My uncle has been a master tech for 30+ years. He used to work for a porsche dealer in Columbus, Ohio. He was beating the book every day, and basically cheating himself.
He was working on not only porsche, but other high end exotic/luxo cars, and was basically making the owner rich, and making himself tired.
He has a house on about 2 acres of land in a rural town outside columbus.
He built a free standing steel building, and now runs his own shop, and took alot of his customers with him (thats what 35 years experience does).
Any given day that I go there, I will see luxo cars lined up in front of his garage ready for service.
Timing belts, clutches, everything. He gets the full rate for himself, not someone else.
There is very low overhead, but he did say that he had 45,000 worth of tools. I totally believe him, everything he owns is snapon or mac.
His wife, my aunt, is an accountant. She does all his books for him.
He couldn’t be happier, get up in the morning, and walk into your backyard to start work when you want to do it, and stop when you want to stop.
Drink a couple beers at lunch, and nobody says anything to you.
Thats really the ideal mechanic’s life.