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Poll: What % of your freelance income goes to your rent or mortgage (home/office space)?
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
SITE STAFF
Dec 18, 2017

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "What % of your freelance income goes to your rent or mortgage (home/office space)?".

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Kay Denney
Kay Denney  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 13:55
French to English
0 Dec 18, 2017

We finished paying off the mortgage a while ago.

 
Muriel Vasconcellos
Muriel Vasconcellos  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 05:55
Member (2003)
Spanish to English
+ ...
None Dec 18, 2017

My retirement income from my in-house translation career pays the regular bills. I use some of my freelance income for home improvements.

[Edited at 2017-12-18 09:26 GMT]


 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 12:55
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
I don't have to worry about that expense Dec 18, 2017

Most of my regular bills (insurance, telephone, food, clothing, transports, etc.) are paid by my freelance income. Some months I don’t touch my retirement money.

 
Judith Anne Smith
Judith Anne Smith  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 13:55
Member (2010)
Spanish to English
+ ...
Not anymore Dec 18, 2017

I've just paid that off! Yay!

 
Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
United Kingdom
Member (2011)
Swedish to English
+ ...
5% Dec 18, 2017

It's hard to imagine anyone answering anything other than 0-25% unless their business is a total failure.

[Edited at 2017-12-18 11:40 GMT]


 
Jennifer Forbes
Jennifer Forbes  Identity Verified
Local time: 12:55
French to English
+ ...
In memoriam
Not any more ... Dec 18, 2017

I no longer have to pay mortgage or rent because I now own my house outright. However, the cost of maintaining and repairing an old house like mine (built 1864) is considerable and takes Lord knows what percentage of my income!

 
Tommaso Martelli
Tommaso Martelli  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 13:55
German to Italian
+ ...
Every place is different Dec 18, 2017

Chris S wrote:

It's hard to imagine anyone answering anything other than 0-25% unless their business is a total failure.

[Edited at 2017-12-18 11:40 GMT]


That sound a bit presemptuous, don't you think so? I suppose it depends a lot on where you live and the real estate prices. I spend more than 25% of my income for my mortgage, as many friends of mine in my city do (either for the mortgage or for rent, and they are not translators, but other professionals, employees and university researchers).

But maybe I'm just a failure surrounded by losers...

It's always limiting to judge others, moreover only on the basis of one's own experience.


Sanjin Grandić
 
Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
United Kingdom
Member (2011)
Swedish to English
+ ...
Miaow Dec 18, 2017

Tommaso Martelli wrote:

Judgements


I understood the question to be about the amount of rent relating to your business. What you claim as a business expense.

Not total rent/mortgage payments for your home.

Even then, above 25% seems high to me. You must have caught your bank on a good day.

No judgements; just observations/maths.


 
Tommaso Martelli
Tommaso Martelli  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 13:55
German to Italian
+ ...
Home/office space Dec 18, 2017

The question says "home/office space", therefore I understood it to be about the mortgage/rent for your house and your office (if you have one).

Anyway, describing somene else's business as "a total failure" just because it doesn't fit your parameters sounds more than an observation to me.

Where I live (Florence, Italy), a great part of the population spend a lot more than 25% of their income to pay their rent/mortgage, so they must seem all failures in your eyes.
... See more
The question says "home/office space", therefore I understood it to be about the mortgage/rent for your house and your office (if you have one).

Anyway, describing somene else's business as "a total failure" just because it doesn't fit your parameters sounds more than an observation to me.

Where I live (Florence, Italy), a great part of the population spend a lot more than 25% of their income to pay their rent/mortgage, so they must seem all failures in your eyes.





[Edited at 2017-12-18 14:43 GMT]
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Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
United Kingdom
Member (2011)
Swedish to English
+ ...
Oh, come on Dec 18, 2017

Tommaso Martelli wrote:

Where I live (Florence, Italy), a great part of the population spend a lot more than 25% of their income to pay their rent/mortgage, so they must seem all failures in your eyes.


Now you're wilfully misrepresenting what I said.

It's widely accepted that 25-30% of income is the maximum people should spend on housing. Maybe this is why the Italian banks are struggling.


 
neilmac
neilmac
Spain
Local time: 13:55
Spanish to English
+ ...
Who are you calling a... Dec 18, 2017

Chris S wrote:

It's hard to imagine anyone answering anything other than 0-25% unless their business is a total failure.

[Edited at 2017-12-18 11:40 GMT]


Please do elaborate.


 
Mario Chavez (X)
Mario Chavez (X)  Identity Verified
Local time: 08:55
English to Spanish
+ ...
Widely accepted? Dec 18, 2017

Chris S wrote:

Tommaso Martelli wrote:

Where I live (Florence, Italy), a great part of the population spend a lot more than 25% of their income to pay their rent/mortgage, so they must seem all failures in your eyes.


Now you're wilfully misrepresenting what I said.

It's widely accepted that 25-30% of income is the maximum people should spend on housing. Maybe this is why the Italian banks are struggling.


That depends, Chris. Maybe there's a new translator who's just beginning and earns 1/5 of what the rest of us earn in a month. In that situation, his/her rent or mortgage would likely eat up all of his/her freelance earnings.

Maybe that 25-30% of income going to housing is widely accepted where you live.


 
Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
United Kingdom
Member (2011)
Swedish to English
+ ...
FWIW Dec 19, 2017

neilmac wrote:

Chris S wrote:

It's hard to imagine anyone answering anything other than 0-25% unless their business is a total failure.

[Edited at 2017-12-18 11:40 GMT]


Please do elaborate.


I'm not calling anyone a failure. No offence intended! I obviously could have phrased it better. It was more a comment on the question (as I interpeted it). It just struck me as wildly unlikely that an established full-time translator would answer more than 25%.

Assume house worth £200,000.
Rent is £10,000 a year.
Typical home office (spare bedroom) you might claim £2000 of that against tax.
If that is 25% of your earnings, you are earning just £8000 a year.
The legal minimum wage is getting on for £15,000 a year!

On those assumptions, the business is a failure!

Obviously there are exceptions (beginners, part-timers, translators who live in Mayfair, etc)


 
Mario Freitas
Mario Freitas  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 09:55
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
20% - Depends a lot on the city Dec 21, 2017

I currently pay 20% of my inconme for Rental+Property Tax+Condominium Fees. But I moved from Brasilia to a small town and from that town back to my home town. So this is how curious and variable this is.
If I still lived in Brasilia, I would spend almost 50% of my income with rental, to live in a smaller apartment, farther away from downtown.
If I still lived in the small town, I would spend less than 10% of my income to live in a nice big house instead of an apartment, with no condo
... See more
I currently pay 20% of my inconme for Rental+Property Tax+Condominium Fees. But I moved from Brasilia to a small town and from that town back to my home town. So this is how curious and variable this is.
If I still lived in Brasilia, I would spend almost 50% of my income with rental, to live in a smaller apartment, farther away from downtown.
If I still lived in the small town, I would spend less than 10% of my income to live in a nice big house instead of an apartment, with no condo fees and a much lower property tax.


[Edited at 2017-12-21 15:30 GMT]
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MollyRose
 
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Poll: What % of your freelance income goes to your rent or mortgage (home/office space)?






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