He could probably go freelancing and earn a whole lot more. I earned a lot more as freelancer when working in The Netherlands compared to permanent employee. A

He could probably go freelancing and earn a whole lot more. I earned a lot more as freelancer when working in The Netherlands compared to permanent employee. And I feel in the UK it's probably much the same situation. In The Netherlands it's quite easy as freelancer to earn say 100.000 EUR a year and probably more. If you're a bit smart with taxes, you can have a very good standard of life, you'd be in the top 10% for sure. And even better: just do this a few years, save money and then move to some country with lower standard of living. You could probably retire before reaching 40 years of age if you started freelancing in your early 30s and be careful with your spending (if your single). With a family (children) the situation would be a bit more complicated. And yes, you could try to make some site or app to earn additional income outside of your job.