4 months of self employment

Just did invoicing for June, which marks my 4th month of being self employed. Quite simply, doing this was one of the best life decisions I have made. I know the "professional" style of pay is salary, but I really like the hourly rate method a lot better. The big attraction is not having an obligation of having to work a specific number of hours. I have done a stretch of full time to prepare for and do a work related trip, but I have also done weeks of much less depending what was needed and what was going on. This model of simply getting paid for the hours you work is really right for me.

I have had time to work more on some volunteer web mastering. In addition, I have been spending some time getting up to speed on technology I wanted to know better, which is very hard to do with a full time job. Am also building a little website for my business.

Everything has minuses as well as pluses, and although I am happy with my decision, here is what I see as the drawbacks:

1) Paying your own health insurance is expensive.
2) Dealing with paying estimated taxes is a bit time consuming, although the IRS website is very good and provides clear instructions and forms.
3) Learning Quick Books was a small challenge: It is a good tool, but it is full of accounting lingo, and not being trained as an accountant, it took some getting used to.