550/day is not crazy high at all.

That's in british pounds, not USD.

Addition: did the math at www.oanda.com (currency conversion). GBP is LESS than what I thought: 1.63842 USD.

So, that's 900 bucks a day, resulting in $ 110-120 USD/ hour.

Yes, I know. It would be quite low in USD.

"We're hiring a Rails/jQ developer. NYC or Chicago"

Someone should take you up on $120 per hour being low!

We're not looking for contractors.

When I heard it was in pounds I'll admit to a brief flash of envy. (Though $550 a day would still be, erm, rather substantially more than Japanese salarymen my age get.)

$68/hour is less than my mechanic charges. It's not a bad living, but for a feast-or-famine consultant supporting a family as a sole breadwinner, assuming 70% utilization, it's a gross 95k salary, from which you subtract self-employment tax.

Thing is, I wonder where I spent the money.

ah, steak and strippers :)

and he probably wasted the rest... :)