The psychological risk of a high bill rate

If you managed to negotiate a high 1099 bill rate, congratulations!

The highest I've ever billed is $183/hour.

I then took a gig billing $162/hour, because it allowed me to hire an employee.

But now that I'm in the market for another 1099 gig, I'm psychologically anchored to a minimum of $160/hour and would really prefer $180/hour.

The problem is, there aren't a ton of gigs for my type of work at $180/hour. They exist, but there are less of them.

There are far more $120/hour - $150/hour gigs out there, but I have been unwilling to entertain them, because I have an ego attachment to the highest bill rate I've ever achieved.

So if you end up taking a high bill rate gig, I'd recommend taking these precautions

• View it as "temporary" and just consider yourself lucky to get such a high rate
• Don't increase your lifestyle spend to match the higher bill rate. Anchor your spend to a lower, easier to achieve rate
• While you're still in your current high bill rate gig, keep networking and learning about other contracts that pay just as much or more as you're making now.

If you do this, you'll have more options for 1099 gigs and probably be in a better financial position longer term.

Want the full playbook? Check out Going 1099.