It's been awhile, but my dad cleared 40% at his margin, if memory serves. Being an independent and paying both sides of FICA is a real backbreaker, for sure.
Otherwise, you and he could have been interchangeable.
I just got off the phone with him. He and my youngest (who goes to visit at least a couple of times a week) are playing "Matchbox cars and Green Army Men". Sounds like a far better way to pass the time to me, than sitting in a cubicle farm somewhere spitting out code.
“Being an independent and paying both sides of FICA is a real backbreaker, for sure.”
We all pay both sides of FICA, but as a direct employee the Feds think that they have convinced my employer to hide it from me. The independents and actual employers get to feel the pain out in the open....
;-)