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It has been about a year since giving up the safety of the traditional full-time job and going the contracting route full time. While I've been doing some variant of this over the past few years, this is the first time doing it full time. So far it hasn't been much different from my previous W2 gigs. There is the lack of benefits, and the uncertainty of the paycheck. Yet the benefits with a more traditional W2 based company at the end of the day don't really buy you much. Especially if the company isn't doing too well. As the saying goes, there are no certainties in life.
In this case, I'd say I'm closer to a freelancer rather than a consultant due to the nature of the work still consisting of development tasks, however there is something to be said for doing a little more than being just a traditional developer. Mainly you have a firm idea of who the customer is of your product at the end of the day, and can be assured that whatever you create will be used in one way or the other. At times there can be more freedom. For instance, there doesn't necessarily have to be an office to work out of, other times, there is. Likewise you may be required to spend a lot of time on the phone which would negate things such as working out of a coffee shop or coworking space.
There is the expectation of having your own equipment such as the computer, but even then there are some places where they will give you something to work with. Even without that, I've found using the personal laptop that I use for most of my contract/consulting work to be of better use as it is something that is already setup and can be easily configured. In addition, any additional hardware/software upgrades that would be required for the gig can be written off as a cost of doing business. Granted it's not instantaneous, but does help come tax time.
Speaking of tax time, at least in the US, there are the various write-offs that normally aren't available with the W2. Part of your rent dedicated to the home office including portions of your utility bills. The aforementioned hardware or software updates for the gig that cannot be passed off directly to the client, etc. Granted, it's still tax time in the US in the getting data together for reporting so I'm not sure how much of this will be a boon or bust.
Perhaps one of the bigger components deals with retirement savings. I do recall with the more traditional 401k/403b, the percentage of your contribution "may" get matched by your employer, and usually in the 3% range. Being self employed, you can setup something along the lines of a SEP-IRA to shunt roughly 20% of your income with a large portion deductible. In a way this is a much better deal than the free money you would get from your employer provided the contributes remain below a much lower cap when it comes to tax purposes.
So far, the only real drawbacks that I've encountered revolve around holidays as they no longer exist, and the lack of a regular paycheck. Luckily with my current company, they do pay monthly and mostly on-time. While the check they send can be much larger than your normal earnings, you do still need to have a rainy day fund hen things aren't looking as good. In addition, you are your own boss. This means you are not only the sole expert of your company, but you are your own secretary, salesman, accountant, and coffee boy. For me, this is providing a few more interesting challenges that one normally doesn't get to see as a regular employee, and when working with customers, allows for a shared perspective at times.
Meanwhile, I know my posts have been very irregular over the past year, and I won't make excuses for it. However, as my resolution for 2018, it is to write more, and in particular, focus more on the tech and the business aspects.