> You should have no trouble joining Gigster, which is a way to do consulting without the very heavy lifting parts of running your own consulting shop. There, you will feel a lot more like being a decision-maker. Out of your vastly increased income, you take some money to bootstrap whatever you want, you could even just do a couple mini experiments and use the remaining money to funnel into savings/living.
Contracting is definitely something I've considered. If net pay were similar (or higher!), I'd definitely be interested. Would you mind if I asked you a bit more about what kind of contracting you do? If you wouldn't mind, contact me at "hn0s4@slipry.net".