I listed some quick-shot ideas there, did you see them? Ultimately you will have to see and try for yourself how well they work and what other opportunities are there - scout the terrain yourself.

> I care about maximizing my free time and maintaining a somewhat decent standard of life. Ideal scenario for me: a high hourly wage + the freedom to take on work in whatever chunks I prefer.

Most of this SCREAMS consulting, you could be making more a week than you are making a whole month now... but you have to put that into perspective. As a self-employed consultant, you will have to take care of all your taxes and insurances but at the same time you can effectively buy computers and certain other things MUCH cheaper (practically no value-added tax). You will have to find customers, projects or are lucky enough to find longer lasting maintenance gigs but YOU will have to do that. You will be your own boss and depending on your customers, your working hours might be extremely flexible but you will also have new and different responsibilities... taxes and insurances are one huge part of that, the other is that lovely thing known as "liquidity" that can break your neck faster than anything else. And when you are a consultant in some software-product niche, then chances are whoever makes that software will actually sign the deal with the customer and then pass it on to you but of course they will bite a nice chunk off first... but on the other hand this might also be a chance to get started and meet people and customers, use their name, reputation and connections.

Another thing is "taking on in whatever chunks I prefer"... generally, yes, you could say yes and no to any offer but chances are you will NEED them. So, while you are a lot more flexible that also means you are more dependent on actually having something to do that will ultimately pay the bills. You won't be able to simply rely on recurring, reliable amounts of money. Oh and there are customers who will just make you wait for whatever money they owe you because like I said above, everybody is liquidity's bitch and in the worst case you might not get paid at all... that is definitely a risk you will have to carry and be aware of.

So ultimately, those 4 figures a day sound insane at first but you will have to dig deeper and really weigh the ups and downs and whether it is something you like because ultimately it ends up being less; possibly still handsome but chances are your actual work won't just be "doing task x for customer y" but you will also have to do a, b and c just like a real company would have to - because ultimately, you actually ARE your own company at that point. Your best bet is to read up on it as much as possible, talk to self-employed consultants a lot and since you are European, chances are your government offers some sort of "kick-start" help, training or even funding when you start your own little "company".

Oh and, stay self-employed and if you need help, find other self-employed contractors before you take on actual employees working for you. European law doesn't frakk around when it comes to employees... save yourself that trouble for MUCH later.

The bottom line is: it has a lot of positive and a lot of negative sides when compared to a regular 9-5 job and you will have to weigh them yourself and see how it works out... it is definitely an interesting experience and can be such an exhilarating, empowering feeling because YOU are working for YOURSELF and make all the decisions but remember that most "startup" companies like that typically don't make it over the first 1 or 2 years and a LOT of "I can write Java really well" guys are desperate for gigs on the side because it is hard finding a project... so they write books or teach. That's why the idea with the niche. And see what your government, chamber of commerce etcetctec can do for you.

Good luck.