Self-employed? Start investing with Sharesies and HnrySelf-employed? Start investing with Sharesies and Hnry

Hnry is an app that lets independent earners manage all of their tax and financial admin in one place. To find out more, we chatted with Karan Anand, Head of Australia at Hnry.

Tell us a bit about Hnry

Karan: Hnry is built for independent earners. We’re a revolutionary app that allows contractors and freelancers to manage all of their tax and financial admin in one place, so they never have to think about tax again.

Whenever you get paid, Hnry automatically calculates, deducts, and pays all of your taxes (including GST, income tax, Medicare levies, and student loan), before passing the rest of your money to your personal bank account straight away. You can set up Allocations to put money aside for things like super and investments. As your accountant, we’ll also lodge your returns (income tax and BAS) whenever they’re due—all as part of the service!  

What’s the Allocations feature?

Karan: Hnry’s Allocations feature allows Hnry customers to send a percentage of their income anywhere, every time they get paid. Our customers use Allocations to automatically pay into their superannuation fund, savings, and investment accounts. Some even use Allocations to send money to friends and family.

One of the reasons we created Allocations was to help sole traders manage their cash flow. Contractors and freelancers often have unpredictable income—one month they may earn a lot, and the next month they may earn very little. Allocations allow our customers to pay into savings only when they’re earning, so they can streamline their finances while preventing cash flow issues.

For example, if you’re a Hnry customer and want to set up an Allocation to your Sharesies Wallet, all you need to do is open the pre-created Sharesies Allocation in Hnry and enter your Sharesies reference number and the percentage of each payment you want to be sent to your Sharesies Wallet. We’ll make sure that amount is sent off each time you get paid! 

Why is it important for independent earners to set themselves up for their financial future?

Karan: Being self-employed is an amazing experience. It’s empowering to work for yourself, and often there’s a lot of flexibility that comes with the territory.

But it also means your income can be inconsistent. To succeed as a sole trader, you must be prepared for periods where you’re not earning. This is where financial planning comes in—it’s important to have a strong financial foundation of savings and investments before taking the leap into self-employment.

It’s equally important to have a plan for how you’re going to manage your taxes, expenses, and other financial admin before striking off on your own. If you’re not calculating and deducting taxes from your income from the beginning, then you could end up facing a tax bill at the end of the financial year.

What are your top money tips for independent earners?

Karan: Whenever possible, take advantage of new technology and services to save yourself time and stress. 

Services like Hnry allow you to automatically manage the challenging parts of being self-employed, freeing up your time to focus on your business or family. Technology enables newbies to skip the traditional harsh initiation that many self-employed people experience when they first start out. 

For PAYG employees who don’t bill hourly, time isn’t necessarily money. But for contractors and freelancers, the cost of spending several hours rustling up old receipts is easy to calculate. Use time-tracking apps to keep aware of how many billable hours you’re throwing at your financial admin.

When it comes to financial planning, use budgeting apps to help you identify your weak points for saving and investing, and then take advantage of services, like the Sharesies platform, which give investors access to share markets.

What trends and themes are you seeing in self-employment?

Karan: We’re in the middle of a massive global shift towards independent earning. Contracting and freelancing have more appeal than ever before, and we think there are several reasons for this shift.

Flexible working is a hot topic at the moment, especially in the wake of COVID-19. Over the last two years, individuals have seen the benefits of being able to set their own hours and work from home. Hnry has seen a steady rise in customers taking contract roles since the start of 2020. 

Similarly, businesses are seeing the value of dynamic resourcing, which involves using a mixture of permanent and contract staff to meet capacity. Using a dynamic resourcing model allows businesses to reduce their exposure to economic downturns while still being able to increase temporary resources (through contractors) when required.

Finally, there’s now an abundance of tools and services in the market to support people who want to take the leap into self-employment. Many of these tools didn’t exist a decade ago. For those looking to give it a go as a sole trader, there’s significantly less risk and administrative hassle holding them back. At Hnry, we take a great deal of pride in making life less stressful for sole traders—and making new opportunities more accessible for everyone.

Head to the Hnry website for more info on how to set up an Allocation to your Sharesies Wallet from Hnry.

The views and opinions expressed above are of Hnry (Australia) Pty. Limited and are not the view of Sharesies Australia Limited. Sharesies Australia Limited and its related entities are not a related body corporate of Hnry (Australia) Pty. Limited or its related entities.