Earning Without a Pay Stub: Self-Employment Tax, Estimated Payments, and the Side Gig

In this episode of Money Lessons, Andy turns to the earners the pay stub episodes left out: the self-employed, the independent contractor, and the side gig.

He defines the five terms that matter — self-employed, the 1099, net earnings, self-employment tax, and estimated payments — and works through the tax bill on the same $50,000 last week's employee earned, so listeners hear what happens when both halves of Social Security and Medicare land on the self employed.

A trip back to 1943 explains why the self-employed still pay the way every American once did, and why the IRS wants four payments a year instead of one. The episode closes with Andy's rule for anyone earning without a pay stub: set the tax money aside the day the payment arrives, and put the four dates on the calendar.