[jasonwocky]

Good list, but as a contractor in the US, the one thing that sticks out that I don't agree with (necessarily) is:

-Getting 450 a day is always better than siting idle waiting for that 550-600 a day contract.

I'm fine with making a tradeoff like that for very short term work, but I don't want to commit myself to long- or medium-term work at any sort of significant discount.

If I'm confident I can get that 550 eventually, it easily pays for those days I spend on the beach.

[ravibhatt]

yes, do not take a 1-2 year contract on a low rate. But mathematically:

Lets say:

Desired rate: 150 Available rate: 100 Sit idle for desired rate: 30 days (20 working days in a month)

let's say a contract is 2 months long.

with 100 day rate yo get: 100 x 40 = 4000 with 150 day rate you get: 150 x 20 = 3000 (well if you get 200 a day, you still make the same amount of money as you would working on 100 for 2 months instead of 1)

Unless you get a significantly long contract on your desired rate. And also, that long contract gets till the end. Most likely it will, but life is bitch. You never know what would happen, it is about risk assessment.

[jasonwocky]

I don't get your math entirely...if a contract is two months long, wouldn't it be 150x40 or 6000? Sure, I had to tighten my belt during month one, but at the end of month 3 I've got 6k and the person who took the 100 day rate has 4k + whatever they can make in a third month. If they extend another month at the same rate, we both have 6k at the end of month 3, except I only did 2/3 the work.