Self-employment method
Other financial investment activities
293,269 people filed as a nonemployer business under this industry code in 2022 — no payroll, no employees, just them. These are gross receipts reported to the IRS, before any expense is taken out.
Median GROSS RECEIPTS for the year — money in, before rent, materials, fuel, insurance or tax. This is not take-home pay.
Share who grossed under $10,000 for the whole year — before expenses.
The middle half, in gross receipts. A quarter of filers took less than the lower figure.
Source: US Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics 2022 · view
How often it does not work out
Of the 293,269 people who filed under this code in 2022, 31.87% grossed under $10,000 for the entire year — before a single expense was deducted.
That is a floor, not an estimate. Census publishes GROSS RECEIPTS, not net income. Everyone inside that share earned less than the figure suggests once rent, materials, mileage, insurance and self-employment tax came out — and filers who grossed well above the threshold may still have netted nothing. The true share of people who earn nothing meaningful from this is higher than the number above, never lower.
Denominator: establishments_total = 293,269 · US Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics 2022 · view
Every filer, by what they grossed
The full distribution Census publishes. The median above is interpolated inside the band that holds the 50th percentile.
| Gross receipts for the year | Filers | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Under $5,000 | 59,155 | 20.2% |
| $5,000 to $9,999 | 34,297 | 11.7% |
| $10,000 to $24,999 | 48,232 | 16.5% |
| $25,000 to $49,999 | 37,125 | 12.7% |
| $50,000 to $99,999 | 36,336 | 12.4% |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | 40,765 | 13.9% |
| $250,000 to $499,999 | 20,943 | 7.2% |
| $500,000 to $999,999 | 12,546 | 4.3% |
| $1,000,000 to $2,499,999 | 2,904 | 1.0% |
Who this suits
The median filer grossed $28,008, or $2,334 a month before expenses. That is an operating business at part-time scale: enough revenue to be worth running properly, not enough to be the only thing in the household.
At 293,269 filers, Other financial investment activities is crowded. Crowding is survivable — most of those filers are not serious competitors — but it does mean the floor on price is set by people who are not costing their own time.
77,423 filers, 26.4% of the total, took $100,000 or more in receipts. Read the size of that group as evidence about turnover in Other financial investment activities rather than about income: the costs scale with it.
Independent investment work suits people who can build a book under a compliance regime that assumes bad faith and audits accordingly.
Nothing stops anyone filing under this code, and 293,269 people did. Free entry is why the lower bands are as full as they are: the distribution below counts everyone who tried, not everyone who was ready.
Who should not do this
16.4x between the quarters — $7,029 against $115,021, or $8,999 a month. This is the shape of a field where a minority does very well and the summary statistics quietly borrow their success.
The bottom quarter of Other financial investment activities earns under $7,029 — $42,991 below the $50,020 a typical American job pays. Entering at the bottom and waiting is a live risk here, not a theoretical one, and some people never leave that quarter.
Do not start this underestimating the compliance overhead; it is a permanent cost, not a setup cost.
31.9% — 93,464 of the 293,269 filers in 2022 — grossed under $10,000 for the year. That is not the tail of the distribution, it is a third of it, and it is measured before any expense came out.
Read that as a floor, not an estimate. Census publishes gross receipts, not net income, so everyone inside that share earned less than $10,000 suggests once costs came out — and filers who grossed well above $10,000 may still have netted nothing.
What the spread tells you
At 16.4x, the gap between $7,029 and $115,021 is the shape of a field with a small, well-paid top. $28,008 is real and it is not a forecast — the people quoting the upper end at you are describing a minority.
The middle half of this field earns between $7,029 and $115,021. That is $107,992 of range, with $28,008 sitting inside it as the point half the field is above and half below.
The 75th percentile is $115,021. Reaching it from the $28,008 midpoint is $87,013 a year; reaching it from the $7,029 that the bottom quarter of Other financial investment activities earn is $107,992.
The top quarter of Other financial investment activities begins $87,013 above the $28,008 midpoint, while the bottom quarter starts only $20,979 below it. A range stretched that far in one direction is the signature of a field where a small group earns a great deal more than the middle does.
Per hour of a full-time year, the middle of Other financial investment activities takes $13.46 in revenue — $3.37 at the bottom quarter and $55.29 at the top. Costs have not been deducted from any of those figures, so none of them is an hourly wage.
The raw counts, before anyone interprets them: under $5,000, 59,155 filers. $5,000 to $9,999, 34,297. $10,000 to $24,999, 48,232. Over $100,000, 77,158 — and 36,393 over $250,000.
What these figures are, and what they are not
Every figure above is GROSS RECEIPTS, before expenses — money that arrived before rent, materials, fuel, insurance and self-employment tax. The $28,008 midpoint for Other financial investment activities is not take-home pay and is not comparable to a $28,008 salary.
The hourly number on this page is $28,008 divided by a 2,080-hour year and nothing more. We hold no unpaid-hours or cost data for Other financial investment activities, so it is arithmetic rather than an effective rate.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else