Priya Kapoor

Side hustler + W-2, 31

Modeled the financial impact of going full-time freelance and found the savings runway she needed before making the leap.

The challenge

Priya earns $118K as a senior UX designer plus ~$32K/year from freelance contracts. She's been considering going full-time freelance for two years but kept stalling because she couldn't answer the core question: how much runway does she need, and what's the worst-case outcome if freelance income drops 40%?

How they used Horizons

1Built a baseline scenario holding her current W-2 + side income through age 65.
2Built two freelance-only scenarios: 'good' ($140K) and 'rough first 18 months' (30% revenue drop, recovery by month 24).
3Modeled the loss of employer 401(k) match and health insurance, adding a realistic Solo 401(k) contribution and marketplace premium.
4Ran Monte Carlo on each path plus a 'bridge' scenario with 12 months of cash reserves.

The outcome

Required runway to tolerate the rough-year scenario without dipping into retirement: $47K cash cushion.
Long-run net worth at 65: $1.8M (W-2 baseline) vs. $2.1M (freelance good) vs. $1.5M (freelance rough, no cushion) vs. $1.9M (freelance rough, with 12-month cushion).
The cushion scenario preserved 95% of the baseline's retirement security even in the worst freelance case.
Priya built the cushion over 10 months, then quit her W-2 role in Q4 of the following year.

“Before Horizons, 'am I ready to go freelance' was an anxiety question. Now it's a math question — with an answer I can point at.”
— Composite profile of Priya Kapoor, side hustler + w-2, 31

Features they relied on

Income scenario modeling
Self-employment expense modeling
Solo 401(k) + marketplace premium projections
Monte Carlo risk analysis
Cash runway modeling

Takeaway for readers with a similar situation

If you're considering going freelance, don't just project the best case. Build a rough-first-year scenario and model the cash cushion you'd need to ride it out.

This is a composite profile built from real Horizons beta usage patterns, not a named individual. Numbers are representative of the stated situation but any one person's outcome will differ based on their own financial circumstances. See our disclaimer.

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