<prompt> Human: Using a throwaway since I dont want to associate my situation or financial specifics with my everyday account.So heres my situation in a nutshell: I was laid off at my job around three or so months ago after my old workplace went through a merger and my counterpart had around a decades worth of experience on me.My wife and I, both in our early 30s with no kids, are currently in a situation where we cant complain too much, even with my income temporarily shot. We have around 70K in checking savings at our credit union, and also around 70K in an investment account with Edward Jones. That 70K is mostly tied into safe things like non-aggressive mutual funds and Roth IRAs that I still contribute 300 to monthly. Shes still bringing in her half of our income, and theoretically can supply us both with health insurance when my COBRA runs out, even though the family plan is pricey for just two people with no kids.We have no huge debt to worry about. Around 100K left on the house. Around 2 or 3K left on student loans. Never had credit cards, always paid for cars and other big purchases in full up front. I didnt mean to follow the advice of people like Dave Ramsey, but it just kind of coincidentally happened. The only thing that even kind of concerns me is that the house is going to probably be due for a new roof in around three to five years, and that wont exactly be cheap. It sure would be nice if a freak storm blew a tree on it so my home insurance would cover it, but whatever.In the past three months during my situation, weve floated just fine. Our savings havent exactly grown much at all in that span of time, but is sitting still just fine. I still manage to contribute the 300 a month to my IRA without sweating it at all. Other than holding off on eating out or other previously frivolous purchases, we havent had to make too many lifestyle changes.So heres where the interesting part comes in. Id quickly found that the marketplace for full time work in my field in my area has dried up, so I started dabbling in consulting and contracting as I networked around town. In the past three months, Ive drummed up a lot of business, and am currently and optimistically looking at coming within a stones throw of replacing my previous income in the next month or so. Its all still somewhat indefinite for the time being, but I do have a diverse portfolio of around three clients that promise continual income for some time.So with that all in mind, I have the following questions where Im looking for advice. 1 - What should be my end goal? Job hunting takes a big chunk of time, time that theoretically could be better spent building up my consultancy. But then again, my consultancy wont exactly provide health insurance or anything like that. I hear the boss is a penny pincher. 2 - What are long term prospects I havent considered? Getting my income back up to where it was seems like a nice step, but Im hesitant that Im not playing the long game well enough. What are potential pitfalls or roadblocks I should be aware of that I might not have considered in that respect? 3 - Home Office Consultancy or Full Business? Ive had a colleague work a deal with an office manager to get me a small office in a hip and trendy part of town for 125 a month. I can continue to work out of my home office as a single consultant, or I can diverge my path and establish a full business office. There are pros and cons of each that I may go into in a comment below, but Id love some insight on this. 4 - Consultancy Investment? If I go full out with the consultancy business, I need to make a bit of an investment to give my clients the full bang for their buck. I could really use a new Macbook, some better services software, and a few other things. Ive figured my startup costs for everything I need would be around 2K to 3K. Is that a wise investment given my prospects?Thanks so much guys. Theres a lot of further detail I could probably go into, let me know if you need any more specifics and Ill be glad to go deeper.  <response>: Honestly, if your consulting work is getting close to replacing your old income, Id just stay with that.Youll be more diversified in your income stream 3 instead of 1, and it sounds like you still have more room to grow. 