War Chest.

[rambaugh]

Another key factor is the state of the economy and general confidence level of business which affects the contract market and how much work is out there. Business sentiment appears to shift every 2-3 months or so and each shift presents a different scenario in terms of the contract market so having a war chest for at least a couple of these negative recession or low growth type periods is sensible in my opinion.

[quackhandle]

That isn't very helpful is it....

[Lockhouse]

At least 12 months if you have a family to support. If it's just you that'll be on the skids it's a different ball game.

[BolshieBastard]

At least 12 months if you have a family to support. If it's just you that'll be on the skids it's a different ball game.

Yep, would agree with this.

Recently, I saw 6 roles that would have previously been advertised on a contract basis but, were instead being advertised as permie roles paying up to 27k!

So, this shows how tough the market really is.

[Scrag Meister]

If you can get it to a point where it's enough for the rest of your life, then stop working.

6 months is what I generally aim for. More is good, but once I get to that point it starts getting allocated for holidays, house, cars etc...

[SarahL2012]

I've probably got about 12 months, but its spread over no-notice accounts (3ish months) and fixed term cash ISAs. I know that I've got the cash immediately available for short term blips and can get hold of more if there is a longer term gap.

So far the longest period without work was 5 months in 2009 - luckily it was a nice summer, otherwise it would have been really depressing!

[VectraMan]

It might be that if you get a gig, you'll have to wait 2 or 3 weeks for it to start, and then a month before you see any money. So if you're only 3 months away from bankruptcy you're cutting it fine.

Of course when I started I had zero. But I did arrange an overdraft facility and take out a new 0% credit card.

[Project Monkey]

That isn't very helpful is it....

lol - that's rich!

[bobsa]

Thanks

Thanks for the advice folks, I have 3 months sitting now but will extend this to 6 months. I seem to have been fairly lucky so far and have picked up a few short term contracts while I'm looking for a decent term one.

[thunderlizard]

The other factor (which you hint at in that last post) is - how picky do you intend to be when looking for work in the lean times? In my early days of contracting I was very generalist, which meant all I needed to do was be competitive on rate in order to be pretty much guaranteed to get something. Back then 2-3 months was ample. Nowadays I'm more inclined to stick to my specialism and hold out for a higher rate, so 12 months is more realistic for me.