Most of us see 1 months holidays per year as a normal habit, it is basically the only thing you have ever conceived. Fortunately I had stopped this habit since 4 years ago… I like to take as much holidays as I can in the year, why not?
The 2 to 4 months holidays recipe
What do you need to make it possible? Well, is basically “savings”, if you have saving enough you can live from those savings without committing to work, you will be paying for these free time with your savings. The more saving you have the more free you are, the less savings you have the less free you are.
There are only 2 ways you can accumulate savings:
- You increase your income per hour above your living costs
- You decrease your expenses below your living costs
I normally combine both of them, I increase my income per hour by finding freelance contracts and look to my expenses and keep optimizing them so I can achieve my yearly holidays’ target.
What are really holidays?
I call work period when I am in a period where “I am committing to work” and holidays when “I am not committing to work”, basically when I am on holidays I am free to work or not, and most of the times I won’t be making money. If you are thinking of holidays as just spending the whole day taking sun in the beach drinking orange juice and doing just nothing… Well that could be the holidays for some, I can do that for some days only.
It is also possible to take the sun while making money, that would mean that you have managed to create a system that creates and delivers value without depending on your time.
Holidays are really the periods where you are fully free to decide what to do with your time.
The freelance way to long holidays
Freelancing allows you to make at least 3 to 4 times more money than working as an employee (with exceptions). You make more money because you have more risk. But you can minimize this risk by becoming stronger in your skills.
I look for 3 to 6 months freelance assignments in my area (Netherlands) in which I will be working 8 hours per day. It takes me from 5 days to 15 days to find one assignments in average. I make sure I work enough hours so my savings for the project allow me to survive 2 to 3 months without any income.
After 4 months of work, I will be taking my first 1.5 to 2 months of holidays (I am currently in holidays). I repeat the procedure again and again.
How you can make it too
You can increase your holidays per year too! Freelancing is not a requirement but it could be a good choice if you have a good skill (for example if you are working on a senior position currently). I invite you to watch my videos on the subject.
In any way, remember: increase income, decrease expenses, or preferably both. Accumulate saving and plan your well deserved free time.