article focused on how seven states – California, Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland, Oregon and Washington, as well as Illinois, are in various stages of implementing state-sponsored retirement savings plans.
The plans, the article says, are tax-deductible IRAs with automatic payroll deductions, for which employees don’t pay federal taxes on the money until it is withdrawn.
Americans without work-sponsored savings plans are less likely to save for retirement, the article says. Zamudio quotes research from the Employee Benefit Research Institute that shows 62 percent of employees with an employer-sponsored savings plans had more than $25,000 in savings. Some 22 percent of those had more than $100,000 in savings.
Meanwhile, according to the quoted research from 2014, 94 percent of workers without access to those plans had less than $25,000.
We can certainly debate whether it should be the government’s role to set up savings plans for workers. What isn’t really debatable is that $25,000, or even $100,000, won’t get a person very far into retirement.
A good retirement savings would provide enough so that the person or couple could live comfortably off the interest and dividends those savings would kick off. If one does not have to touch his principal in retirement, he’ll never outlive his money.
Of course, those fortunate enough to get a pension from their employers, combined with Social Security, have a little more to work with, in terms of income.
But will those vehicles be enough to have the retirement you want?
Retirement should be about more than just living Social Security check to Social Security check. It should be about having the resources, combined with the time, to do things one didn’t have the time to do while working. Examples include travel, hobbies etc.
But so many at or near retirement age are not in that position. Some had signed on to work for an employer because of pension benefits, only to find that when the time came to access those benefits, they weren’t there.
Others, perhaps, were forced out of their jobs prematurely through downsizing, technology or other efficiencies. As a result, they lost of lot of work time that could have allowed them to save more. Or, they were forced to take a lower-paying job elsewhere, making saving for retirement impossible, or nearly so.
If you are among those facing tough decisions about retirement – perhaps you tell yourself you’ll have to work until you die – there are a number of good options for earning income that could augment or even enhance your potential retirement income. To check out one of the best, message me.
Meanwhile, if you have a job, make saving for retirement a priority. Closely examine where your money goes, and see whether you can trim spending to put money into retirement savings. Presume that there will be very little to bail you out if you are “retired,” but can’t afford to be.
Also, too, think about your time. How are you spending what free time you currently have? How will you spend your time when you retire? Will you be bored? Will you have the resources to perhaps do what you’d like to be doing?
Certainly, retirement is about more than money. But having enough money will take one worry off your plate so you can decide how best to use your time.
If you don’t want to work until you die, do something today to help eliminate that possibility.
Peter