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Comment by goldvine | Hacker News Reader

This should be way more common: "What I want is personal freedom to do what I want to do.

I live on on a $20,000/year salary because I can choose when and where I work. I can take the morning off and work late. I can work in the morning and take the evening off. I can travel for months at a time while working on my startup—like I did on a three month trip through Europe a few years ago, and planning to again this fall."

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Author here. Some updates: I raised my salary to $25k, and just finished that trip I mentioned — three months living/working in Belgium, Germany, and Prague. Happy to answer any questions about working abroad or anything else!

How did you like the Belgian beers? Living in Ghent (but in Berlin atm).

Love Belgian beer, love German beer, love American micro-brews, pretty much love every beer. It's rather ridiculous.

Curious how old you are now (guessing 26).

29!

How do you pay for healthcare when/if you're in the U.S.?

I have a sub-$100/month bandaid insurance from Anthem that includes 4 checkup visits a year, has been more than sufficient.

I find that often that freedom comes at a cost (I could make more at a big company, when on a deadline I might have to work long hours - I can't switch off at 5pm -, and ocassionaly relying on yourself rather than a fixed salary can be stressful) but for me those occasional disadvantages are much outweighed by the freedom of time. 90% of the time I can choose when, where and what I work on. Your choice depends on what you value more.

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