£550/day vs £70k

[kaiser78]

Mmmm, contractor website, and you ask this!

Contract all the way.

Yeah, asking out of interest more than anything else.

[yasockie]

If you take the contract option at 550pd and if you work every possible day, you should be able to get your 70K in a little over 6 months, what's not to like?

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

If you take the contract option at 550pd and if you work every possible day, you should be able to get your 70K in a little over 6 months, what's not to like?

Also you won't be paying the 40% tax rate. You will save 20% tax on everything over 40k and you can pay as little NI as you wish. Also you can claim loads of expenses which will reduce your tax bill. Overall you will be getting a lot more than the net of 70k in 6 months - then you can have a 6 month holiday.

[contractor79]

My ltd co has been going for 5 years. I've never been on as much as £550/day. I've had 15 months off bench in those 5 years.

My analysis of my income shows that I've had the same benefits as £70k perm job.

In reality I would never have been given a £70k perm job but a £35k perm job at best.

So for me, contracting has turned out much better. Twice as good. Loads more time off.

The only downsides for me would be the travelling + hotels required for some contracts. But if you're a consultant in a perm job they just send you to sites anyway.

[Scrag Meister]

My ltd co has been going for 5 years. I've never been on as much as £550/day. I've had 15 months off bench in those 5 years.

My analysis of my income shows that I've had the same benefits as £70k perm job.

In reality I would never have been given a £70k perm job but a £35k perm job at best.

So for me, contracting has turned out much better. Twice as good. Loads more time off.

The only downsides for me would be the travelling + hotels required for some contracts. But if you're a consultant in a perm job they just send you to sites anyway.

"of" bench or "off" bench?

I presume you were benched for 15 months of the 5 years.

As you say depends what you are capable of earning in your locality as to what makes a good contract rate.

[contractor79]

"of" bench or "off" bench?

I presume you were benched for 15 months of the 5 years.

As you say depends what you are capable of earning in your locality as to what makes a good contract rate.

on bench for 15 out of the 60 months in that 5 years.

In a 70k job you wouldn't get that much time out from working in 5 years. Plus I've put in 60k into a pension in 5 years, again I doubt you'd get that much from a 70k job. All in all, contracting has worked much better than 70k job and I didn't need to earn £550/day to get it. If you can earn £550/day then you'd easily meet the benefits of a 70k job.

[contractor79]

So what do you want 30-40 grand extra in the bank or "intangibles", your choice.

Surely we can calculate the value of these intangibles and I suspect they would be worth less than the 30-40grand extra in bank.

So intangibles would be future promotions, say, or any other benefits from being a loyal permie. Well if you don't get those future promotions or if company strips away other loyalty benefits then it's not worth much at all !

[BrilloPad]

Do you weant job stability or not? If you want stability take the contract.

HTH

[contractor79]

Do you weant job stability or not? If you want stability take the contract.

HTH

lol

all the permies I know are constantly worried about their jobs, always rumours circulating that their jobs will be exported

[2BIT]

My ltd co has been going for 5 years. I've never been on as much as £550/day. I've had 15 months off bench in those 5 years.

My analysis of my income shows that I've had the same benefits as £70k perm job.

In reality I would never have been given a £70k perm job but a £35k perm job at best.

So for me, contracting has turned out much better. Twice as good. Loads more time off.

The only downsides for me would be the travelling + hotels required for some contracts. But if you're a consultant in a perm job they just send you to sites anyway.

in fact although travel often comes with the higher paid perm roles its possible to be sent all sorts of places for long durations and still get paid under £35K... I've just taken a 600 a day role, it's subject to IR35 but I think it still works out to the equiv of £108K.... now I'd never be paid that much perm (nowhere near) but also wouldn't want a perm job that paid that much as the majority of them will be stressful with lots of travel etc...