The Benefits of Benefits (and the benefits of no benefits)

Being 100% freelance with no regular contracts, I have no benefits to give up. However, about two years ago when I worked for one specific publisher, I had decent benefits — health, 401k, bare minimum vacation (2 weeks, one week sick), and that's it. Oh, and life. I almost forgot about that one. In that situation, I would have kept the health (my wife was in school at the time, so I covered her too), the 401k was nice, and the vacation — while lame compared to my previous vacation plan (from a British publisher who gave 4 weeks starting and weren't sticklers about sick days) — is a must.

So I guess that today, my vacation time is when I spend money I'm not making. I enjoy every second of it and would like to do that more often. I benefit from my wife's benefits, as I'm on her insurance now. I am forced to sock away my own money into a SEP-IRA, which has taught me better financial discipline; so has paying quarterly taxes.

I also now realize what an hour of my time is really worth. And I've found that often, making nothing for hours is completely worth it.