Freelancing

I'm wrapping up my second year of CS undergrad and I'm starting to burn out a bit.  My goal is to get my degree and live the "digital nomad" lifestyle, moving from country to country every couple of months (after a year or two of workplace experience/credential building).

I've heard that it's actually pretty hard to survive off of online freelance projects alone, as a lot of people want to meet in person and the good jobs require niche specializations.


Is this a realistic aspiration?  Could I support myself without an office job?

Office/corporate: Stable, secure, easier than self-employment/freelance, more vacation, better for raising a family

Self-employment/freelance: Unpredictable, high risk possible reward, lots of hard work, typical work weeks are 60+ hours, absolutely no vacation for the first few years, raising children in these conditions would produce future serial killers and goth hipsters

Take it from someone who's done both. Self-employment is fun, but lots of work. Working for a corporation is stable, but kills your soul. Both have their pros/cons. I recommend trying both at least once in your short life.

As far as nation hopping, moving is expensive and time consuming, so even when I was freelancing I still didn't travel. Working for a big company now I get 2 weeks vacation, and I usually spend 1 of those weeks during the summer taking a cruise or flying to another State. I've still never been to Europe or Asia.