The average yearly rate divided by 1000 doesn't give me a very high number at all. Maybe it's because I'm in Europe, and salaries are much lower here.

Diving it by 100 and taking the result as a daily rate seems a bit more reasonable (and billing by the day is a better idea anyway), but is still on the low side.

Once you factor in 50% taxes, you have to bill 200 days a year to get the same income as before.

On top of that, I plan for 40% of time spent doing billable stuff, and 60% of client search, marketing, networking, and general business handling.

Once you take all that into account, freelancing suddenly becomes less attractive.