if we go by all the lunchtime talk everyone will say they are poorly paid
we need a solid benchmark to draw reference from

thats the problem with forums where no one gives accurate figures
best is to compare with your own friends that you trust

The best paid IT people i know are those murex (trading/risk) consultants working as independent contractors in banks e.g. Standard chartered, dbs, anz, etc
They are paid $1500 per day, one month can hit 30k, somemore project duration lasts for years!

37 this year. Quit 140k a year job middle last year to be an IT entrepreneur.

2-prong strategy:

(1) Building products (sites, apps) for passive income. May possibly create a hit product and win big. Hoping.

(2) Providing services ("consulting" aka freelancing). Selling time to bring home the bacon.

Not thinking of striking it rich so soon, struggling to even match last drawn pay (at projected 70% mark now). But there's hope yet.

You can still keep yr day time job and see do (1)

(2) is too competitive, just go to elance.com and you know what I mean

I may be wrong, but there are too many such self-employed It free lancers who think they are the 'entreprenuers'.

If elance is so good, your job will be gone too. Obviously there is value in being what you called a freelancer.

I had being doing (1) before I quit my day job. I hit my target of getting X dollars per month and that's why I quit to do more of (1) and (2). I know of a few successful entrepreneurs who started with (2) and progressed to building a team doing more of (2) at a larger scale.

I may be delusional, but I believe stable organic growth is the way to go, especially for oldiepreneurs like myself. Day jobs aren't too secure nowadays.

You are probably lacking other skills. If not, it could be that you don't really know how to cross apply knowledge and concepts, OR you have stagnated and have stopped learning and growing after school. The latter is really critical.

So are you suggesting that it is perhaps better to suck in school so that
(i) if you screw up at work, it's fine and expected hence you wouldn't feel unhappy, but
(ii) if you actually earn a meagre pay which is slightly higher than others who did better than you in school, you can feel smug and happy, and be more contented about life?

sounds like me too, PSLE = 265, O level in RI = 7A1s, A level in NJC = 4A, failed to get into Medicine, went to do Electrical Engineering in NUS, graduated with 2nd upper hons.
Graduated in 2001, just before 9/11. Got HP job, survived through 2003 SARS with no pay increment. Finally got sacked on 2005 due to restructuring. Went to study full time masters in NUS, found another engineering job 4k. Pay freeze in 2008-9 due to financial crisis. Now pay is only 5k, age 37.

I presume you did an engineering masters in 2005. That was a wrong move. You should have used the opportunity to position yourself in a more lucrative sector, or move on to do other things e.g. MBA. Basically you should think about making quantum leaps in terms of pay, rather than incremental changes that an ordinary engineering job offers. A little too late to realise this though, at 37. I have a friend who is in similar shoes. Stuck at DSO even though he's grades were good. He took part time masters in electrical engineering (which to me is a waste of time from the financial point of view). I hope to rescue him some day.

Yup surpirsingly similar background leh :) Auspicium Melioris Aevi! But I am your senior lah. Also did EE also worked in HP for a while and decided to leave while the going was still ok.

If you are not picky/fussy, I suggest you join teaching in schools or Poly. You can safely plan your yearly vacations all teh way till you are 62 :)