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Comment by radoomi | Hacker News Reader

Exactly in the same spot, I've recently gone freelance where I'm paid by the hour and I've yet to take a holiday cause I always think this week of holiday will cost me $$$ (huge amount of money compared to what a normal one week holiday would cost). Sadly, I will probably burnout soon and ignore that thought.

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> I've yet to take a holiday cause I always think this week of holiday will cost me $$$

I'm a long-time hourly freelancer, and it's absolutely true - the lack of revenue for that period will indeed cost you money. But not taking the holiday will cost you a vacation. I personally think about the value lost from not working, and the value gained from the vacation, and usually conclude that taking the vacation is the clear winner. It's all about establishing a proper value system and being honest with yourself about it.

I used charge hourly years ago. I had the same problem where taking a holiday made me think about losing money. Now I charge a monthly rate based on the number of days a week I work (roughly equating one month to 4 weeks, granted they're not but it makes life easier). Now I don't worry about taking time off because once I've clocked my days for that week I'm done I won't get paid more. It also means you know exactly what your income will be each month which is handy for budgeting.

Start charging day, week and month rates, along with retainer rates. For projects and clients you're confident in satisfying, also consider fixed prices for deliverables, revenue sharing deals, etc.

I took this list to gauge how many hours I want to work per year, and decided that 1500-1600 hours is enough, if it’s not, then the rate should be higher.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_average...

Damn thats a nice list. Today I learnt that despite living in the USA, I have managed to arrange my life so as to work about as much as the average German.

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