[mattchew]

Location makes a big difference. I live in the Midwest and there aren't many $125K positions out here. But a 3 BR house in good shape in a decent neighborhood can be less than 100K.

Freelancing at $~60/hour * ~30 hours/week can work fine here. You can raise a family on it no problem. You're not going to retire early this way, but different strokes for different folks.

[robotkilla]

Exactly - my goal has been self improvement / preservation over the last few years, not wealth, and I've been achieving this goal:

1. brought my suicidal depression back down to regular occasional depression

2. brought stress levels down to manageable

3. learned / learning 3 new programming languages, 2 platforms and 2 game engines and developed skills in pixel art.

achieved this by making money a secondary priority and living a life of near seclusion in my apartment (do have a daughter here 2 weeks per month and live with my gf so i'm not completely secluded).

edit: i've only worked 6 months this year and spent the rest improving my game dev skills. I usually take on 3 month contracts and then break for 1 to 3 months before my next.