Take new job nearer home for less money?

Hope I'm posting in the correct forum...?

I may have an opportunity to take a new job nearer to my home. At present I'm commuting from Laois to Dublin city centre. Its really taking its toll on me now and I've been looking for work closer to Laois.

Only thing is any jobs I've seen have all been for less money than what I'm on here in Dublin.

I spend at least €65 a week on petrol and at the end of the week I'm exhausted from 3 hours (at least) a day driving.

This new job is only 35 mins drive, but its 2 grand a year less than what I'm on now. Which works out about €30 a week. Not too bad, but I'm barely making ends meet at the moment.

Should I hang on for something paying more money or would you make the move and save on commuting time?

Any opinions welcome.

Thanks

Moved from Other Financial Issues.

Your spending 65 a week on petrol... assuming about 45 of that is for your commute, then thats in excess of 2k a year... so if you take a job thats paying 2k less a year at home, you'll still have the same disposable income as the two cancel...

Plus you'll have...
About 10hrs extra a week free time
A lot less wear and tear on car
Less spent on car repairs/servicing
And have time to do simple things like pack lunchs in morning (save on paying over the odds as you probably do in dublin)

The 2k a year less, is that net or gross? Have you worked out how much less it is after tax?

take the job, 2k is nothing in the context. I would put a much higher value than 2k on what you have to endure for that extra 2k.

Flip the scenario around:

if you were currently working local would you go to Dublin for an extra 2k and give up all your extra free time, put your self at risk for so many extra hours on the road and the extra wear and tear on car , body and mind....?

CGorman said:

Your spending 65 a week on petrol... assuming about 45 of that is for your commute, then thats in excess of 2k a year...

Click to expand...

at least 45 on the commute... yep, def makes sense to take a job nearer my home.

thanks for the replies everyone. hopefully i wil get offered this job.

fingers crossed

best of luck. hope it goes well for you.

i commute from Laois (Donaghmore-Rathdowney) to Dublin (Eastpoint). I am lucky I can work 2 days a week at home (or 3 when I want to).

2K is not a lot (whether it be net or gross). I was guess-timating what I would be prepared to drop to get a job closer to home. i think i could handle a 15-20% drop in pay...but depends on the job (IT).

worse case scenario if you take the job nearer home and are really strapped for cash you have more time to maybe take on some work parttime to tie you over. Best of luck with it

I'd be inclined to agree with the above in that on fuel alone you should hopefully be saving the 2K drop. Consider also whether you are having to stop on your commute to buy coffee, snacks etc which might also be factored in. More important than this however is your quality of life over 10 hours extra a week to relax, enjoy your family, get involved in things outside work would be the more important consideration to me. Perhaps to set your mind at ease you need to consider what you are currently spending, draw up a budget so that you know the essentials will be met and then you can relax and enjoy your new sense of freedom timewise.

Going to bring this thread to the fore again as I'm possibly going to be in a very similar position. Without giving too much away I currently work from home 80% of the time (in IT) and am considering moving to an office based job in the area (well outside Dublin). This would mean taking a substantial drop in salary (around 20%). The reasons for considering this are mainly that working from home is very isolating and I miss the social interaction from an office job, but also working from home leaves me with practically no career path in my current company (my current position is as senior as I can go as a developer and any other role would mean I would need to be in the office). So just throwing it out there to get opinions - in the current climate would I be mad to consider such a drop in wages? Or could this be viewed as one step back in order to take two steps forward over the coming years? Has anyone else made such a move?

Lots of views of this thread but no replies, has nobody else been in this position before or have any advice? My responsible head is saying stick with what you have for a few more years until you can build up a decent savings to allow a drop in salary, but would be good to hear from anyone who has done anything like this over the past few years.

It's impossible to answer without knowing your entire financial situation.

What impact will a 20% paycut have on your day-to-day life, will it mean scrimping and saving to put food on the table, put you off having children for a few more years, or will it just mean 1 less holiday a year.

I can't give you advice either way to be honest but these are the things that those who have considered doing something similar might mention.

For me, I don't think i'd like the isolation so I'd take the pay cut. But I'm single, no kids, manageable mortgage (ish).

Thanks Derek. Yeah taking a 20% cut would be a hefty hit alright, we've kids who are costing more by the year! We could manage all the same, it wouldn't be a case of scrimping. As things stand we're quite comfortable and can put aside savings for the long term and given we've practically no savings worth talking about right now I'm leaning towards being sensible financially, however the working from home lark is certainly no barrel of laughs! I'd just be interested in hearing from anyone who has worked from home previously and who then went back into an office job - did they notice a big improvement in the quality of their working life and did they feel it is something worth taking a pay cut for?