On being self-employed as a career for almost 40 years...
I quit working regular jobs in 1974, when I gave my notice to the County of San Luis Obispo, CA, where I was working in the County garage as a mechanic, helping to keep their fleet of cars running smoothly and carrying people around a large county. That wasn't my choice of a job, but it filled in for a while.
Before quitting, I had managed to sell some magazine articles to publications like Seventeen, The Mother Earth News, and a few others, and thought that I could turn that into a living.
Since that time, I've managed to do that, along with also running a small software company, selling mineral specimens to collectors (hence MineralMan), and now writing content for complete websites for small businesses. Managed, but not always well. Not always successfully, and not always adequately to live as I might have had I done something else.
Now, I'm 68 years old, and still working. I'll continue doing that until I can't, because being self-employed is always a feast or famine sort of thing that doesn't really allow for a balanced retirement plan and other such amenities. My wife does the same thing as I do and she's successful at it, too. We met at Comdex in Las Vegas, way back in 1990, both working on a freelance basis for the two largest consumer PC magazines. We were doing pretty well at that, and would still be doing well, except that that line of writing sort of ran out in the 2000s. Those magazines, along with a lot of other consumer magazines are gone...victims of the Internet.
Not that we're doing terribly. We own a home and a car and have no children, so we manage, one way or another to keep ourselves in food and utilities and such things. But, there's one thing that self-employment never does: It never gives you a paycheck on a regular basis, so there are always times when the next check is coming, but you don't know exactly when.
A client doesn't get paid by some of his customers, so he "can't pay you right now." It's an old, common story. So, you have to have a reserve on hand to fill in the gaps. It works, but there's no real security in self-employment. As long as you are doing something on contract, there will be times when your client doesn't get the money to you on a regular basis.
Just a note for those who are considering choosing self-employment as a career. Plan for those times. They will happen. Make sure you are always building a stash to cover those periods. The check will come, but it may not come on the day you wished it would come.
Sunday afternoon musings...
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living with the instability of a regular paycheck has probably taught you and Mrs. Mineralman a few skills that could not be learned any other way.......thank you for offering advice 