I'm pretty sure I discovered a hidden gem that I feel obligated to tell you all about. I worked in public accounting (tax) for 4 years before making the jump to industry 3 years ago. I switched to a contract part-time arrangement with the O&G company I was previously working at FT before my twins were born 1.5 years ago. They are paying me $75/hour contract (equivalent to about $140k a year full time). Pretty sweet money, right? The O&G company is closing their doors due to tough times and my contract is coming to an end. I was sweating bullets and was pretty stressed about finding a new position. In 2 weeks time I was able to easily find 3 different public accounting firms that want to contract with me at a rate of between $70 and $75 per hour for 20 hours people week off season and 30 hours per week busy season. My husband asked me why I haven't been doing this all along????? Um, because I didn't know firms would go for it, that's a lot of money. Senior level tax people are in very high demand currently in the city I live in. If you have public accounting experience and a spouse with benefits you might be able to negotiate the same arrangement. Also, I was able to start an i401k and dump cash into up to the max for my income level ($32k last year).