> I had had enough of the corporate grind

"Personal Business Commitments" "Performance Reviews" "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?" "Be sure to share stuff about X new project on your social media!" "Submit your vacation request"

Yes, this. All of this.

I will deliver you technical solutions to the best of my ability, and I will do it as well as I can, making sure things are documented, complete and easy to understand for longer term maintainers, using common tech stacks where possible.

I will not corporate pole-climb or waste my life on company admin, nor pretend I believe in your mission.

Having a customer is so much more intuitive to me compared to having a boss.

I’m a salaried worker and this is my exit strategy. In a year or so, when living situation is secured (mortgage paid off), I’m going contracting.

Played the game to put myself in position to do this, but absolutely weary of it.

I did it and it's worked out pretty well. If you've ditched your major debts then you'd be in an even better position to manage the ups-and-downs of contracting, so I say go for it!