rhadin, I agree with you, my sarcasm is sometimes a little to subtle, I have been working on a contract basis for 12 years, I left the worlds largest printing company to go it alone, best and worst decision I ever made.
I agree that it's not easy and takes a lot more dedication to make it work, but the reward is better hours (only 16 hour days) vacation whenever you want (last one was in 2005) and better money (sometimes).
Cheers