Dear Bob ...You don't hear the term "Golden Handcuffs" used very often. The term in its narrowest sense, receiving a very high pay rate to stick to what you're doing, doesn't describe my situation perfectly. The pay is fine, but it's the relative stability of my current employment that's the constraining aspect. I'm employed as a contractor, and this is not a contract-to-hire situation. But, I've been here two a Dear Bob …You don’t hear the term “Golden Handcuffs” used very often. The term in its narrowest sense, receiving a very high pay rate to stick to what you’re doing, doesn’t describe my situation perfectly. The pay is fine, but it’s the relative stability of my current employment that’s the constraining aspect. I’m employed as a contractor, and this is not a contract-to-hire situation. But, I’ve been here two and a half years, and prospects are good for it to continue another four or five years, maybe longer. The 16-month employment chasm I struggled through before landing this position makes it that much more attractive. The handcuff aspect comes from the technology I work with: Mainframe/COBOL systems. That’s where the bulk of my twenty-plus years experience has been. I’m concerned that five, six, or seven years of additional experience will make me appear that much more disconnected from future openings when I get there.Back to the “Golden” part of the handcuffs; I enjoy the work I do, and I like the people I work with. My work involves a full range: client contact, analysis and development. I find it very satisfying. At the same time, the work still provides new challenges that keep things interesting.In fact, learning new things is one thing I like about working in IT. I read books, article, and columns to keep touch with what’s going on. I take classes. I’ve used over 50 languages to develop applications on platforms varying from PDA’s to mainframes. BUT, when the time comes, I don’t have a strategy for getting around the label “old fart with arcane skills.” Your thoughts?– CuffedDear Cuffed … You aren’t the first and you won’t be the last: You’ve identified one of the two biggest challenges for all of us who hire out our skills without having a large organization behind us. (The other, of course, is the near-impossibility of keeping a presence in the marketplace while supporting a current client.)You’re smart to be thinking about this now. I knew a guy in a similar situation, and the result was Biblical: Seven fat years followed by seven lean years. And then more lean years after than – I’m not sure he ever really recovered.If anyone has figured out a silver-bullet solution to this, I’m unaware of it. Here’s the best I know of in the way of a solution. It has two parts. The first is also Biblical: Put as much of your current earnings into storage as you can. Pretend you’re earning just half of what you’re really making, or, failing that, 75 percent tops. Invest the rest. That gives you some cushion when this engagement runs out, so you don’t have to panic and do have the time to overcome the more difficult sales situation you’ll be facing.The second will require some negotiation with your current client – scale your involvement back to three weeks out of four, or four days out of five. Use the rest to develop other client relationships that are smaller in scale but that keep your skills and references current with respect to more modern technologies.This isn’t as unreasonable as it might seem, by the way. Many smaller companies need help but can’t afford what you’d charge them for full-time involvement. With some creativity you should be able to develop some support offerings that fit perfectly into a one-day-a-week or one-week-a-month schedule. – Bob Technology Industry