Left for the holy grail permie job - not settling in at all

[sockie]

If you just want to take your money at the end of the month then I understand why you might see things differently. Personally I'd rather have £9k untaxed in the business account than £3500 taxed in my personal account.

Contracting for me is more than just my take home. My business is actively investing into plan b, c, d and anything else that might come along.

If all you are doing is adding up your take home then you are just a permy in disguise and you aren't really making the most of the situation. IMO.

Now this much I agree with, and may be more of why I'm struggling to adjust. I'd written a piece of software related to my niche that was gaining a little bit of traction (no major cash, but it was nice to be found) which I've had to stop working on.

[dogzilla]

The right thing to do in permie land is take advantage and spend your working hours working on your side business

[cojak]

Contracting for me is more than just my take home. My business is actively investing into plan b, c, d and anything else that might come along.

I'm not disagreeing with that, but just to dis £60k with a disdainful sweep of the hand is not giving the full picture either. And many older contractors see permiedom as a cosy way into retirement, and that's not bad either.

[MyUserName]

I was in a similar position. My last contract was £450 a day and ended when the brought a permie in after 2 years. I needed consistancy so I could do school runs etc. and the only contracts that were popping up were in London which is about an hour and a half each way for me.

So I took a permie job on £60k a year and a bit ago. It is a mindset change but I got used to it. It is not a massive difference technically. It is just like going to work for a different client and changing the way I work to integrate into their processes. I have to take more of an interest in what is happening and volunteer for interesting projects so keep myself going forward but it is not that taxing.

I like it. The way contracting seems to be gradually crushed I am not sure I will ever go back. Various issues have burned the warchest almost completely which is an unpleasant feeling but that might have happened even if I were still contracting tbh. Sometimes things just blindside you.

I'm not disagreeing with that, but just to dis £60k with a disdainful sweep of the hand is not giving the full picture either. And many older contractors see permiedom as a cosy way into retirement, and that's not bad either.

The main difference is that the salary is paid every month with the various peripheral items taken care of. The £450 a day I only got when I was in a gig and had work to do and all expenses, insurances etc. came out of it.

[BlasterBates]

Are you talking 200 calendar days or billing days? In the first case you are missing the 5 months vacation per year, in the other case 80k gross with ltd. is close to twice the net of a 60k salary, so i would't call it comparable.

If you are comparing local permie job to long distance contracts you are comparing apples to oranges.

A lot of contracts are long distance, only if you contract in London are you likely not to be travelling. Most of my contracts were away, and currently it would be almost impossible to contract locally.

It's Billing days and he OP has down time, and it's 350-400 a day not 400 a day so it's 75K on average, and expenses will set you back at least 10 grand, if you're travelling, which is often the case.

OK there is a tax advantage, but then again a potential to be beaten to death by a tax inspector.

I think most of us would contract given a sufficiently bouyant local market.

[sal]

OK there is a tax advantage, but then again a potential to be beaten to death by a tax inspector.

I think most of us would contract given a sufficiently bouyant local market.

I was typing a reply with lengthy math, but you edited your post meanwhile, realising the difference in net pay, making it redundant. and the OP states £350-450 so the median is £400.

If you do it right the chances of getting beaten to death by a tax inspector is minimal, and in my mind is better than being beaten to death by Management/HR with 1 to 1's development plans, not to mention office politics.

This being a contractor forum i would assume that most of us would contract regardless of the local market conditions. There will always be a defeatists talks of going back to permiedom because of tax changes etc. But as the OP found out first hand it's a tough one to swallow.

[dx4100]

I had two perm jobs last year. Both disasters for all the reasons the OP said. I am now back contracting and happy

[Whorty]

IMO - go back to contacting. Its nothing to do with money. Its avoiding HR, 3+/s-, 360 reviews., etcetc.

Move house last year to a new part of the country. For a few months continued commuting to London each day to finish the contract I was on. After 2 months, rolled off that and planned to take a few months off. 3 days later (!!) I got a call off the agency who get most of my roles about a nice contract not too far from my new home. Day rate, but lower than London rates. I thought, yeah, why not ... who needs time off

Anyway, passed the interview and the client went back on the original offer and offered FTC instead. Good salary, pension, paid holiday, cakes on Fridays. They offered 6 months but this would have left me looking for work in December, so I pushed for 9 and they agreed.

Anyway, 8 months in and the HR tulip kicked in. PDPs, 360s, you know, all that cr@p. They offered me an extension for another 12 months (actually they offered me a perm and I kindly declined). I thought, can I go through another 12 months of the HR hoops, office politics etc? I didn't want to leave them in the lurch, but wanted to go back into proper contracting so set some terms that I didn't think they would accept. WFH, a few training courses, and the b*ggers agreed. So, I'm here for another 12 months and it is hard. The money is good, the project is great for my CV, and the training is a boost and I work from home most days of the week. But boy, is the tulip so hard after being out of permdom for 10 years.

Short term pain for long term gain

[SueEllen]

A lot of contracts are long distance, only if you contract in London are you likely not to be travelling. Most of my contracts were away, and currently it would be almost impossible to contract locally.

I think you mean only if you contract in London and live in London you won't be staying away.

Contracts in London are all over London.

[BlasterBates]

I was typing a reply with lengthy math, but you edited your post meanwhile, realising the difference in net pay, making it redundant. and the OP states £350-450 so the median is £400.

If you do it right the chances of getting beaten to death by a tax inspector is minimal, and in my mind is better than being beaten to death by Management/HR with 1 to 1's development plans, not to mention office politics.

This being a contractor forum i would assume that most of us would contract regardless of the local market conditions. There will always be a defeatists talks of going back to permiedom because of tax changes etc. But as the OP found out first hand it's a tough one to swallow.

Contract 400 net take home 4800
60 K salary net take home 3500


Take off travelling expenses, not worth the hassle.

That's why I'm perm.