Drop highest paying client to focus on university?

[pablo_aka_god]

I've been thinking about this issue for the entire year because it has conflicting interests it's really hard for me to make a decision.

I will be totally honest and try to summarize my situation here:

I'm a single 30Y, live in Argentina and work as a remote contractor for US companies as an AI engineer/developer.

Net worth: 53K USD in stocks, bonds and some Bitcoin.

Monthly expenses: Between 2.5k and 3K USD.

I have 2 part time clients:

Client 1: 

Pays 36 USD/hr. very good company. project aligned with my LP in AI for health domain. can bring 3k USD /month.

Client 2:

Pays 55$/hr. Startup that has no idea what they are doing. but pay well and on time. I dislike job bc no one uses our product and it's a very shitty product. soul crushing work. but very relaxed work ethic, I work whenever I want as long as I can ship some new feature every week.

On January I'll start an online masters degree in CS. and really want to drop client 2 to focus on masters. but I keep doubting myself bc I fear I may not be able to get a new high paying client w current market situation. I keep getting DMs on my Linkedin for jobs that pay much less and read a lot of negative things about the markets. I fear a Job market crash due to AI automating software engineering jobs

Should I try to manage both clients + the masters or just drop client 2. and do what I like: client 1 + masters?

I would be happier with dropping client 2, that way I would only do work I love. But I would not be able to save any money with client 1 as my single source of income.

Some of my current reasoning:

Getting extra $ gives me peace of mind but having free time also gives me peace of mind. if I don't have any free time I won't be happy even if I make good $.

I fear losing money but also don't want to get stuck in my career and a high paying client that builds a BS product actually impairs my career. I could use that time to build something real.

Would appreciate your perspectives.

 

Edited 2 hours ago by pablo_aka_god

[pablo_aka_god]

Something good about client 2, it's very relaxed. As long as I put in the hours no one questions me or gives me deadlines.

but all my work gets put in a shitty product that will never be used by anyone and this is not a good addition to my resume.

This company is unsustainable so it may even go bust in a few months. But i've been working with them for 1 year and a half and it survived so far.

Edited 2 hours ago by pablo_aka_god