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Comment by nilkn | Hacker News Reader

This seems so risky to me. What do you do if a time comes when you can't find such high paying work so easily? Moreover, even if the plan works for years, how will you ever retire?

I'm all for seeking financial independence, but this seems the opposite. You're still completely dependent on work--the work is just more infrequent.

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IMHO that guy IS retiring... for 6 months every year. 4HWW-style. It makes a lot more sense if you see it like this. Plus he's enjoying his life while he is young and has enough energy to travel etc.

He's not running the risk of dying at 60 and never experiencing retirement.

That's all great, but doesn't answer the question, what will he do when he's too old to work?

Because he's not pushing himself too far, he'll probably be much healthier than others when he's older and still be able to work.

I agree, but it's not always in your control, and even then it just delays the same issue. Most people's health starts to decline before they die.

To be clear, I'm very much in favour of the approach that Nathan proposes. I just don't think it could replace retirement.

These aren't necessarily two extremes - he's not implying that he's not saving for requirement and taking a vacation, just that he's taking a vacation.

He could very well still be saving considerable amounts of money for retirement.

At no point did it say you have to only earn enough to get you through to the next year. If "enough" is, say, half of your spendings in a year, then you can still pursue both goals.

Retirement, in many ways, seems like a really poor bargain. It seems better to enjoy your "freedom" when you are young and healthy. Youth is wasted on the young, wealth is wasted on the old.

Also keep in mind that the tax company, at least where I'm from, will tax your income as though they occurred over the whole year.

That means you'll be paying quite a bit less taxes.

Indeed, it seems I greatly under-estimated the amount of money the author is making. He indicates elsewhere that he made $140k in the first quarter of 2014 alone. Annualized, this is far, far beyond what most freelancers are going to make (and indeed far beyond what most programmers in general will make).

He also clarified that he isn't a consultant. He sells ebooks, which continue to sell even when he's not working, so he still derives an income during his off-time.

In this case, I have to say, though, that the article isn't very useful. Someone with a potential income of >$500k/year, much of which is passive, has so many more options than 99% of people. I suspect the vast majority of the commenters here didn't realize the author was making this much money and also mistook him for a freelance programmer.

I'm doing something similar. I don't have a mortgage or kids, so I don't feel it's much of a risk. If I keep up my skills, I can always go back to full time work.

In the interim, I also decided to reduce my cost of living (cooking more, cheaper apartment) so I can weather any droughts of work.

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