

Ask HN: Screwed my life and career. Can it be fixed? - aloser

I believe many of the best minds in the world read HN and they can provide best advice on almost anything including life, career, technology and business. So, I am asking my question here.<p>My story so far: I am in my early 30s. Unmarried. Without house. Without money in bank. Without insurance. I am a software developer. I started freelancing right after graduating from high school. 2 years after graduating from high school, I went to college and got a bachelors degree. Then went for masters degree immediately after getting bachelors degree. Completed first semester. Then got ill severely in second semester. Survived somehow. Dropped out of masters. I was at home on rest for almost 1 year. Went to work for a mid sized software company. Got frustrated after experiencing the corporate politics. Left the company after working for 2 years and started freelancing full time. Freelancing for 6 years. I worked a lot but didn't make much money because most projects are very small. People of my age are married, have children, houses, cars, insurance, cash, good position in companies. I am a loser today. I am nowhere. Is there any way you think I can catch up with people of my age? Can I have a successful career if I start now? What do you suggest? I am not among the smartest guys in the world. But I am not dull either. I am broke mentally, financially. Thanks in advance for your answer.
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wilig
There is only one way to really be a loser, and that's to stop trying.
Remember you define your life and your goals.

Stop looking outside yourself for what you are expected to have achieved.
Spend some time and figure out what is really important to you. The rest be
damned. People have successfully re-started their careers well into their
60's.

The only way to truly fail is to stop trying.

Good luck!

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gexla
You are getting left behind in the rat race and this is making you miserable.
And what happens if you finally do catch up? Will that truly make you happier?
Perhaps the best way to be happier is to completely exit this race and design
a new lifestyle

Here's an idea. Move abroad to an area such as S.E. Asia where you can reset
your expectations in life and live cheaply. The new experiences will inject
excitement into all the little things you never noticed back home. Your frugal
lifestyle will allow you to save money at a more rapid pace. Perhaps you would
even be able to sock away the same amount of money each month as friends and
family who are making a lot more than you are. Certainly this would be the
case if you measured your savings based on your lowered living expenses (one
mediocre month of freelancing in some places can bring in enough cash to pay
for many months of living expenses in some regions of S.E. Asia.)

If you were to setup a legit business elsewhere, then you get all sorts of
interesting options for lowering your taxes. The Philippines has special
economic zones where new businesses can get a tax holiday for something like 3
- 6 years. Your personal income isn't taxed by the U.S. until it hits
something like 90K per year (assuming that you're personal income is being
taxed by the country you are residing in.) With creative accounting, you could
probably figure out all sorts of ways to seriously reduce your tax bill (or
even eliminate it entirely.)

Maybe you want to get out of freelancing but still enjoy working
independently. What better way to bootstrap new business ideas than by living
in a country where you can pay your monthly bills with one hour of billable
work per day? That gives you a lot of free time to develop other ideas. Or you
could build up your savings and then do something radical like doubling your
rates. There are also interesting opportunities in emerging markets which
aren't options in the U.S. because of higher levels of saturation and
competition.

Don't short change yourself. You have six hard earned but valuable years of
freelance experience. Get out of the rat race and watch everyone else envy you
rather than the other way around.

