How much is a short commute worth?
Discussion
Hi PH,
I've got a bit of a problem at the moment. I'm currently a contractor, and like many others, I'll be finishing up my contract at the end of March.
I've been mostly contracting since 2012, with a short stint as a perm for a leadership role. I've done OK out of it, but I am in an engineering/technician role where the gap between perm and contract isn't anywhere near as big as the likes of IT.
Weighing up perm options. I can get quite good money with a 1hr each way commute. The problem is, I'm tired. I'm tired of commuting like this in the car, especially when Im required to work overtime. The money is nice, sure, but some of it negated by fuel costs and losing a large chunk of time every week!
There is one perm opportunity near me and it is quite possibly the worst money I've ever even considered for my role, but it's only 9 miles away. That's 20 mins on a good run, 30 on a bad one. It also includes private health care, which is nice, however the work not particularly challenging and unsure of progression opportunities beyond being a team leader.
I guess what I'm asking is, how much is a shorter commute with good hours worth to you?
If it helps, in monetary terms, 1hr each way commute jobs = 59 hours per week out of the house before any overtime (slightly longer working week plus the way breaks are structured means longer at work) and between £36-46,000 pa. Fuel costs around £300 pcm.
The close by job = 45 hours out of the house, £28,100pa. Overtime available at a reasonable rate. Fuel costs £100 a month worst case scenario, probably less.
I know this is a personal thing, but it would be good to hear other perspectives.
I've got a bit of a problem at the moment. I'm currently a contractor, and like many others, I'll be finishing up my contract at the end of March.
I've been mostly contracting since 2012, with a short stint as a perm for a leadership role. I've done OK out of it, but I am in an engineering/technician role where the gap between perm and contract isn't anywhere near as big as the likes of IT.
Weighing up perm options. I can get quite good money with a 1hr each way commute. The problem is, I'm tired. I'm tired of commuting like this in the car, especially when Im required to work overtime. The money is nice, sure, but some of it negated by fuel costs and losing a large chunk of time every week!
There is one perm opportunity near me and it is quite possibly the worst money I've ever even considered for my role, but it's only 9 miles away. That's 20 mins on a good run, 30 on a bad one. It also includes private health care, which is nice, however the work not particularly challenging and unsure of progression opportunities beyond being a team leader.
I guess what I'm asking is, how much is a shorter commute with good hours worth to you?
If it helps, in monetary terms, 1hr each way commute jobs = 59 hours per week out of the house before any overtime (slightly longer working week plus the way breaks are structured means longer at work) and between £36-46,000 pa. Fuel costs around £300 pcm.
The close by job = 45 hours out of the house, £28,100pa. Overtime available at a reasonable rate. Fuel costs £100 a month worst case scenario, probably less.
I know this is a personal thing, but it would be good to hear other perspectives.
Edited by CX53 on Saturday 8th February 23:21
Turn7 said:
If your lifestyle is built around the higher figure, you wont enjoy the min £10k drop Im sure.....
Fortunately I haven't got massive outgoings, but I'm not used to watching my money, currently if the washing machine breaks I just buy one, or if I want to go out for dinner I do it, but I'm willing to give some of this up if it means I actually get a bit of a life. I don't like to rely on overtime money either, but it's readily available for 50 hours per week at the closer job, which would mean out of house 55 hours, still less than the other one and with fuel costs the gap is bridged significantly.
CX53 said:
Turn7 said:
If your lifestyle is built around the higher figure, you wont enjoy the min £10k drop Im sure.....
Fortunately I haven't got massive outgoings, but I'm not used to watching my money, currently if the washing machine breaks I just buy one, or if I want to go out for dinner I do it, but I'm willing to give some of this up if it means I actually get a bit of a life. I don't like to rely on overtime money either, but it's readily available for 50 hours per week at the closer job, which would mean out of house 55 hours, still less than the other one and with fuel costs the gap is bridged significantly.
Pericoloso said:
Do you have a family ?
Extra time with them could be priceless.
I would very much like to start a family with my OH, and the extra time would be perfect, as I feel like I'm hardly home at the moment. The money situation could be pretty tight though if kids do come along, if what everyone says is true and they do cost a fortune! Extra time with them could be priceless.
Turn7 said:
Only you can decide of the drop is worth it, but for me, it looks to much to be comfortable. And I dont have any debts as such.
Minimum £600/month worse off......
How are you working that out?Minimum £600/month worse off......
28k = 1880 after tax
36k = 2335
1880 is effectively 2080 because of fuel saving
£255 worse off but 15 hours per week richer in time
Option to do overtime is nicer when you're local, no one wants to drive an hour to work a Saturday morning
No brainer OP
CX53 said:
I would very much like to start a family with my OH, and the extra time would be perfect, as I feel like I'm hardly home at the moment. The money situation could be pretty tight though if kids do come along, if what everyone says is true and they do cost a fortune!
From experience, kids cost the same fortune you’d have spend on other things prior to them coming along. I didn’t have a spare £900pm for nursery fees until I needed £900pm for nursery fees!Personally I’d stick it out on the higher wage and bank the difference for while whilst you still can, okay you’d get a bit more evening, but less money to spend during it. Unless you’re desperate to get home to the kids every day it’s easy to slip into a routine of doing nothing productive with that extra time anyway.
Turn7 said:
Badly !
Easily done haha! This is the thing with wages, it's easy to look at the basic figures and make a decision but not take everything in to account.It seems like it's hard to strike a decent work life balance these days. Even that £255 is a big difference to a lot of people, but 59 hours out of the house for I assume a flat 37 or 40 hour week is crazy. It's become the norm for a lot of people to just keep pushing and before they know it theyre 50 and missed the best years of their lives!
Perhaps OP a more economical car if possible and a lift share if any of your new colleagues would be local to you could help the cause, it may be worth asking the employer about this, but personally, I wouldn't bother driving all those hours in the week just for an extra £250.
Imagine this, as this is my current scenario:
you've been up since 5am, driven an hour to work, done a full day and you're required to stay on and finish something. There's an accident on the journey home and it takes 1.5 hours instead of 1. You get in and are too tired to cook dinner, so have some rubbish food and fall asleep in front of the TV after being grumpy with your partner because you're tired. You wake up too late for breakfast the next day and rush to get ready, drive flat out and angry to work, just make it in on time... You didn't have time to make your lunch so you eat rubbish from the local garage... Finish work, home late ish, can't be bothered to go to the gym, get takeaway because can't be arsed to cook....
Or, you could wake at 6.45am refreshed, have a nice breakfast and prepare a decent pack up (this alone can save a fortune), leave at 7.30, arrive at work 7.55, do a normal day, home at 5pm, cook a healthy meal, spend time at the dinner table with mrs, wind down watching some TV, maybe go for a run before bed.
Scenario 2 is what I'm aiming for after commuting for too long.
I'm also an engineer. Yes, the pay isn't amazing relative to the other things that I could do with myself, but I enjoy my job and most of the challenges that come up from the tasks at hand. The challenges that come from working with other people? Ehhhhh... I'll get back to you on that.
But specific to the kind of situation the OP is in, I've learnt to recognise there is very such a thing as a money-to-hassle ratio. I don't earn a fortune, but I earn enough, and I treat any gross pay as needing to be rationalised against when I leave my house in the morning until I return that evening. That is your true "hourly rate", not how long you're sat at your desk.
On that basis, an additional £5k to spend another hour sat in traffic on the way to work, and the same going home? f
k that.
I have friends in industry who found something out the other side of the balance, and I think in some ways it is worth it for them to provide for their families... but at the same time I've seen their wives whine about their husband being out the door before 6am and not back until after 7pm and "not helping around the house" with no apparent understanding that this is what pays for that fking house.
Take the job that pays enough while letting you actually spend time with your Mrs, and then with the kids that result from the former scenario.
But specific to the kind of situation the OP is in, I've learnt to recognise there is very such a thing as a money-to-hassle ratio. I don't earn a fortune, but I earn enough, and I treat any gross pay as needing to be rationalised against when I leave my house in the morning until I return that evening. That is your true "hourly rate", not how long you're sat at your desk.
On that basis, an additional £5k to spend another hour sat in traffic on the way to work, and the same going home? f
k that.I have friends in industry who found something out the other side of the balance, and I think in some ways it is worth it for them to provide for their families... but at the same time I've seen their wives whine about their husband being out the door before 6am and not back until after 7pm and "not helping around the house" with no apparent understanding that this is what pays for that f
king house.Take the job that pays enough while letting you actually spend time with your Mrs, and then with the kids that result from the former scenario.
Last year I was living two and a half miles from work. Lovely drive. Could get up at 0730 and be at work ready for 0800.
Got a new job that was right miles away, still good. Leave at just before 0700 to get there for 0730.
I moved in November and I'm now 30 miles away, can be anything from 50 minutes to 90 minutes.
It's st. I hate it. I never used to mind if I was late off, now I'm not so keen! I'm out the house for 13/14 hours a day.
From March ill be moving to another station and will be 15/20 minutes away. Eight miles. I can't wait.
Made a lot easier for me though as when I moved jobs it was from one I hate to my dream job. And moving stations I knew about in advanced when I moved so knew it would only be for three months.
Got a new job that was right miles away, still good. Leave at just before 0700 to get there for 0730.
I moved in November and I'm now 30 miles away, can be anything from 50 minutes to 90 minutes.
It's s
t. I hate it. I never used to mind if I was late off, now I'm not so keen! I'm out the house for 13/14 hours a day. From March ill be moving to another station and will be 15/20 minutes away. Eight miles. I can't wait.
Made a lot easier for me though as when I moved jobs it was from one I hate to my dream job. And moving stations I knew about in advanced when I moved so knew it would only be for three months.
Take it, for me commuting is a waste of time and on the odd occasion I've had a say 45 min commute i hated it. Now I'm currently on a commute of a 10 minute walk, it's great.
The second option for me all day long.
Although having said that I've worked with people in the past that have been doing a 75 min commute each way for 10 + years and think nothing of it.
The second option for me all day long.
Although having said that I've worked with people in the past that have been doing a 75 min commute each way for 10 + years and think nothing of it.
I used to contract and spent years driving up to 90 minutes each way. It wasn't until I moved to another contract 20 mins away I realised just how different it was, suddenly I had evenings!
I've since moved job, house and country and now cycle 15 mins to work and it's bloody fantastic.
So imo the shorter commute is worth a lot, but if the job is less challenging with fewer opportunities to advance will you enjoy it?
I've since moved job, house and country and now cycle 15 mins to work and it's bloody fantastic.
So imo the shorter commute is worth a lot, but if the job is less challenging with fewer opportunities to advance will you enjoy it?
10 years ago i used to commute near birmingham airport to Nottingham, an hour each way and over 100 miles a day - i must of been mental!!
Currently 1.6 miles door to door - i can walk in 30 mins. Or i can go to gym before work or start early and be on the bike for 5pm for a long ride. Lunchtime nip out to get the weekly shop. Get home early to shout at the kids.... Its great!
Currently 1.6 miles door to door - i can walk in 30 mins. Or i can go to gym before work or start early and be on the bike for 5pm for a long ride. Lunchtime nip out to get the weekly shop. Get home early to shout at the kids.... Its great!
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