predictable freelance income

What's in today's newsletter?

The money system that reduced my stress
UX context layer inside your AI tools
Aurora generator
Vintage software
ASMR lamp making
Your own convenience store

Got 5 mins? Need your input →

I haven't had a real job since 2020.

Before, I had a steady and predictable $9,000 a month income.

Then in 2021, I was freelancing while figuring things out. Some months I made $2,000. Other months I netted $24,000. 🤯

I was making (way) more money than before.

But I was refreshing my bank app like a psycho.

One week I'd invoice a fat $8K. Feel rich. Upgrade my Notion account. Get a new monitor for my desk. Book a cheeky weekend trip somewhere nice.

Two weeks later, "wait... where did it all go?"

Panic mode. Check emails every time I touched my phone. Consider just white rice and soy sauce for dinner (it never came to that, but boy was I close).

I had to rethink my relationship with my earnings.

I was doing 3 jobs at once. At the same time getting confused about which role I’m in.

Let me explain.

Michael Gerber wrote this book called The E-Myth and he talks about how every freelancer plays 3 roles:

The Technician – does the UX work
The Manager – builds systems
The Entrepreneur – designs the business

Freelancers (me included) only operate as The Technician. When a big payment lands? "I earned this. Time to spend it." When there's a slow month? "Oh shit. I'm failing."

That was exactly how I felt. The emotional rollercoaster is what broke how I managed my money.

My approach was always "I’ll save what I don't spend." Budget responsibly. Live below my means. Put the rest away.

Sounds great. Doesn't work.

I had to flip it to spend what I don't save. Save FIRST. Then decide what to live on.

I started to design how I managed my money. That way I didn't have rely on my willpower alone.

Here's my system:

When payment lands, my brain is activated. I feel relief. I get the dopamine rush. I want a reward.

That’s a terrible time to make spending decisions.

Instead, I decided once how payments get split:

30% → Tax jail (gone immediately, never touched)
40% → Business reserves (runway, equipment, slow months)
30% → Personal salary (moves to personal account)

Payment arrives → automatic split → done.

I don’t need discipline because it’s by design.

How many months can you operate with ZERO new income? The one word that keeps me grounded with any money decision:

Runway

For example:

Monthly personal salary: $5,000
Monthly business costs: $2,000
Total burn: $7,000
Cash available: $35,000

Runway: 5 months

With 5 months runway, a slow week doesn't trigger a panic.
With 1 month runway, every delayed invoice hurts a lot more.

Runway is the buffer between my income and my emotion.

Look, I won't feel rich doing this. I'll feel steady. The more runway I have, the calmer I feel.

I'll turn down shitty clients because my runway says I can. I'll take time off without guilt-checking your phone (maybe).

Freelancing will always include uncertainty. But we get to choose what uncertainty means.

And that difference is not about making more money.

It's just about better allocation of the money I already have.

Got money troubles? I wanna hear about them. Hit reply!

A designer's bottleneck isn't finding design inspiration anymore.

These days, it's the opposite.

Every AI tool can generates variations of pretty much any UI.

The problem is they suck. They either look the same or look like pure tasteslop (scroll down for definition).

Enter Mobbin MCP →

Mobbin just launched a Model Context Protocol server that hooks 621,500+ real app screens directly into Claude, Lovable, Cursor—whatever AI tool you're actually using.

Translation: Your AI now has a real context layer

Ask it "how does Revolut handle a paywall?" and it pulls actual screens from the Mobbin library.

Ask it to design a KYC flow and it grounds the output in what top fintech apps are actually shipping—not what an LLM hallucinates.

This changes the game for:

Designers who need to brief stakeholders with real-world references (not made-up examples)
Product teams who want to move fast without reinventing the wheel
Vibe coders who want AI-generated UIs that don't look like tasteslop

Works with all the AI tools you're probably already using.

One click setup.

I've been using Mobbin since before they sponsored anything. This one's genuinely useful, especially if you're building with AI.

Big thanks to the Mobbin team for sponsoring this issue.

Try Mobbin MCP (readers get a discount)

So what's went down last week?

The going ons, happenings & shenanigans you might have missed ↓

This week's niche design tool: Aurora Generator

Mike Smith, from Smith & Diction, said he's been "building a tool with no meaning and no purpose"

I was about 🤏 this close to actually go to Murmansk, Russia 🇷🇺 to see the northern lights. Soon as Perplexity told me to pack for -25°C 🥶 I bailed.

But hey, now I can just generate my own aurora borealis without having to endure the Arctic winter, polar nights (where the sun does not rise), and getting frost bite on my nuts.

@jackcring built B2TF, a vintage mobile app directory

He collected dozens of retro apps that make the digital feel physical. You'll see examples of skeumophism at it's finest or submit your own vintage app.

This directory will only grow as folks start to crave experiences that feel tangible. rectangles brand is definitely heading in this direction too.