I'm currently a software developer working for a large company, but I'm planning to try to get into freelance work in the future mostly for the remote / flexible work opportunities. However, I keep debating with myself whether or not I should just go for it now or stay at my job and build up more of a stash first.
I'm currently making 70k and spending ~10k per year, but that would probably go down to ~7k per year if I left my current position (Would be staying with friends, family, campgrounds). I've currently got ~70k in investments so there would be plenty of time to spend building a portfolio up and marketing before having to find paying clients. However, I've still got the nagging feeling that I should be staying a little longer to build up more of a stash, but I think that's just out of fear and it would actually work out just fine.
This could be another case of the whole work hard / retire early vs take it a little easier and retire a bit later debate. I do enjoy writing software enough that I could see myself being very happy with it for a long time as long as the flexibility of time and geography was there. As a result of that I think I'd be ok with potentially making less money and delaying retirement by going the freelance route.
The other issue is that when taking this job I got $5k in moving reimbursement that I would have to give back if I leave within the next six months. I'm definitely going to make the jump after that, but keep going back and forth about whether I should just go for it now instead.
Any thoughts from my friends here, since everyone I know in real life is either a full on bum or stuck in the corporate world?