Can You Really Live on $10,000 a Month? A Freelancer's Guide to Monthly Five-Figure Earnings

The question of whether $10,000 a month is a good income depends entirely on where you live, your lifestyle choices, and your financial goals. But one freelancer’s journey reveals that reaching this milestone—and even exceeding it—is more achievable than most people think. The key isn’t about cutting every expense; it’s about taking control of how much you earn.

Michael Keenan, co-founder of Peak Freelance, didn’t start out wealthy. Growing up in a working poor household, he learned early that financial stability required more than just careful budgeting. After college in 2014, he was waiting tables and saving tips in an envelope. Within 7-8 months, he’d accumulated $10,000—enough to fund a trip to India. That experience planted a seed: if he could reach this amount through part-time work, what could he achieve by building multiple income streams?

Why $10k Monthly Matters More Than You Think

Fast forward to 2023. Keenan had transformed his financial life through freelance writing, eventually turning it into a full-time income. By March of that year, he faced a new challenge: maxing out his retirement contributions for tax year 2022 would require one additional $10,000. This time, he didn’t rely on the slow envelope method. Instead, he focused entirely on the income side and took on extra writing projects. He earned and banked an extra $10,000 in a single month.

Is $10,000 monthly income actually “good”? The answer shifts based on context. In many U.S. cities, this five-figure monthly income provides comfortable breathing room. But Keenan’s achievement also highlights something crucial: whether $10k monthly is sufficient depends on two factors—where you choose to live and how intentionally you structure your spending.

The Real Strategy: Control Your Income, Not Just Your Expenses

Keenan’s philosophy diverges sharply from traditional financial advice about penny-pinching and restrictive budgets. He argues that controlling your income is more powerful than obsessing over every dollar spent.

“You have to control your income in order to save money,” Keenan explains. This means finding ways to earn more while maintaining influence over how much you actually take home. “Especially with the cost-of-living crisis people are facing, the only way forward is to start controlling your income. You can’t have your earnings capped by someone else.”

Even as a server, he applied this mindset. He realized that tip percentages ranged based on service quality—he could earn 22% with exceptional service versus 12-15% with mediocre effort. The difference? Agency over outcome. He wasn’t trapped by a fixed wage; he could influence his earnings through performance.

While Keenan doesn’t advocate quitting your primary job immediately, he strongly recommends building a secondary income source where you hold more control. This might mean:

• Freelancing: Writing, design, consulting, or other specialized skills
• Service-based gigs: Bartending, tutoring, or event planning for higher tip potential
• Monetizing hobbies: Turning skills or interests into paid opportunities
• Part-time entrepreneurship: Building a side business that scales with effort

The mindset shift matters more than the specific path: “If you want to save more money, you need to bring more money in. Corporate ladder climbing isn’t necessarily the most effective route to that.”

From Survival Mode to Strategic Wealth Building

Once Keenan’s income crossed into six figures annually, his relationship with $10,000 monthly transformed. It was no longer about scraping together every last dollar for a travel fund; instead, it became the foundation for strategic wealth deployment.

Here’s where having consistent $10k monthly income becomes truly valuable: it enables financial security. With an emergency fund in place and retirement contributions maximized, Keenan no longer operates from scarcity mentality. He can order food delivery without anxiety about the cost. He can weather unexpected expenses. He can take calculated business risks.

“You don’t feel like you’re panicking at your desk, needing to make rent or cover food,” he notes. “That mental shift—moving away from scarcity thinking—changes everything.”

With his $10,000 monthly baseline secure, Keenan’s strategy evolved. Rather than letting money sit stagnant, he now makes his money work actively:

• High-yield savings accounts: Taking advantage of elevated interest rates on liquid reserves
• Stock market investments: When rates were lower, this was his primary growth vehicle
• Direct business investments: Deploying capital into other ventures for potential returns
• Retirement account maximization: Ensuring tax-advantaged growth

His monthly surplus shifted from funding experiences to funding wealth multiplication.

Is $10k Monthly Enough? A Practical Framework

Whether five figures monthly is “good” ultimately depends on your answers to these questions:

Location-based assessment: Are you living in a high-cost city like San Francisco or New York (where $10k is modest) or a lower-cost region (where it’s quite comfortable)?

Lifestyle inflation: Can you maintain a modest lifestyle even as income grows, or do you automatically expand spending to match earnings?

Financial goals: Are you aiming merely to survive, achieve comfort, build wealth, or reach financial independence?

Time constraints: How much energy can you realistically dedicate to income growth while maintaining work-life balance?

Keenan’s experience suggests that $10,000 monthly is less about the absolute number and more about what you do with the opportunity. He demonstrated that reaching this level doesn’t require inheritance, corporate advancement, or extreme lifestyle deprivation. It requires intentional income growth paired with reasonable spending discipline.

The pattern emerges clearly: those who successfully earn and maintain $10k monthly—or beyond—tend to focus their energy on scaling income rather than obsessing over every expense. They build skills, seek higher-leverage work, and create multiple revenue channels. They treat their earning potential as something to develop actively rather than something fixed by an employer.

Whether $10,000 monthly is good income for you ultimately comes down to your personal situation. But as Keenan’s journey illustrates, reaching—and sustaining—this level is entirely within reach for anyone willing to shift their focus from cutting costs to expanding earnings.