How Freelancers Can Stay Financially Secure During Eid Without Holiday Bonuses

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA – Being a freelancer presents unique challenges in managing cash flow, particularly due to irregular monthly income and the absence of the Holiday Allowance (THR) that serves as a lifeline for salaried workers during Eid al-Fitr. Financial educator Aliyah Natasya has stressed the importance of freelancers calculating their annual average income as a basis for monthly budgeting, so that the festive season does not become a source of financial distress.

According to her, within any 12-month cycle, every business will inevitably experience “good months” and “bad months”, making it extremely risky for anyone to draw up a budget based solely on income expectations from their best-performing months.

The key to survival for freelancers, she said, is recognising client spending patterns and having a personal marketing plan, much like a company would. “One thing I learnt from the media industry is that we actually have a marketing plan, where we also know when our clients will be spending. So it’s the same marketing plan that we should be using as freelancers,” she explained.

Aliyah also advised self-employed workers to thoroughly understand their cost-of-living limits and to immediately begin building a reserve fund or buffer during the early years of their careers. “In my first year, my focus was on having a buffer. So if my savings hadn’t reached that level yet, I was fully aware that I couldn’t afford holidays or any discretionary spending,” Aliyah Natasya said at the tiket.com press conference and iftar gathering in Jakarta on Monday (23/2/2026).

For her, self-awareness and the ability to manage emotions when it comes to spending are the most effective financial safeguards. “It’s tough, but once you get through the first year, then the second year, by the third year you already know what the pattern looks like,” she said.