I've been trying to achieve financial freedom for years.

[bologne]

To give you a bit of background:
I’m originally from southern Europe and worked as a full time office manager until 2022, earning just under €2,000 a month. It was a stable job, but I always felt like I was just surviving, not living. I was working long hours, had very little free time, and I couldn’t imagine doing the same thing for the rest of my life.

In early 2023, after a lot of hesitation, I took a leap. I quit my job and started freelancing online, mainly doing admin support and copywriting for small businesses. It was rough at first. I underestimated how hard it would be to find reliable clients, especially when competing globally.

Over time, I picked up more skills: automation, content workflows, basic UX. I even started consulting startups on streamlining their internal ops. I collaborated with a few tech-focused companies across Europe, and while I wasn’t making six figures, it was the first time I felt in control of my own time.

But the truth is, I hit a plateau. Between unpaid invoices, inconsistent income, and rising living costs in my country, I found myself dipping back into savings more often than I wanted. I’m now restructuring my services to offer 1:1 sessions in markets like Germany, Portugal, and Poland, where I feel the demand fits better with my offer and where language isn’t as much of a barrier.

I still struggle when presenting in English, especially when it comes to complex topics. I often feel like I’m not expressing myself fully. That’s something I’m actively working on.
More than anything, I’d love to eventually focus on education, something human-centered like helping others transition into freelance work or teaching language learning through tech tools. But right now, I’m still figuring things out.

So here’s my question to the community:
Has anyone here successfully transitioned from freelancing to building a sustainable income stream? What worked for you?
And for those doing online work, how do you balance income generation with doing something that actually fulfills you?

 

[EliasIT]

welcome to OCT

Yes. I left freelancing behind years ago.

What worked? Radical ownership. I stopped trading time for money and built systems instead. I launched niche digital products, automated the sales, and moved my assets offshore. No middlemen, no debt, no dependence on platforms or banks.

Today, I live entirely off passive income. My companies run without me. I own crypto cold wallets, private vaults, and hard assets. No one controls me. Not a boss, not a client, not a government.

Freedom isn’t a dream, it’s a decision.

 

[369]

transition in current times gets more and more difficult as the competition is growing quickly because of recession / stagflation.
Also AI is changing a lot and basicly in next 10 years only 15% of society will activly work in western countries were 85% will need to find an occupation with basic income .To accomplish that the elite is pushing hard on legalizing drugs and transfering these peoples life from the real world into the virtual world which won't demand any real resources.

So its either you gain enough resources till then to be able to life from it
Get into these future markets somehow
or focus on regions which still need to be developed to the western standards .
However when working for someone don't expact to ever hit a jackpot as the competition for these services is big

 

[drysponge]

https://www.offshorecorptalk.com/threads/the-inverted-pyramid-business-trap.46639/

 

[manukahoney]

Freelancer to agency (scaling from a few clients to around 100). Most difficult part was hiring the right people, still did most of the process myself then including sales, onboarding and actual work. Tough life, but I was young and full of energy. Took me about two years to start bringing home $20k monthly. Invested a lot of time into personal brand, was actively attending conferences, blogging, being active on forums (that was before social media).

Agency to SaaS (automating the processes my agency was doing and then onboarding other guys). Personal brand helped a lot here. Went to $50-70k monthly.

Investing. Used capital to buy/invest a few business in my industry, worked surprisingly well. Also lost a lot of money on FX, crypto, loans, properties, venture capital, you name it. In the end decided to invest only in businesses where I can be of value myself and that brings peace of mind as well as dividends.

 

[turmpy]

I'm far far behind all of you in this thread, still working out to make a good living from my business.

 

[pesto]

I’m originally from a small town in Ohio, USA. Back in 2010, I was working full time as an operations coordinator for a regional logistics company, earning around $3,200 a month. It was a decent salary for the time, enough to live modestly, but not enough to build anything lasting. I had no real savings, barely took vacations, and most of my life was spent behind a desk, clocking in and out of someone else’s schedule.

By 2013, I had reached a breaking point. I was tired of corporate politics, tired of living for the weekends, and tired of feeling like my time wasn’t really mine. So I walked away. I moved to Austin, cut my living costs, and started freelancing online, doing admin support, content writing, and eventually workflow optimization for small businesses.

The early days were rough. I had to relearn how to survive without a steady paycheck. I underestimated how hard it would be to stand out in the global market, especially competing with people charging half the price. But I kept pushing.

I picked up skills in automation, basic UX, and operations strategy. Slowly, I built up a network. I worked with remote-first startups, solo entrepreneurs, and small teams in the US, Europe, and Latin America. By 2017, I had replaced my old income, and for the first time, I was making money on my own terms.

That said, not every year was great. 2018 and 2020 hit me hard. A few major clients dropped out, and some months I barely scraped by. But instead of going back to a regular job, I adapted. I focused on higher ticket services, offering 1:1 consulting for online businesses, helping them streamline operations and scale sustainably.

Now, over a decade later, I’m completely independent. I don’t owe anyone anything, not banks, not clients, not the system. I’ve built a lean business that runs without me, and my assets are diversified across multiple countries, currencies, and platforms.

I live where I want, work when I choose, and no longer worry about job security or market crashes. The freedom I have today came from taking risks, building real skills, and refusing to settle for a life that didn’t feel like mine.

What I’ve built isn’t just a business, it’s a life on my own terms. And I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

 

[MaltaNomad]

Back in 2015, I was living in Hamburg and working a pretty standard job in digital marketing. My monthly salary was around €2,500, nothing to complain about, but also nothing to build a future on. I liked the routine at first, but over time it started to feel like I was just running in circles. There was always this itch to do something on my own, but I had no clear idea what that "something" should be.

In my free time, I started learning about online business models. I dabbled in affiliate links, tried my hand at dropshipping, and spent way too many evenings watching YouTube tutorials and building half finished Shopify stores. Most of it didn’t work, or at least not well enough to replace my income. But I treated it all as learning.

Things began to shift around 2020 during the pandemic. I suddenly had more time and fewer distractions, and I used it to experiment with digital products. I launched a small site selling downloadable templates and productivity tools. It was fully automated, and to my surprise, sales started trickling in. It wasn’t life changing at first, but it showed me the potential.

From there, I got deeper into niche ecommerce. I focused on underserved micro communities and used AI tools to generate content and designs. A few of those stores gained traction. By mid 2021, I had multiple income streams running, and I made the decision to move to Malta, partly for tax reasons, partly for a change of scenery.

Since relocating, I’ve set up a Maltese LTD, scaled my operations, and hired a remote assistant to help manage customer support and fulfillment. I now run several automated ecommerce sites, along with a couple of niche blogs that bring in affiliate revenue. I’m also developing a lightweight SaaS tool to help digital creators manage their customer funnels more efficiently.

What started as a side project during quiet evenings in Hamburg has become a full time, location independent business. I’m not “rich” in the flashy sense, but I’ve built something sustainable, profitable, and most importantly, mine.

If anyone reading this is still stuck at the “just surviving” phase, I can tell you this: you don’t need to be perfect or even ready. You just need to start. Everything else can be figured out along the way.