When Freelancing is a bad move

I can’t really remember much of the month of May, well not in a work sense anyway.

This is where freelancing really isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.  Yes you’re your own boss and you can roll out of bed and be at your desk, but when you’re seriously ill you start to realise how dependent you are on putting the hours in otherwise bills don’t get paid.

When I decided to “go freelance” back in February, everything seemed to be going well and work was productive.  Then I became ill with a horrible gastric infection which pretty much took me down for a couple of weeks.  Following my recovery from that, I appeared to be on the mend and was enjoying being back in work and of course, getting paid for it.

Fast forward to the end of April and I start to get more abdominal pains and a visit by my GP gets me admitted to Peterborough District Hospital with a suspected burst appendix.  Long story short, turns out I did indeed have a burst appendix, peritonitis too and thanks to being ill, haven’t worked since the end of April.

Thankfully I have some savings I can tap into but where’s the fun in that?  On a brighter note, some affiliate programmes I started just before I was admitted to hospital have been generating a little bit of revenue which is a nice surprise.

I’ve since looked into what insurance policies are available and as far as I can see, Critical Illness policies wouldn’t have helped me during my stay on the ward as they tend to cover the more serious conditions like heart attacks, coma, etc and typical medical insurance only covers the costs of treatments not loss of income.

So now I’m back home and starting to get back into the swing of things I know I need to be a bit more focused with my finances and put a decent amount away each month for those rainy days.