What are good employed GSR engineers being paid these days?

[firemant]

I get 40k basic, Mon-Fri, 08:00 - 17:00. After stoppages I get around 30k take home per annum.

I am going SE this year for 1) the challenge and 2) to see if I can make more money that way. (Opinions would be good on the likelihood)

I would guess that by working strictly 8-5 you would struggle to get much more than £40K after expenses, if you can even achieve that, assuming minimun 28 days holidays. I know I worked a lot more hours, all in - altbough if I could go back in time, I would do things differently. There is a lot of admin, quoting, courses etc. In fact, I would be surprised if there are many on your money, on the books, for a standard day. But could well be wrong.

 

[Lee Davies]

I would guess that by working strictly 8-5 you would struggle to get much more than £40K after expenses, if you can even achieve that, assuming minimun 28 days holidays. I know I worked a lot more hours, all in - altbough if I could go back in time, I would do things differently. There is a lot of admin, quoting, courses etc. In fact, I would be surprised if there are many on your money, on the books, for a standard day. But could well be wrong.

I see what you are saying.
I would be willing to work outside those hours, 100%. I only do those hours now because there is no overtime here. Contracted hours, that's that. I would be willing to do an emergency hours service Mon-Sat.

I wasn't really going self-employed to earn MORE money, but more for the experience of "Woulda, Shoulda, Coulda". I would at least like to give it a go.

There will also be the incentive of private, off books work of course which isn't an option here. not to mention tax reliefs.

I am hopefully, but is it realistic?

 

[firemant]

I see what you are saying.
I would be willing to work outside those hours, 100%. I only do those hours now because there is no overtime here. Contracted hours, that's that. I would be willing to do an emergency hours service Mon-Sat.

I wasn't really going self-employed to earn MORE money, but more for the experience of "Woulda, Shoulda, Coulda". I would at least like to give it a go.

There will also be the incentive of private, off books work of course which isn't an option here. not to mention tax reliefs.

I am hopefully, but is it realistic?[/QUOTE

Private work when SE is, err, work.
Obviously you can choose to fiddle the tax.

Tax relief: to save £20 via tax relief you have to spend an additional (roughly) £80.

Expenses are ALWAYS more than you expect.

To put SE against employed in perspective, to earn £40K in your existing 4o hours, you would have to earn £22.22 per hour, after every penny if expense has been costed. That assumes 35 days unproductive: Holidays (4 weeks plus bank hols) and a conservative 7 days spent on courses, sick, family emergency, accountant meetings etc. It also assumes you are charging for EVERY one of the 40 hours- which is unrealistic.

No personal pension is better than a company one, which is something I would urge every SE guy to consider.

All that said, being SE. gave me a good life, but longish hours. I was able to attend every school play, assembly and parent meeting for my 2 kids. It is only now as employed that I realise what a privelige that was.

So, go for it, but make sure you do a proper business plan and cash flow to work out the £££’s - and do not be afraid to charge enough.

In my experience, undercharging is the biggest downfall of new SE - but we did not have the benefit of computers and free resource like this and DIYNOT.

Good luck