[nickjj]

> 1/3 is your salary, 1/3 is for business expenses and taxes, 1/3 is for when you don't have work.

In the US there's also health insurance if you choose to have it.

The worst of the worst medical insurance just for you is going to run you about $500 / month. Even if you "only" make 60k / year, that's still roughly ~10% of your income which is a lot.

[nightski]

If you are lucky enough to have a spouse that works at a good company it can be very lucrative to take the self employed route and freeload off their plan :)

[biztos]

And in many other countries too, without the “choose” part. I pay more than that for my private health insurance in Germany… it’s a pretty good one but has a high deductible so I’ve never actually used it in over a decade.