Honestly I've freelanced in the past and my wife has been freelancing for the last 15 or so years. I hate it. Basically you're going to job interviews once a week and its really feast-or-famine (mostly famine ... no way we could live off my wife's freelance).
Freelance works best when you have a handful of good corporate clients that use you regularly. Most of the freelancers I've met that have been successful left established companies and then turned around and freelanced for them.