[CyberFonic]

I have worked in both Sydney and Melbourne. The most lucrative gigs were through agencies or working as a sub-contractor to vendors / systems integrators. Of course, you need to have some specific mad skillz to get the best gigs.

Freelancing requires sales, marketing and bookkeeping effort (sometimes that's like 30% of the time) You need to consider that some clients are slow to pay or even balk at paying. Typical gambit is that they pay as you go along, then suddenly they start nit picking and holding back payments. Having contracts, etc is often met with "I didn't understand what you meant! I thought it was ..." Chasing payments and taking action through small claims court takes a toll in both time and emotionally. That is, more lost income.

The other trap is that if you need to borrow money, e.g. for buying a house, the banks need far more documentation than for full-time employees and even then will often charge a premium on the interest rate. They call it "non-conforming" loans. If you are planning to borrow money, then stay in a full-time job until you secure the loan and then make the jump. But of course, having to meet repayments is a further source of stress.

As many other HNers point out, in addition to technical chops, you need some measure of confidence in your sales, marketing and negotiating skills.

[panjaro]

Wow, wasn't thinking about that part. Freelancing does comes with a cost.