Right now, I am somewhat financially secure. Of course, I don’t think that there are many software developers out there who would say a guaranteed income of $1500/mo is secure. And I supplement this with a good amount of freelance work, but its mostly for the time being as I gather funds to move back to Portland, OR. So what am I doing?
Well, after reading this blog entry on why you shouldn’t become a freelancer, I realized that yes, these are valid reasons why the average person wouldn’t want to become a freelancer. But, if you are an ‘above average person’™*, then most of these negatives are actually positives. Granted, this might be the whole point of the article, but for me, and I suspect a few others, the impact is different. Because, while freelancing is lucrative but time consuming, it is only as lucrative but time consuming as you want it to be.
At this point, I schedule myself to work probably 20 hours/week of coding time. Add this with maybe another 10 hours of administrative junk and it seems like a decent chunk of time, but compared with other developers, freelance and otherwise, its pretty slim. That isn’t to say that I don’t spend a lot of time elsewhere invested, and thats why freelancing is so great for me. I can make money coding, and still have not only time, but energy to work on my personal projects.
Fortunately, my personal projects coincide and enhance long term goals as well, so it all continues to build and build, in a strictly real, and non-financial way (for now). I don’t imagine in the future that I will have gobs of money either. It’s something like when people recommend that you work hard now, make money, and save for your retirement. Except I’m working hard now, for myself, and hoarding my personal stock for a metaphysical payoff.
* ™ is so hot right now.
