Friends of mine in the Netherlands (i'm Dutch) who freelance are like me; once starting to freelance you rather work MORE than less. Not for the money but for the freedom of being able to take on whatever you like. And then ofcourse you don't like it anymore as you end up doing way to much. Jobs protect you from that (or should).
I don't know how that is in the US and would like to know as well. It's very possible in the Netherlands to do so though; you make enough with limited time, but I just see people start with that intension and then add up more and more , while people with 'jobs' work less and less.
It's the same with Freelancers in Germany (at least the ones I know). I've been working way more hours since I went freelance, however, only a fraction of them paid, since there is a significant overhead to doing freelance work (acquiring jobs, dealing with clients, chasing bills, taxes (those alone are a full-time job in Germany, sigh)). I think I went from about 40h in my full time job to roughly 60h now.
That said, I'm happier than ever before with my job. Because it makes a hell of a difference if you spend your time doing what you love instead of wasting away in a corporate office. And you will not even notice how much time you're spending on it.
A 20h week though - that only works if you are able to command a very high hourly/daily rate. The segment I work in, unfortunately, does not.
Most people I know are in software development in the Noord Holland area. My freelance days where a long time ago after university; I freelanced all over NL in software development, my first gig was in Den Bosch. After that I just started companies and moved things to a bigger scale :) Currently we do projects for Dutch, UK and German companies and that's what I liked most. I never liked freelancing very much really; it's all too chaotic for me (unless you take a 2-year project which is not in my nature).
I don't know how that is in the US and would like to know as well. It's very possible in the Netherlands to do so though; you make enough with limited time, but I just see people start with that intension and then add up more and more , while people with 'jobs' work less and less.