John Goodhue earns a six-figure income, takes eight weeks of vacation each year and devotes time to his local Oracle users group.

Doug Sjoquist alternates intense work periods with lighter stretches, home-schools his four children and is building his dream home in the country.

Both IT consultants exemplify how independent consulting can empower IT professionals to strike a unique work/life balance that's difficult to achieve as a full-time employee. But even among IT consultants, Goodhue and Sjoquist are exceptions to the rule.

John Goodhue

Oracle database administrator

Maple Grove, Minn.

Like many IT consultants, Goodhue set out on his own because he wanted more time and money. During the past three years, he has carved out an atypical consulting workstyle that gives him the best of two worlds: the freedom of an independent consultant and the comforts of an employee.

As a W2 employee at consultancy services firm Database Group Inc. in Dallas, Goodhue gets full insurance benefits and participates in a retirement plan that allows him to save as much as $24,000 annually. He doesn't have to fret about paying estimated quarterly taxes or whether clients will pay his invoices.

"I work, and two weeks later, I get paid," he says. "Typically in consulting, clients often don't pay for months, if ever, but I don't have to worry about that."

But Goodhue has never met his "boss" at Database Group, and he's not obligated to work for the agency's clients. He secures his own gigs, sometimes working as a subcontractor through other agencies. On all of his assignments, he sets his own hours and gets his full hourly rate of $125 from Database Group. His paycheck is almost double what he earned as a full-time employee.

He uses his extra freedom and income to plan a major trip once every two months. In the past two years, Goodhue has taken his wife and two children, ages 12 and 14, to Paris, London, New York, Orlando, Las Vegas, Washington, New England, Iceland and Scotland. "I would never have had the time or the money for that kind of travel if I had a regular job," he says.

"It's so much easier to take time off when I'm not being paid for it," Goodhue says. It's a a statement that might seem ironic, given that the nature of consulting is that time equals money.

"It's easy for consultants to get into the mind-set of, 'Oh, if I were working, I'd be making $100 an hour,' " he says. But he refuses to look at it that way. "That would drive you crazy every minute," Goodhue says. "I like my time off, and it's hard for a client to object because I'm not taking paid time off."

Goodhue says he gives his clients three to four weeks' advance notice of his trips, and they have never complained. In between trips, he works six- to 14-hour days, as needed.

Since Goodhue's work isn't as deadline-driven as other types of IT projects,

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