5 ms·

All good advice, but I'm going to propose something that may be a bit contrary to current wisdom: if you really want a decent lifestyle/work-life balance don't

All good advice, but I'm going to propose something that may be a bit contrary to current wisdom: if you really want a decent lifestyle/work-life balance don't start a business! So what's the alternative? Go contracting. Reduce your expenses to the bone, and limit the contracts you do. I now only take 3 month contracts and I do one a year. I make about £24K from that - I know many developers making double my rate. That £24K is more than double my expenses though. If there's a 6 month contract I really like the look of I will do it (especially if it's remote working) - but then I'll take at least a year off. The great thing about a contract is you go in, do your thing, get out. Job done. No stress. No worry. No customers giving you grief and wanting their money back. No infrastructure going down with admin alerts at 3.00am. No hassle. I don't even have my own limited company. I use an umbrella company and while not as tax efficient I have no dealing with accountants, HMRC, tax returns and all that nonsense. I think there are many good reasons to start a 'lifestyle' business. I'm just not convinced it's the way to go if work-life balance is what you are looking for.

Dayshine 9y ago
How did you get started with contracting? And do you find yourself having to commute a lot? I haven't found a huge number of jobs near each other in the UK outside of London.
- zapperdapper 9y ago
  Good question. The company I was working for at the time went bust - I'd been with them about 7 years. I just searched online for contracts (I'm actually a tech writer, not a developer, but have coding skills - there are a lot more contracts out there for coders compared to writers). My very first contract was with a wonderful web company in London. Anyway, as to the commuting. Yes - you are right - it's a total pain in the bum. Sometimes if the gig is a long way away I will stay up in cheap B&B. It depends. But - you can put up almost anything for three months right? That's the beauty of it. You know the pain will end - you know the exact day. The commuting is soon forgotten when you are heading out to a wreck dive by boat in the Philippines. :)
bubbleRefuge 9y ago
Well here in the states we gotta have health insurance at like 600 bucks a month if you are single and over 40.
- tonyedgecombe 9y ago
  Developer salaries in the US are much higher than the UK, more than enough to offset that cost.
edpichler 9y ago
Good advice! But, just to remember us, happiness formula is not the same for everyone.
- zapperdapper 9y ago
  Quite right! This is not for everyone!
danieltillett 9y ago
You can make a lot more than £24K a year running a lifestyle business. Running a lifestyle business does not mean you have to sacrifice a work-life balance. Think hard to avoid working hard.
- zapperdapper 9y ago
  Of course you can potentially make more than that - if that business is successful. There are no guarantees. It's a lot harder and takes a lot longer than most people think to create a £24K a year business. Just drumming up enough customers is a pain. Remember I get £24k in 3 months and the work is not especially hard. Sure, if you can hit on a business idea that works, and is stress free, and doesn't take much time and effort to set up, then good luck to you! I want to emphasize something though - for me the money is not the important thing, as long as I have enough. For me the work-life balance is the priority. Had too much stress in the past to want to go back to that lifestyle again!
muloka 9y ago
This is great until you have dependents and your expenses grow. It requires everyone to be on board with your vision which is a lot more challenging to maintain over time.
- zapperdapper 9y ago
  You are absolutely right. It's much harder to do with young dependents. I'm 55 now and my son is 27 and daughter 24! However, I still think the same rules apply. Ram down expenses as much as possible. I did this when my kids were much younger. I couldn't get away with working 3 months a year, but I often did a six and maybe a 3 and had 3 months off. Back then I'd spend the free time with my kids. These days because they do their own thing I head off to Phils or Thailand and go diving.
  - htormey 9y ago
    Obligatory link to mr money mustache. He has a great blog on keeping expenses low and living a frugal post tech lifestyle. https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/
matthewking 9y ago
What do you do with the other 9 months of the year? side projects? travel? Id be interested to hear how your lifestyle is with all the free time. I've considered this approach myself too but more 6 months on, 6 months off. Scala in particular seems to pay extremely well (£600-£650 /day) so easy to make the money to live a comfortable lifestyle in 3 or 6 months per year. I think other dev contracts are usually around £450 in London which is still more than enough. Id love a permanent 2-3 day a week job too for work/life balance but those seem non existent for devs unfortunately.
- zapperdapper 9y ago
  Hi Matthew, my rate is £400 a day, I'm a tech writer. Most contract developers I know are on a lot more than that. Double mostly. They do Java/Scala/Perl. That is probably just the niche I have been in though. My very first contract wasn't particularly high £260 a day, but you get known and you can charge more once you've got people who will vouch for you. With regards the 9 months. I write code (Python), read (a lot), watch movies, relax, listen to music. The point for me is I have to do this. Many years ago (I'm 55 now) I got very, very depressed and considered suicide. I was totally and utterly burnt out due to never ending work. I spend quite a lot of time in Philippines and Thailand - mostly for the diving. My partner and I are keen divers (she's a nurse - but only does contract work now too). I also like photography, hiking, camping, biking and so on. I am studying for mountain leader exams. I read Hacker News too but rarely comment. Just today and yesterday. Probably today will be the last day! p.s. I used to work with a guy who negotiated a four day week. He is still doing that to date as far as I know. You might be able to negotiate fewer days but it's not easy.
  - jonmb 9y ago
    I like this - the idea has a Mr. Money Mustache vibe to it. His blog is great, if you haven't seen it already. My question for you is how do you manage healthcare costs?
    - Dayshine 9y ago
      The UK has public healthcare, so no direct costs to users.
6stringmerc 9y ago
You've perfectly summed up my goal of making the transition back into Software Development. I'd like to be a well compensated, project based employee when possible. Then, I can have the skills and interest to work on my personal projects and if they provide gratification or income, then I will be hitting the desired work-life-creativity balance that is a bit tricky to land and maintain (in my experience). Thanks for your perspective!
dejv 9y ago
Second that. My way was to find maintenance contract where I do programming few hours a week that pays my bills and mortgage + occasionally taking some contract work (about once a year, month - three months long). Contracts could be very stressful (as I am usually picking on some VC type of startup as they use to pay more), but I know it is going to be over soon so it is easy to just go through it. I am doing that for more then a decade and it works, the only thing is to figure out what you are going to do with your off time: I used to start startups, side projects, travel the world, but for past few years I am just farming and spending time with my kid. More people should really think about this alternative.
- zapperdapper 9y ago
  For me the time off in between contracts was the best bit! :) Yes, contracts can be stressful, but like you say you know the exact day when the pain will end. In most jobs the pain is never ending!
- adlq 9y ago
  Where/how do you find those types of contracts?
briandear 9y ago
So you essentially work for the rest of your life? Building a business should not be confused with creating a job for yourself.
- Dayshine 9y ago
  I'm not sure a business is a better "pension" than a pension. No pension + business is a risky retirement.
- zapperdapper 9y ago
  > So you essentially work for the rest of your life? Not quite. I still pay National Insurance contributions, and in fact am already entitled to a full UK state pension (at age 66). I also pay into a private pension plan and have done so for years. I also built up my tax free savings in cash and stocks and shares (low cost index tracker). I can access the private pension and private savings whenever I want. So the plan is I will continue to do this as long as it makes sense to do so. My partner and I are actually considering complete early retirement (I'm 55 now) to Philippines next year - but that's another story.

Dayshine 9y ago

How did you get started with contracting? And do you find yourself having to commute a lot? I haven't found a huge number of jobs near each other in the UK outside of London.

zapperdapper 9y ago
Good question. The company I was working for at the time went bust - I'd been with them about 7 years. I just searched online for contracts (I'm actually a tech writer, not a developer, but have coding skills - there are a lot more contracts out there for coders compared to writers). My very first contract was with a wonderful web company in London. Anyway, as to the commuting. Yes - you are right - it's a total pain in the bum. Sometimes if the gig is a long way away I will stay up in cheap B&B. It depends. But - you can put up almost anything for three months right? That's the beauty of it. You know the pain will end - you know the exact day. The commuting is soon forgotten when you are heading out to a wreck dive by boat in the Philippines. :)

bubbleRefuge 9y ago

Well here in the states we gotta have health insurance at like 600 bucks a month if you are single and over 40.

tonyedgecombe 9y ago
Developer salaries in the US are much higher than the UK, more than enough to offset that cost.

edpichler 9y ago

Good advice! But, just to remember us, happiness formula is not the same for everyone.

zapperdapper 9y ago
Quite right! This is not for everyone!

danieltillett 9y ago

You can make a lot more than £24K a year running a lifestyle business. Running a lifestyle business does not mean you have to sacrifice a work-life balance. Think hard to avoid working hard.

zapperdapper 9y ago
Of course you can potentially make more than that - if that business is successful. There are no guarantees. It's a lot harder and takes a lot longer than most people think to create a £24K a year business. Just drumming up enough customers is a pain. Remember I get £24k in 3 months and the work is not especially hard. Sure, if you can hit on a business idea that works, and is stress free, and doesn't take much time and effort to set up, then good luck to you! I want to emphasize something though - for me the money is not the important thing, as long as I have enough. For me the work-life balance is the priority. Had too much stress in the past to want to go back to that lifestyle again!

muloka 9y ago

This is great until you have dependents and your expenses grow. It requires everyone to be on board with your vision which is a lot more challenging to maintain over time.

zapperdapper 9y ago
You are absolutely right. It's much harder to do with young dependents. I'm 55 now and my son is 27 and daughter 24! However, I still think the same rules apply. Ram down expenses as much as possible. I did this when my kids were much younger. I couldn't get away with working 3 months a year, but I often did a six and maybe a 3 and had 3 months off. Back then I'd spend the free time with my kids. These days because they do their own thing I head off to Phils or Thailand and go diving.
- htormey 9y ago
  Obligatory link to mr money mustache. He has a great blog on keeping expenses low and living a frugal post tech lifestyle. https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/ https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/

matthewking 9y ago

What do you do with the other 9 months of the year? side projects? travel? Id be interested to hear how your lifestyle is with all the free time. I've considered this approach myself too but more 6 months on, 6 months off. Scala in particular seems to pay extremely well (£600-£650 /day) so easy to make the money to live a comfortable lifestyle in 3 or 6 months per year. I think other dev contracts are usually around £450 in London which is still more than enough. Id love a permanent 2-3 day a week job too for work/life balance but those seem non existent for devs unfortunately.

zapperdapper 9y ago
Hi Matthew, my rate is £400 a day, I'm a tech writer. Most contract developers I know are on a lot more than that. Double mostly. They do Java/Scala/Perl. That is probably just the niche I have been in though. My very first contract wasn't particularly high £260 a day, but you get known and you can charge more once you've got people who will vouch for you. With regards the 9 months. I write code (Python), read (a lot), watch movies, relax, listen to music. The point for me is I have to do this. Many years ago (I'm 55 now) I got very, very depressed and considered suicide. I was totally and utterly burnt out due to never ending work. I spend quite a lot of time in Philippines and Thailand - mostly for the diving. My partner and I are keen divers (she's a nurse - but only does contract work now too). I also like photography, hiking, camping, biking and so on. I am studying for mountain leader exams. I read Hacker News too but rarely comment. Just today and yesterday. Probably today will be the last day! p.s. I used to work with a guy who negotiated a four day week. He is still doing that to date as far as I know. You might be able to negotiate fewer days but it's not easy.
- jonmb 9y ago
  I like this - the idea has a Mr. Money Mustache vibe to it. His blog is great, if you haven't seen it already. My question for you is how do you manage healthcare costs?
  - Dayshine 9y ago
    The UK has public healthcare, so no direct costs to users.

6stringmerc 9y ago

You've perfectly summed up my goal of making the transition back into Software Development. I'd like to be a well compensated, project based employee when possible. Then, I can have the skills and interest to work on my personal projects and if they provide gratification or income, then I will be hitting the desired work-life-creativity balance that is a bit tricky to land and maintain (in my experience). Thanks for your perspective!

dejv 9y ago

Second that. My way was to find maintenance contract where I do programming few hours a week that pays my bills and mortgage + occasionally taking some contract work (about once a year, month - three months long). Contracts could be very stressful (as I am usually picking on some VC type of startup as they use to pay more), but I know it is going to be over soon so it is easy to just go through it. I am doing that for more then a decade and it works, the only thing is to figure out what you are going to do with your off time: I used to start startups, side projects, travel the world, but for past few years I am just farming and spending time with my kid. More people should really think about this alternative.

zapperdapper 9y ago
For me the time off in between contracts was the best bit! :) Yes, contracts can be stressful, but like you say you know the exact day when the pain will end. In most jobs the pain is never ending!
adlq 9y ago
Where/how do you find those types of contracts?

briandear 9y ago

So you essentially work for the rest of your life? Building a business should not be confused with creating a job for yourself.

Dayshine 9y ago
I'm not sure a business is a better "pension" than a pension. No pension + business is a risky retirement.
zapperdapper 9y ago
> So you essentially work for the rest of your life? Not quite. I still pay National Insurance contributions, and in fact am already entitled to a full UK state pension (at age 66). I also pay into a private pension plan and have done so for years. I also built up my tax free savings in cash and stocks and shares (low cost index tracker). I can access the private pension and private savings whenever I want. So the plan is I will continue to do this as long as it makes sense to do so. My partner and I are actually considering complete early retirement (I'm 55 now) to Philippines next year - but that's another story.