It’s been awhile since I had a job where I was responsible for hiring staff augmentation “consultants”. But the hourly rate that they got was shit.

On the other hand, if you have the background, skillset, network, etc to be a highly paid strategic consultant who knows how to talk to the “business” and bring in a specialized skillset, you don’t need side income to have the freedom that you want. You can charge a high enough hourly rate that you can already basically set your own schedule.

I fall into the latter category. But I choose to work full time for consulting companies because they take care of all of the headaches.