No, the consulting is not a 'day job'. Remember, I work 100% from home, in fact my clients are in other states. Currently the one client I cut it back to is in New York. I may not talk to the clients for weeks at a time. Generally we only communicate via email, and very rarely no one is waiting for an immediate response. I might work from midnight to 7 am and then not work for 2 days (and only because that's when I felt like working). Last year was an anomaly, I decided that renting a condo in Tahoe was a waste of money, so I needed money for a down payment and costs associated with buying a house. When I was working full time on my game, I didn't make any money and therefore it really killed my eligibility for a home loan. So last year I ramped up the consulting to not only make a 30% down payment, but to build up $150k (after tax in the bank) for when I go back into full development mode again. Since I have a good, flexible client right now, if things keep going I'll pay off the house end of this year, so if it drags out a little longer it seems like a good trade off. With a paid off house I can live on $1500 a month in Wyoming. With money in the bank, and what I learned last attempt, I'll be able to launch the product and never have to worry about money.
I understand the point though, most consultants are really contractors that are embarrassed to admit it. They have to show up at the client site every day and put in face time. That's not what I do.