OT: Who freelances?

[jimoots]

I'm getting back into freelancing in web development in a big way while continuing to work full time; with an eye to building a nest egg and then dropping the full time job in 2-3 years.

So - does anyone here freelance for their primary source of income? Any regrets or mistakes or things you wish you knew when you were starting out?

Thanks all.

[R3awak3n]

I freelance 100% of the time. Been doing so for 5 years in NYC, was staff at a place in Seattle before and freelanced there for about 6 months after.

I work in vfx/commercial/tv as a compositor.

It has been great and would never take a staff job if it stays this way. The pay is nicer than staff (has to accommodate for the time you don't have a job, but knock on wood, I have not had any problems). I love the freedom, I can pick what jobs I want to work with what companies I want to work. I can take time off whenever I want (I don't do this a lot because I need the money atm).

This summer I have decided to take 2 months off to work on my house and just ride bikes... I might take a few remote jobs here and there and maybe even work a week here and there too.

I have no regrets as it has worked out well for me. I was permalance for a minute (thats what we call it, when you are freelance but work at a company for a while... I was there 6 months at a time for like 2 years). When the company started getting less work I had to find out more work and after 2 years you kind of loose your contacts and that sucked, had to rebuild my network.