I Built a Free Freelance Rate Calculator - Here's Why Most Freelancers Undercharge

The Problem When I started freelancing, I made the classic mistake: I took my desired annual salary and divided it by 2,080 hours (40 hours × 52 weeks). $80,000 ÷ 2,080 = $38.46/hour Seemed reasonable, right? Wrong. I was actually earning way less than $80K because I forgot about: 🏥 Taxes (self-employment tax is ~15% on top of income tax) 💼 Business expenses (software, equipment, coworking, insurance) 🏖️ Time off (vacation, sick days, holidays) ⏰ Non-billable hours (admin, marketing, invoicing) The Solution I built FreelanceHourly — a free calculator that factors in ALL of these variables. How it works: Enter your target annual income Add your monthly business expenses Set your tax rate Specify vacation/sick days Get your real minimum hourly rate The Math Behind It Here's the simplified formula: Real Rate = (Target Income + Taxes + Expenses) ÷ Actual Billable Hours For that $80K example with: 30% effective tax rate $500/month expenses 4 weeks off per year 70% billable time Real rate ne