I've never heard of "Net 30"... but I do always write on my invoices that they're due within 30 days of receipt, which google tells me is the same thing? :lol:

I assume you've signed a contract with this middleman recruitment company? Are the payment terms (net 30/etc) in the contract? What does the contract say about if they're later than 30 days?

If ultimately the pay will be good enough for you to live, and to hopefully start recovering any debt you've accrued, then its likely the best course of action to hang on and try to find a way through the short term crisis. I know that's easier said than done. Having done many a Microsoft contract in my time, that period between the last unemployment check and the first real paycheck is always difficult.

Even so, its probably a better bet than to trade for the unknown -- the jobs market isn't exactly hot right now, and honestly Microsoft has cut back significantly on contract workers. Maybe you'll land a better gig in the next month, but you're already gonna reset your unemployment benefits timeline I'd wager, and you might not get a check in the meantime -- not to mention you'll have to explain why you quit voluntarily. Or you might go 6 months, and not gain any ground. You might go 6 months and lose ground.

If you're doing a lot of remote site contracting, then maybe consider ditching town completely, and getting a ways out there. Talk to a bank, get a little plot of cheap land somewhere, build one of those tiny home things as an office, cut expenses, and focus on expanding your client base without the use of recruiters.

A ton of work, but might be a road you're willing to consider.

You can't be serious can you?

Actually, I am. I'm not saying it is your only option of course, but it is frequently a good one that is often overlooked. If you're going to work in something like software development, where you can do the job with a laptop and access to basic modern internet, then you really need to step back and look at the cost benefits of where you actually choose to stay.

How much does $1200 a month get you where you're living currently? Compare that to how far that goes towards $5-10k for a small plot of land somewhere outside of a nice small town, and $10-20k for a very comfortable snug little small/tiny home, or a little more if you don't have the friends/family talent pool to do most of the work yourself.

Careful consideration on properties are of course a very important thing if you're going to consider ditching over priced city living, simply for ease of access to decent internet. So for a software dev life style you'll be unlikely to save as much on land cost as you could if you wanted to go full off grid deep backwoods and have a little artists retreat or something, but it can still be done.

How much space do you actually need to live? Careful design can keep your costs to build and costs to down down to a minimum. Throw in some nice large garden spaces, and you can cut your food budgets long term down to something pretty low.

Will getting out of the city limit your job options? Sure. But it will also lower your job requirement, and in long term could offer you more breathing room between the contracts you do take. Lower living expenses mean lower income gets you just as far as a higher one would have back in the city. This gives you options like being able to comfortably cruise along with a lower paying job that would possibly have come up short if you were living elsewhere while you look for better gigs. Or one good contract will give you more than enough cash on hand to see you through a dry spell and let you pass on lower paying work and free up more time to pick away at your own projects while you look for a sweet deal elsewhere.

But please, for anyone who would consider getting out of town and going with the very inexpensive 'tiny home' route, do be smart about it. Don't build a death trap that you'll likely burn in. Things like building regulations on "Exits from a bedroom", and "Space between stoves and flammable materials" are kind of important. Please don't be an "I'm free and you can't tell me what to do!" tiny-home rage machine that you can find on youtube. That just gives tiny home living a bad name in general. Also, don't skimp on how big you build the bathroom...

Sadly it is common procedure for big companies to wait until the very last minute to pay their contractors

"Pay like a little guy, act like a big guy".

In my experience as a contactor 30 days NET has been the usual for me here in the UK.

The only way businesses tend to work around this is by having many different contracts going off at the same time, each one having a different due date. It sounds to me like youre putting all your eggs in one basket, taking one big contract that consumes all your working hours. Perhaps take lots of smaller contracts, so that if you're churned out of one, you can still fall back on others (and quickly find other small contracts).

Small developer contracts are much easier to find than big long term projects, easier to bid for, and easier to collect the correct invoiced amount for on time and in one payment.

That's my $0.03 (2 cents plus inflation).

Hope it helps!