I’ve labored for myself for practically a decade, and in all however a type of years I’ve earned greater than the U.Ok. common wage. Some years it’s been just a little extra. I’m naturally frugal, and even through the rockiest stretches, there’s at all times been sufficient to cowl the fundamentals—plus a security internet if I ever actually wanted it.
But I fear about cash continuously, gnawed by the sense that I’m just one missed bill from monetary collapse. Though I’m typically cautious of self-diagnosis, the time period “cash dysmorphia”—a disconnect between how we really feel about our funds and the truth—matches me like a glove.
From the rise of HENRYs (“excessive earners, not wealthy but”) to the growth in “earnings stacking,” as we speak’s office developments illustrate simply how tousled our relationship with funds has change into. Whereas cash dysmorphia isn’t a medical time period, it’s a shorthand that many staff now acknowledge.
Credit score Karma studies that 29% of People expertise it, particularly millennials and Gen Z, so I’m in good firm. However may the character of solopreneurship—the feast-or-famine cycles, the autonomy, the stress to slay in your personal lane—make us much more susceptible?
“It’s completely heightened for solopreneurs, freelancers, and anybody with an unstable earnings,” says Alex King, founder of economic schooling platform Era Cash. “And not using a mounted month-to-month wage, they normalize volatility and uncertainty, which might create a way of inadequacy or inflated confidence of their funds.”
The numbers paint an intriguing image. Recommendation website Freelancing Help reported that 41% of freelancers struggled with poor monetary well-being in 2024, and a 2025 research discovered that three in 4 U.S. solopreneurs have lower than six months’ value of financial savings—or no security internet in any respect. Loads of individuals have good causes to be troubled.
However a stunning portion are on stable floor: The variety of six-figure solopreneurs has nearly doubled since 2020, and analysis from the Minneapolis Fed exhibits that self-employed staff earn considerably extra over their careers than these in conventional jobs.
“Everybody’s at all times thriving, innovating, scaling”
Kim Berndt, cofounder of the style tech collaboration lab We.artwork studio in Cologne, Germany, has been a solopreneur since 2017. After three years of not paying herself a wage, her numbers lastly look steady. Emotionally, although, she feels something however. Social media performs a big position in warping her sense of economic actuality.
“It’s the largest rip-off, as a result of it creates the phantasm that everybody is at all times thriving, innovating, scaling,” she says. “The 2 industries I straddle—tech and vogue—glorify velocity and visibility, but they’re the Wild West in the case of pay.”
Berndt has accepted that she could by no means really feel steady, particularly in an rising area that many nonetheless don’t perceive and that provides little readability round worth. “I selected self-employment, so I’ve to search out methods to manage,” she says.
I establish with Berndt’s me-against-the-world mentality, so I used to be curious to listen to what monetary therapist Elana Feinsmith needed to say about this predicament. I informed her concerning the ripple results of my very own cash dysmorphia: oscillating between avoiding my financial institution steadiness and obsessively checking it, hesitating to cost pretty, and feeling guilt and disgrace over primary spending.
“Funds are like an iceberg,” she says. “The numbers sit above the waterline, however beneath is the place the darkish, murky emotions dwell.” She encourages me to look at not simply the volatility of my work but in addition the “cash scripts” I realized earlier in life. It doesn’t take her lengthy to extract that being the eldest daughter (shock!) has one thing to do with it.
“Determine the quantity that may calm your nervous system, then venture a couple of years down the road to see the actual image,” she tells me. A panic alarm sounds in my head—if solely it had been that easy. Feinsmith says that response is typical of cash dysmorphia. It makes long-term planning appear inconceivable, and she or he sees purchasers grapple with it at each earnings degree.
Addressing the iceberg
There at the moment are 72.9 million unbiased staff within the U.S., and nearly everybody needs to go away company jobs to begin their very own companies, amid the fifth yr of persistent inflation. King warns that these situations are more likely to breed extra widespread cash dysmorphia. Nevertheless it doesn’t should outline the solopreneur expertise. Small structural modifications might help shut the hole between notion and actuality.
“Have separate accounts for private and enterprise funds,” King advises. “Combining them distorts whether or not you’re feeling wealthy one month and poor the following. Keep away from months of paying your self nothing, and don’t overpay your self when issues go nicely.” Ideally, work towards a baseline wage or a set minimal to cowl prices.
As the top of the yr approaches, I’m significantly beguiled by different freelancers’ 2025 roundups, the place they spotlight their wins, earnings, and learnings. I’m all for championing the wins, however after ingesting a couple of, I fall into catastrophizing my very own steadiness sheet. King factors out that many of those “updates” confuse income with revenue.
“They’re not saying ‘I made X quantity, however then needed to deduct what I spent on outreach, subscriptions, and coaching,’ as a result of that’s not attractive,” he says.
This yr, I’ll be approaching the freelance wrap-up posts with warning. And after consulting the specialists, I’m extra satisfied that there’s no fast repair for monetary dysmorphia. But simply the concept of taking a pickax to my monetary iceberg makes me really feel calmer.
Maybe that’s the most effective financial stability a solopreneur can ask for: not excellent peace of thoughts, however the confidence to maintain transferring anyway.
