How much better off are we?

[chris79]

I agree, I think it's about playing it sensible and not 'living to your means', and by that I mean living to your means on good money as a contractor. I'm happily ploughing all the surplus money I have off my mortgage which is a flexible one so I can borrow it all back at any point. This serves as a nice security blanket as well should any bad times come along, large pot of accessible money.

[TheBigYinJames]

I get the feeling that a few contractors here are like some first-time buyers, seeing only the good times, never the flip side. Remember to factor in your calculations that you will NOT be working throughout the years and that rates can go DOWN as well as up.

Amen to that. A lot of < 3 year contractors have never seen the downturns, they are like the homebuyers who don't imagien house prices can ever go down either.

[DaveB]

The big difference is being able to save for the future, as well as the quiet spells. As a permie it wasnt quite hand to mouth but it was close. Very little slack and it could feel like every month there was something that threatened to derail things financially. Saving just wasn't an option. There was a permie pension scheme but that was it, and there wasnt really enough going into that anyway.

As a contractor I can pay the bills and stash a good chunk away every month in pension, ISA and straightforward cash savings and still pay the bills. We'd survive if I had to go permie again, but only survive.

The biggest benefit though is not having to deal with management/hr bulltulip, pay reviews, performance reviews, gang bang job interviews and office politics.

Go in, do the job, get out and onto the next one

[expat]

Some people here are comparing apples with oranges. To compare contracting and permanent like-for-like, calculate inside IR35, and no income shifting.

Then, only then, by all means say that what you like about contracting is that it is not like employment.

[expat]

Amen to that. A lot of < 3 year contractors have never seen the downturns, they are like the homebuyers who don't imagine house prices can ever go down either.

didn't

[VectraMan]

I get the feeling that a few contractors here are like some first-time buyers, seeing only the good times, never the flip side. Remember to factor in your calculations that you will NOT be working throughout the years and that rates can go DOWN as well as up.

I don't disagree, but the same applies to permies. Downturns affect permies too, possibly to the same degree, yet they don't make enough in the good times to ride out the bad. And most are in complete denial about how safe their jobs are.

[contractor79]

The biggest benefit though is not having to deal with management/hr bulltulip, pay reviews, performance reviews, gang bang job interviews and office politics.

I hated that

Go in, do the job, get out and onto the next one

that's what work should be all about

[chris79]

Yeah, the performance/pay reviews etc are all BS... at the end of the day it's only the opinion of the PERSON conducting it, hand the task to someone else in the company and you could end up with an entirely different summary/perception of how you fit in there.

It probably explains a lot of the brown-nosing which goes on in many places, I've never been one to dance around people in authority just because of their job status or in fear it may serve consequences down the line in terms of my own prospects. I've always said it and I tell everyone else who moans about it, but you can make your OWN promotion at any time, you just need to move jobs. Some people are too narrow minded to think that any life exists beyond the boundaries of their current employer.

[TheBigYinJames]

Yeah, the performance/pay reviews etc are all BS... at the end of the day it's only the opinion of the PERSON conducting it, hand the task to someone else in the company and you could end up with an entirely different summary/perception of how you fit in there.

Not just that, a lot of the time they have to fit their performance onto a Bell curve, because that's all the budget they have for payrises/bonuses. So you may find yourself marked down in absolute terms because they want to reward some other people. It's all a crock.

[chris79]

Not just that, a lot of the time they have to fit their performance onto a Bell curve, because that's all the budget they have for payrises/bonuses. So you may find yourself marked down in absolute terms because they want to reward some other people. It's all a crock.

The whole process and ideaology is far from impartial or unbias as long as there is a human managing it.