I earn £232,000 as a freelance writer — my salary feels surreal

Welcome back to Me and My Money, Metro’s series taking a look at the UK’s spending and saving habits.

This week we meet Lizzie Davey, 34, a freelance tech and e-commerce writer from Brighton who has built a successful career that gives her an annual salary of more than £200,000.

Lizzie saves a lot of her income and hopes to retire by her early 50s. Here, she tells us how she manages her income and savings.

How do you make your money?

I’ve been freelancing for 12 years, starting aged 23 as a travel writer because I wanted to see more of the world without being tied down. I’d maxed out my annual leave at my job and wanted the freedom to travel as much as I wanted. I’m not sure I’d recommend that to everyone but it worked for me at the time.

As time went on I slowly evolved into marketing content because I’d originally worked in marketing before going freelance and that’s where my skillset was. 

When the Covid pandemic hit, e-commerce (online shopping) took off and I landed one e-commerce client. The e-commerce clients I work with are not actual retail brands – they’re the companies that create software for those retail brands to use. 

Now the majority of my clients are in the e-commerce software space, which is obviously still thriving. I write customer-facing content, such as blog posts, case studies, ebooks and also internal communications for companies such as technical documents.

I usually work with between seven and 10 clients a month on an ongoing basis. Mostly this involves writing a set amount of pieces or content for a client each month. It’s really helpful for predicting my income for the year and giving me consistent work.

How does it feel earning that salary?

It has taken me a while to get to this point. When I started I’d work 14-hour days and charge £25 per piece. Now my minimum rate per article is £850, and I won’t do anything under £500 unless it’s for a long-standing client looking for a small extra job.

Earning this much does feel a bit surreal as it’s an income I never ever imagined would be possible doing what I do. There’s a trope that writers are poor and self-employed people don’t earn much, so I was happy just to have the freedom to work my own hours. The money was a bonus as I’ve never been particularly money driven.

I definitely don’t live a luxury lifestyle, although I do eat out a lot more than most and travel more than my peers. I still have a budget though and set aside £500 a month for eating out, lunches, and doing fun things. I drive a 14-year-old Nissan Micra that has definitely seen better days, so I think that says it all! 

I think the thing to remember here is that while the business earns ~£240,000 a year, I don’t pay myself that much. I pay myself about £75,000 a year, so I don’t technically have a quarter of a million to spend on myself! The leftover money in the business goes into investments and will be saved for a time when I might want to take a year or so off. 

So you’re a saver, not a spender?

I’m definitely a saver when it comes to my personal money. I’m not a big spender AT ALL. I used to have a one-bedroom flat in central Brighton that I bought in 2021 but I wanted more space, so I updgraded to a 3-bedroom house less than three years later.

I bought a three bedroom 1930s renovation project in March last year in the suburbs of Brighton. It’s been slow progress because I drained the majority of my savings to buy the house but I’m about halfway through. I’ve had the kitchen and bathroom done and the garden is next on the list.

The majority of my personal money is going on the house renovations at the moment, so I don’t have a ton of savings, but I do go on holiday 4-6 times a year. These aren’t extravagant holidays by any means (I stayed in a hostel on the last one!), and I tend to travel cheap and stay cheap. My main aim when travelling is eating and exploring, so I’m not really a luxury traveller.

But my salary also means I have the freedom to say yes to things I want to do and I have quite a lot of hobbies I do throughout the week that I probably wouldn’t be able to afford otherwise. I still give myself a budget each month though, and try to stick with that.

My plan is to retire early – before the age of 55 – and I’ve got a financial adviser to help me with that and to keep my savings and investments on track.

I pay £1,000 a month into a pension and invest in the stock market through my company in other accounts that I can access before the pension.

Talk us through your working week

I work from a co-working space in central Brighton, which I pay £255 a month for, through my company. I really like the social aspect of working alongside other people, and with people who are often self-employed and get it. It was really useful speaking to other freelancers who told me my initial rates were too low and who showed me how I should be structuring contracts and sending proposals.

I start work early. I walk to my co-working space, which takes about 40 minutes, and am there for 8am. Between 8am and 11am is solid writing time. I put my phone on aeroplane mode, put my headphones on and listen to any music without lyrics while I concentrate on writing. Between 11am and 2pm, I’ll take calls and have lunch. Sometimes I’ll meet another freelancer for lunch or go to an event. Between 2pm and 4pm I’ll do emails, edits, admin or write an outline for the next day’s article. 

I’m usually done by 4pm except on Mondays where it’s more like 5pm or 6pm. I normally take Fridays off, except if I do work for my own website or social media. It’s really important to put yourself out there on social media and to build your own personal brand.

I send a free weekly email every Friday aimed at freelancers, where I discuss my work and rates. I’ll do a gym class in the afternoon, meet up with friends or go to the beach if it’s nice.

What advice do you have for building a business?

My advice for people starting now is to have a specific skill that you’re good at, that people want and need. For me, that’s marketing writing. But there are many writers out there who are trying to make it. And obviously AI has also become a new competitor, but clients still want the human side of content.

Clients come to me because of my industry expertise. I’ve worked so prolifically in the e-commerce space that I understand all the problems their customers have. These companies want to drive sales and drive conversions, which I help with, but also I save them time from having to write their own content. I’m reliable, clients can count on me and they know they’re going to get something good delivered on time. They are free to focus on other areas of the business to generate more revenue.

At some point I’ll probably pivot into more strategy and consultancy and less writing but for now I’m happy.