Did you have a warchest before starting your first contract?

[MarillionFan]

I'd been out of university for three years and was perm. Just bought a house,company car and a £28k salary. But still owed student loans and has about 3k in the bank.

I was working tulip loads of hours, very stressed was drinking too much and getting into fights in pubs almost every week.

Then about to lose my driving licence on two pints of freaking Stella!!!! Got my arm dislocated and arrested in a fight at the grand hotel and then a massive row with the MD where I told him to **** his job and threw my cars keys at him, walking out. All the stress just dropped away.

Luckily the client I was working for insisted that the consultancy paid me to finish it. I negotiated £500 per day and I billed for everything. Two months later and with 20k I then got a jammy contract a mile away from my house which lasted six months and got me on a preferred contractor list with PWC for the next few years.

[MarillionFan]

I have since learnt a whole heap more and when people tell me they are thinking about going contracting as if it's the easy choice I do point and laugh.

I think it depends. I find contracting easy money but now wholly unfulfilling. I jacked the best job I've ever had as opposed to have relocating to the US, I should have kicked the wife in the arse or in to touch & taken it.

I now really regret it.

[Scrag Meister]

My grandmother sold her house moved into my parents place and gave my bro and I a nice £wad each.

Next day

"Dear Employer

Please accept this letter as the required 3 months notice.......

Yours faithfully

Scrag"

3 months did drag, then took me another 3 months eating into the stash to land the first contract.

[lukemg]

Fair play to anyone walking off a job to go contracting, especially with nothing already fixed up. I was offered a job in ‘logistics’ as a move away from the IT department. I decided to try my luck and scored a contract in Brum with a rise of 150% over my perm rate. This was in the days when you had to fax your CV to the agencies you found in Freelance Informer !!

[Mich the Tester]

This was in the days when you had to fax your CV to the agencies you found in Freelance Informer !!

A fax? Luxury! We had to fold up our CVs and fix them under a pigeon, then send them off to Arthur Daley and hope the bird didn't tulip on your CV on the way. You had it easy!

[alreadypacked]

Had a bit of a warchest, but not intentionally (had sold a house and made a nice profit on it). Was Taking a year out and when it came to looking for work fell into contracting by accident.

Haven't looked back since..........

Same here, I had just made a profit on some land, felt secure enough to take a contract in Europe.