New to the party, so please bear with me. ?
In my book, $75,000-$90,000 a year sound rather high. To say the least. I've been a freelance video game translator and subtitler since 2002 now, and I never ever got anywhere near those figures. Of course, it all depends on your area of specialization and your language pair(s).
And please do keep in mind that somebody's palace is somebody else's poor house: I have colleagues living on something like 1/4 of that sort of money and they're happy campers. And I know people making twice as much outside of translation and they think they're trapped in a pointless job.
To me, it's crucial for any freelancer to be honest to themselves and take a very close, even painful look at how much it costs to keep them afloat. And take it from there, rather than running after some carrot on a stick, trying to strike it rich when, after all, they'd be much happier doing something else.
I don't know how many times fellow translators told me how much they envy me working "in games" and the how wished they could stop working medical or legal translation. And I know colleagues telling me the exact opposite. Maybe it's all about finding out what you're good at and then trying to make a living out of it?
