Stumbled across this forum last night. I’m 6 weeks into my first 6 month contract as a (non-IT) Project Manager. Im from Australia, moved to UK and contracting friends were encouraging me for years to get into the contracting game. I’ve heard these magical stories from several different people in London about friends who work 6 months on a contract then take 6 months off to travel each year and I cant think of a much better lifestyle than that!
Managed to negotiate a ‘too good to be true’ daily rate (I pulled a number out of the air, the recruiter went even higher and somehow they agreed). Would not be surprised if any day I get a tap on the shoulder to say ‘sorry, you’re just too expensive to keep’ but until then I’m loving it. The work is fine – not particularly interesting and I’m not passionate about it but conditions and hours are very good and its quite cruisey. Compared with a similar permanent role I’m taking home about 45% more, both with the higher pay and lower tax. Setting everything up was time consuming and a bit of a headache but as I wasn’t working at the time I slowly and methodically just did everything over the course of a week.
My place of employment has already been hinting at a permanent role at the end of the project and while there is plenty of work to do (the nature of the project is uncovering so many things to do and fix that I could pretty much create a job for myself at the end of this if I wanted) I’m hoping they don’t extend/offer perm because I’ve been doing some sums, and assuming I am kept on for most or all of the contract term I will be able to save well over 50% of my income/dividends (no kids/mortgage/car/debt etc). As I would be finishing up right in the middle of summer I’m already thinking about the travel possibilities. For the first time in my life I would have the money, time and motivation to travel for an extended period of time. I’m being conservative and thinking of 2 months of travelling and a further month to find another contract is very doable, provided Im kept on for the bulk of the 6 months. In reality, provided I spent some time in cheap destinations (i.e. Eastern Europe/North Africa) and was careful with my money, I could last up to 6 months until I needed to work again.
Does anyone actually do this? Is there a magic number you’ve needed to earn/save in order to have extended tim off? It seems to good to be true but I’ve done my sums very carefully!
Managed to negotiate a ‘too good to be true’ daily rate (I pulled a number out of the air, the recruiter went even higher and somehow they agreed). Would not be surprised if any day I get a tap on the shoulder to say ‘sorry, you’re just too expensive to keep’ but until then I’m loving it. The work is fine – not particularly interesting and I’m not passionate about it but conditions and hours are very good and its quite cruisey. Compared with a similar permanent role I’m taking home about 45% more, both with the higher pay and lower tax. Setting everything up was time consuming and a bit of a headache but as I wasn’t working at the time I slowly and methodically just did everything over the course of a week.
My place of employment has already been hinting at a permanent role at the end of the project and while there is plenty of work to do (the nature of the project is uncovering so many things to do and fix that I could pretty much create a job for myself at the end of this if I wanted) I’m hoping they don’t extend/offer perm because I’ve been doing some sums, and assuming I am kept on for most or all of the contract term I will be able to save well over 50% of my income/dividends (no kids/mortgage/car/debt etc). As I would be finishing up right in the middle of summer I’m already thinking about the travel possibilities. For the first time in my life I would have the money, time and motivation to travel for an extended period of time. I’m being conservative and thinking of 2 months of travelling and a further month to find another contract is very doable, provided Im kept on for the bulk of the 6 months. In reality, provided I spent some time in cheap destinations (i.e. Eastern Europe/North Africa) and was careful with my money, I could last up to 6 months until I needed to work again.
Does anyone actually do this? Is there a magic number you’ve needed to earn/save in order to have extended tim off? It seems to good to be true but I’ve done my sums very carefully!
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