Living The Dream: Freelancing and The Freedom Lifestyle

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Freedom often means different things to different people; but there are two common ingredients within the context of “freedom” that are fundamental to most people’s definition; that of having both the time and money to enjoy life on your own terms.  

 

This essentially means you can do the things you want to do, when you want to do them, where you want and with who you want… for most people, the most efficient path to achieve this is by becoming your own boss or at least not working for someone else.

 

That said, there is a tendency to think of this “freedom lifestyle” as something reserved for digital tech nomads or creatives, all working from their laptops in coffee shops in some SE Asian backpacker mecca… yet the freedom lifestyle isn’t limited to this group of people, and can suit a variety of different people, with different backgrounds and life goals – such as parents that want to spend more time with their children and less time at the office.

 

The challenge is, you need both ingredients, time and money, to reap the benefits of the freedom lifestyle, after all there are plenty of unemployed people that have a lot of time on their hands but wouldn’t feel “free” due to their lack of financial resources, and similarly, at the other end of the scale you can find people earning millions each year, but have no time to enjoy life, as they are consumed with their work.

 

Therefore, there needs to be a balance and one of the best ways to achieve that balance for most people is to embrace the ‘remote working lifestyle’ as a freelancer.

 

See, today, in the flourishing digital economy there is the opportunity to practically work from anywhere in the world, providing you have a laptop and a decent internet connection.

 

Whilst the freedom lifestyle isn’t intrinsically linked to travel, for some people it’s simply about having the time to be at home with their family and get more involved with their kids, many people are drawn into the freedom lifestyle on the promise of faraway shores in areas where the cost of living is much cheaper.

 

Indeed, you’ll have most likely heard stories of someone giving up their daily grind in order to travel the world; where they have exchanged the shackles of their nine-to-five job in order to work more for more flexible hours.  

 

That said, some people prefer not to work at all, and instead turn to CMC Markets to learn about spread betting, and stock market trading, in order to have their money work for them, rather than them having to work for money.  That said, for most people the stock market feels a little too up and down for them to bet their stability on, and therefore freelancing whilst perhaps dabbling in things such as the stock market is most people’s preferred choice.

 

However, being a freelancer can be tough, as if you are a freelancer trying to make a decent income, there’s strong competition and it’s international – meaning, there are people in countries such as India and Pakistan that are able to blow you out the water due to their discount pricing.  

 

There’s also a concern over the fluid nature of freelance work, that doesn’t tend to come with much security, and any moment your contract could be terminated.

 

The key advice, therefore, is to develop multiple streams of income rather than to rely on one particular source.  

 

The next nugget of advice is to develop skills that are in demand, and in particular, skills where the demand is likely to increase in coming years.  Here are three stable areas that are currently growing, as a trend, within freelancing that are set to continue:

 

VIDEO EDITING

With the ever increasing trend for user generated content, and video explainers on websites, the demand for video editing shows no signs of stopping.  The good news is that basic video editing is a skill you can pick up reasonably quickly and the software doesn’t cost much at all.

 

WEB DESIGN

Web Design is another booming market, and whilst, a few years ago web designers would require an understanding of coding language – today, there are plenty of simple website builders available.  Remember, you don’t need to be an exceptional designer to create value; you just need to be able to facilitate the tangible outcome the client wants.

 

COPYWRITING

Just as popular as web design and video editing is the art of copywriting where you essentially develop content for a client, whether that’s a blog post, some advertising copy, or a description of the business or service.