Employed vs Self Employed - Which is better?

Right well luckily? for me I've only ever been self-employed... apart from a paper round when I was young and had to cart hundreds of papers around in the rain (I think it put me off for life).

Bit recently, mostly due to a penguin... I've started to contemplate actually having a 'real' job

So what do you do and which do you prefer?

Here are some of the pros and cons as I see it:

Self-Employed

• You are your own boss
• You can sleep all day and work all night
• You can take holidays whenever you like
• No commuting
• Self assessment tax
• No office friends
• Your success is down to how hard you work or lucky you get

Employed

• Early mornings
• Commuting
• Meetings
• Presentations
• Private Health Care
• Bonuses
• Co-workers
• Less holiday
  
  etc etc, I'll let you guess which I think are good/bad!
  
  Thoughts?

 

Well, that is purely a matter of individual perception. What you have pointed out is perfectly right.

I would go with being self-employed since you can use your time as you like. Moreover, there are a very few limits to how much you can earn while being self-employed. In contrast, a job would only give you a fixed pay for the same amount of work. I think if you are able to pull it off effectively, all additional perks that a job offers will be covered automatically in self-employment. You can spend quality-time with your friends and family.
But you have to be very careful about meeting your deadlines. And if anything at all goes wrong, there is no one you can blame. You assume the entire responsibility of what you do.

 

Self employed without a doubt, but I'm not sure the self assessment tax is a good thing. I pay more in taxes now more so than ever before. It's actually ridiculous how much taxes are when you are self employed.

 

Self-employed and it's not even close, although I admit I do miss some of the office camaraderie that you don't really get by working by yourself

 

Self-employed doesn't necessarily mean working by yourself. People may eventually work for you Self all the way, you not only get more opportunity, but you get a sense of achievement from your work much greater than at someone elses company. Self employed also has the pro of not having to suck up to that supervisor you really hate.

 

Uh no, not quite. I am lucky if I can manage 6 hours sleep per 24 hour period. If you are self employed and sleep all day or night you won't get far. Being self employed should mean that you are driven to succeed and to bring in revenue. Getting tons of sleep may not factor into that.

The biggest asset to being self employed is in the satisfaction of knowing that all the fruits of your labor will come back to you, instead of feeding someone else. I do work for others as well as myself as I am under a contract. But the contract was signed under *my* terms. I also freelance as well, and someday I will be in the position to not sign up when said contract comes due.

 

I'm self-employed but I work for various web companies at their offices on contracts ranging from 3-12 months. I get paid about 40% more then I would if I was an full time employee but I don't get holiday and sick pay etc.

Self assessment tax is by far the best way. I pay myself a small wage every month but take other benefits from my company including a car, computers, clothing etc. With the remainder each year I pay capital gains tax which isn't that much compared to paying 40%!

 

Being self employed takes a lot of will power. There is the benefit of not having someone cap off your earnings and set limits, but there's also the important disadvantage that you have no minimum sum of money you KNOW you're going to get that month.
In the experiences of the self-employed people I know, it's best to start with a permanent job, and then slowly transition into self-employment. It's helped my friends get into the routine of "work" and provide income during times when they haven't yet started doing their own self-employed thing.
For each his own, though. I like to know there's a job I can rely on paying me regularly, but I'm quite young, and my experiences with self-employment left me disappointed with myself. I'm definitely looking forward to trying it again later on in the future.