I am an Electrician and have been screwed for a 125 service call to thousands on decent sized commercial job, and not to mention the turds who think 90 days is totally acceptable to hold onto money my money! Most of the time I grin and bear it but lately it is starting to really get under my skin. I even had a lady recently who called and apologized when she got her 2nd invoice to say she had forgot about me and would send it out right away, guess what 2 mos later and still no check
I could take all these people to court but by the time I pay a lawyer I end up with half if I am lucky and small claims court really needs to up the ante to 5k IMO
What I have found with people is that you can get dough up front but the ones that are going to stiff you will come out at the end when the final payment is due
I comment on moving to Maine for an upgrade in quality of life not that I think people there are any better at paying there bills, I would work for someone. I have loads of equity in my current home that would allow me to build a brand new house with a nice chunk of land (with a couple grouse to run my bird dogs on daily) and invest a couple hundredK for living/retirement