[Chef]

Just started a new blog. So many people here who i think have achieved this, so please take 5 minutes to share your experiences with others.

http://freelifejob.blogspot.com

Thank you!

[Mikko K]

I don't really get this.. I think sometimes we may want this "freedom", yet most people are probably happy having strict boundaries to operate within (less thinking involved).

It's something to strive for, but I don't think being free from a daily job automatically makes you happy. Unless you want to be Paris Hilton.. My suggestion is to try and transform your favourite hobby into a job?

Or do you in fact associate self-employment with so called freedom? If that's the case, I'm sorry to inform you but that doesn't make you free at all. It's basically changing the employee/employer relationship into a entrepreneur/client one.

Just my 2 cents.

[Lunatique]

This is a complex topic.

For myself, the things I love doing in my free time are all creative things--composing music, writing, photography, filmmaking...etc. After being a professional artist for over 17 years, I find that when I have free time, I'd rather be doing something I don't get to work at work.

There is a danger of doing something you love for a living--you might get burnt out and it becomes just a job. This tends to happen when money is driving everything, and you are constantly compromising, taking orders from others, and not doing what "you" want--like you did when you were only doing it as a hobby.

Dealing with multiple bosses as opposed to one doesn't make freelancing any better--just different. Freelancing has its own set of problems--chasing down clients who are not paying on time (or at all), unstable income (can go through long stretch of dry spell unless you are well-known or have a big database of clients), and have to pay your own medical insurance. Some people also find it hard to separate work from private life when working at home, and they end up having negative feelings about their homes due to associating it with work. And if you have no discipline, you should not freelance--you'll procrastinate and kill yourself with every gig.

When I hung out with Feng Zhu a couple years ago in Singapore, he mentioned something that made me think about my own life. After having all the success and worked on all the big titles, he has now has gotten away from being an artist and is now a studio owner. He'd rather be flying airplanes than sitting in front of a computer (that's his passion). I asked him if he'll miss drawing/painting, and he said it's unlikely. I wonder how many people who, if didn't have to make a living with their talent/skill, would rather be doing other things with their lives--like traveling, playing video games, charity work, gardening, make furnitures.

I know for me, if I won the lottery, I'd still be doing all the creative things I love, since that's what I enjoy in life anyway. But of course, there will be a healthy amount of traveling, playing video games, watcing TV/movies too.

[Naeem]

Hmmm... guys, I think he may mean not having to work at all. No freelancing, or a regular job- nothing. Basically not having to worry about money at all: "How do we achieve this freedom from scratch in the least possible time?(by scratch i mean zero money)" . So... I think the blog may be more about finding such a way, rather then liberating yourself from a 'job'. Anyhow, that's what I got out of it.

[Lunatique]

Well, my wife and I are currently trying to invest in as many fruitful business ventures as possible, and the ideal is that eventually they can run on their own without us watching like a hawk everyday. Maybe just check the accounting once a month or something. That's about as close as you can get I think, unless you win the lottery.

Some people save up enough to buy an apartment building, hire a manager to take care of it, and then just kickback and relax.

I think to get to the point of not working, you'd have to plan very well and work very hard for the first part of your life. If that's your goal, you really should study finance or MBA or something like that, then become a banker or work on Wall Street and retire by the time you're 35.

[[Shizo]]

Be careful what you wish for.
Not working and relaxing all day might be the most boring thing ever. If you look at the successful people in any industry, you'll find out that they all work very hard. Then look at their children who got it all without working and suffering. What you usually see is a bunch of skill-less, annoying, spoiled brats.

Life is the process, not the end result.

[Tzan]

The trick is to not have to work, but have plenty of hobbies to occupy your mind and time. Just sitting around is a terrible thing to do.

[Jimmyjimjim]

[Chef]

Thank you for your thoughts guys! Don't get me wrong, I am not saying you should be lazy and lay around all day. I am just saying, I enjoyed graphic design very much when it was a hobby and a parttime job. But when i do it all day every day for money it started to become a routine that is burning me out and making me hate the thing I once enjoyed. Its sad really so in one month I will start freelancing. There are also problems there like unsteady income and procrastination, but I hope things will start to interest me once again. Before i started working I did a lot of painting and used to play in a band. Now i have no more time for those things. The blog is about doing what you love in life and also earning money with what you love, but without falling into the traps you guys mentioned(like laziness, not being your own boss, being submissive to people that don't deserve that etc.)...

[Mikko K]

So it's really about having freedom in your job and not "being free by not having a job"

[Lunatique]