I Just Had a 2.5-month Vacation, Feeling Truly Free for the First Time.

This is an abridged version of my article on Medium

I started working as a contractor Software Engineer in 2000. As the only income earner, with two young children and no parent/relatives around, financial stress has been there (paying for my son’s treatment consumed a large percentage of our savings, and this lasted a few years).

Our family like to travel (in a comfortable way), and our favourite place is Japan. We have visited Japan several times (and are planning another one next year). The timing commonly is either Christmas or Easter breaks. Of course, plane tickets and accommodation are more expensive during that time. We often encountered long queues at popular tourist attractions, such as theme parks.

The “climate disparity” probably concerned us more. The Christmas time here (in Australia) is Summer, but in the North Hemisphere, it is Winter. When our children were small, they usually got sick quickly a few days after arriving at my parent’s place (sometimes one after the other, which was worse). This, of course, ruined the family reunion to a big extent.

Like many, we travel during the Xmas holiday period because we don’t work during those two weeks. Especially for IT contractors who earn by hours/days, while permanent staff have paid annual leaves. When we were budgeting a family trip (outside Xmas break), my wife would factor in the loss of income and the cost (hotel and other fees).

In 2018, I decided to visit my parents every year as they reached their 80s. Also, the children were old enough; I could go by myself. However, just after one trip, the COVID pandemic came. Chinese Government’s Zero-Covid policy (quite bad) lasted about three years. I booked a flight shortly after China reopened the border in Jan 2023.

It turned out to be my most relaxing holiday, and for the first time, I truly felt free. I wish I had reached this understanding ten years ago, which are

• Importance of Passive Income
• Do software work anytime, anywhere

I Dropped all other work for this Trip

The duration of the trip is two and a half months, starting in March. By any standard, it is a long holiday. There were two possible work engagements: one was consulting for a government project with promising prospects. I already received the purchase order (the funding has been allocated), but the work has been delayed a few times due to COVID and other reasons.

I booked the flight and texted the project manager (a former colleague), “I will go to visit my parents, and back in June”. She was very understanding. After all, it is this government department’s fault for repeatedly postponing the start date.

At that moment, I took great pride in getting my priorities right. I did not worry about the possibility of the consultancy contract being cancelled (looking that way now). I simply thought, “I need to see my parents after they have been through a 3-year zero-covid policy”.

During those 2.5 months, I didn’t think about contracting/consulting work at all, not even a single bit. (I will tell you why shortly.)

The travel time is good, too, with no climate disparity.

Every day there, I just accompanied my parents, doing activities such as

• Watch TV series (which I helped them set up)
• Get audiobooks for Mum to listen to while she is doing housework
• Shopping and eating outside
• Casual chatting
• Visiting relatives and friends
• Video chatting with my family in Australia

Not much at all. When my parents were busy or sleeping, I started doing my things, such as reading, writing (a dozen recent articles I wrote there), calligraphy, and minor maintenance work for my own apps (thanks to my E2E (via UI) Test Automation and Continuous Testing process, which made the work easy, quick and worry-free). I even designed a WhenWise module that helped my father’s tutoring business. He has been using it every day since May. I might write a case study for that in the future.

When my parents show up, I stop any of my work and accompany them.

As I said, it is a simple, relaxing holiday.

Some readers would say, “That’s not a big deal. I have had a long holiday too”. Here, I share my personal experience, not comparing it to anyone. I also had a couple of nearly 2-month overseas holidays too. The reason this one is so special for me: earning Passive Income during this vacation.

This is not a show-off. My current passive income is tiny compared to my (and your) contracting. Instead, it’s a reflection from a seasoned IT worker who wishes he had struck a better balance between work and spending time with family and on vacations. If I had not learned and practised real test automation (which led to my apps, books and Micro-ISV), still working as a senior software engineer (attending many time-wasting fake Agile ceremonies, using a sub-optimal language, e.g. TypeScript or bad framework/architecture, e.g. Microservices, but still had to talk myself into liking it), I probably still wouldn’t realize this.

Stay tuned for my next article on Passive Income, if you are interested.

Related reading:

• A Book Changed Me to Get on the Journey to Achieve Financial Freedom
• An Event Changed Me to Work for Myself: Attending One Former Colleague’s Funeral
• Software Engineer Choices: Permanent Employee vs. Contractor vs. Micro-ISV, Part 3: Micro-ISV