I think it depends what his goals are. Not a lot if you want to buy a house, but it's plenty if you want to travel around a bit and occasionally splurge on fine dining.
I disagree. $30K savings/$2.5K rent and bills = a year of savings, if you make sure you never, ever eat and your car never, ever breaks down.
There's something wrong with the finances of somebody who never took out student loans, has been working for 70 hours a week for five years, has only managed to save $30K, and is not having too much fun.
Also: freelancing for a single client that you used to work for is not steady work. I've never had that relationship last more than a year and a half. Freelancer fault-tolerance requires at least two clients.
