Advice for changing to part time work from full time

Louisa_2

Thanks everyone for the kind words and advice. I sat DH down on Wednesday night and explained to him that we might need to take stock of our current situation, as although we are comfortably off at the moment, I would gratefully sell my car, not have a holiday, be OS more of the time, etc etc etc if I could be at home more with little un. I think he understands now that it has to be done for my sanity (!) and isn't just me saying "wouldn't it be nice if..."

So we'll be assessing our finances really carefully over the next few weeks to see how we would manage with me going PT. I'm a 40% taxpayer and not sure of how the income tax bands work, as well as being fairly hopeless at maths so am having problems working out how my salary would be affected! have a feeling that the 5th day I work every week nets me a lot less over the month than I thought (because of the higher tax on just a proportion of it). Can anyone suggest a tax calulator for this?

Also, as my job hasn't been done in my company on a p/t basis before (there are no p/t workers in my department of 60-odd) and so I agree with you Counting Pennies, I really need to think with my non-mummy head i.e. the professional one! about how I approach it with work. Some reasearch to be done methinks...

But feeling a lot more able to cope with separation from tiddler now I see it could only be temporary, fingers crossed. (Also DH suggested that now might be a good time to try and add to our little clutch of babies which has cheered me up no end too tee hee, should change my username to Broody Hen!)

stardoman

Hi Louisa,

I was in the same position as you 6 years ago. Unfortunately, my company would not consider part time, so I ended up leaving all together. To allow this to happen we had to reduce our outgoings quite drastically as I earnt the same as my husband, so we lost half our income.

At that time we had a car loan over 5 years which was costing £228 per month. Our mortgage was £535 per month. As I've already said, our priority at that time was to reduce our outgoings as much as possible. So we remorgaged on a lower interest rate, rolled the car loan into it and extended the term of our morgage from 20 years to 30 years. Obviously, in the long term this would mean that we would pay more, but at the time it reduced our outgoings by around £350 per month. Our now mortgage rate was just over £400 a month and we no longer had the £228 to pay.

I also spent a whole weekend going through our finances. I made sure our utilities were with the cheapest companies, checked all the insurance policies we had and decided which ones to keep. It can be truely amazing how much money is spent on insurance. I cut back to the minimum - life assurance and buildings and contents insurance. Again, I shopped around to get the best deals as they came up for renewal.

Once I was at home more I started cooking from scratch. This reduced our food bill by 50% (from £400 a month to less than £200 a month). Petrol also reduces once I was at home. Something many people forget to consider is how much it costs to go to work. I had a 40 mile commute daily and obviously this adds up.

Some six years later, our priorities have changed again. We now have more money each month as I now do a small amount of work from home. Two years ago we remortgaged again, but this time we reduced our mortgage term to just 10 years. Our priority at the moment is to pay it off.

Hope this gives you some food for thought.

Mandy.

Spendless

Deleted_User wrote:

Thanks everyone for the kind words and advice. I sat DH down on Wednesday night and explained to him that we might need to take stock of our current situation, as although we are comfortably off at the moment, I would gratefully sell my car, not have a holiday, be OS more of the time, etc etc etc if I could be at home more with little un. I think he understands now that it has to be done for my sanity (!) and isn't just me saying "wouldn't it be nice if..."

So we'll be assessing our finances really carefully over the next few weeks to see how we would manage with me going PT. I'm a 40% taxpayer and not sure of how the income tax bands work, as well as being fairly hopeless at maths so am having problems working out how my salary would be affected! have a feeling that the 5th day I work every week nets me a lot less over the month than I thought (because of the higher tax on just a proportion of it). Can anyone suggest a tax calulator for this?

Also, as my job hasn't been done in my company on a p/t basis before (there are no p/t workers in my department of 60-odd) and so I agree with you Counting Pennies, I really need to think with my non-mummy head i.e. the professional one! about how I approach it with work. Some reasearch to be done methinks...

But feeling a lot more able to cope with separation from tiddler now I see it could only be temporary, fingers crossed. (Also DH suggested that now might be a good time to try and add to our little clutch of babies which has cheered me up no end too tee hee, should change my username to Broody Hen!)

http://www.i-resign.com/uk/financialcentre/tax_calculator.asp
HTH

moggins

I've been at home with DD for the past 4 years and I haven't regretted a minute of it, nor have any of us felt deprived. DH's wage is just over £17K gross so we don't exactly count ourselves as being on a good wage. I am lucky enough to get an extra £180 a month from XDH for our son. We manage to run one reasonably decent car (which I shopped around for on the internet) and we do have a lot of nice gadgets.

We've worked out that with everything I do at home by shopping around for the best deals, being able to grow our own veggies and cook from scratch that it is not worth it for me to go back to work. It can be done, I guess some people would consider us as sacrificing a lot, my home is not smart, I don't have a nice fitted kitchen and we haven't had a holiday in 3 years (last one was a week in a caravan in Wales) but we are happy, well fed, and have a roof over our heads. What more do I need?

Counting_Pennies_2

Deleted_User wrote:

Also, as my job hasn't been done in my company on a p/t basis before (there are no p/t workers in my department of 60-odd) and so I agree with you Counting Pennies, I really need to think with my non-mummy head i.e. the professional one! about how I approach it with work. Some reasearch to be done methinks...

Why not break down your job. Are there some administrative parts of your role, or something that could easily be done by a lower grade. It might be possible to separate your job out and recommend in your 'pitch' for flexible working that those parts of your role could easily be done, and save the company money at the same time!

Poppy9

You should be able to work out your tax yourself with a simple spreadsheet. on the first taxable pay £2,020 10% (the starting rate)on the next £29,380 22% (the basic rate)on any income over £31,400 40% (the higher rate)So if you currently earn £35000 for a 5 day week you pay tax:
Tax allowance £4895 x 0%
£2,020 x 10% £202
£22465 x 22% £4942
5620x 40% £2248
Total tax bill per year: £7392 (or £616 per month).

If you went down to a 3 day week your salary would be

£21000 tax payable would be £3099 (or £258 per month).

Take home pay for 5 day week roughly (with NI deductions included) £2k for a 3 day week £1300. A reduction of £700 per month. You need to see if you can save this £700 per month.

Hope the figures are fairly accurate. I'm tired so I might have missed something.

NB: If you pay pension as a % of salary this will reduce too.

stardoman

Hi Poppy,

I think you've missed out the tax free allowance. Can't remember off the top of my head how much this is, but I think its around £4500.

HTH. Mandy.

Poppy9

stardoman wrote:

Hi Poppy,

I think you've missed out the tax free allowance. Can't remember off the top of my head how much this is, but I think its around £4500.

HTH. Mandy.

Quite right. It's just under £5k I think. Said it was late last night!!

rach29

Hi Louisa,

Have you considered another option, which I don't think has yet been mentioned in this thread? (apologies if I've missed it) What about job sharing? Are there any other mums in your department? Maybe there's some other poor soul out there just wishing she could go part time too!! I had a number of colleagues in my previous job who did this with varying times, eg. one worked mon-wed midday other worked wed midday - Friday. Some pairings worked 'week about' ie one week on one week off. There are lots of ways to make this work.

If there is no-one in your office at present who might do this how about anyone currently on maternity leave who may be looking to return?? Alternatively your employer might be willing to advertise for a job sharer for you?

Whatever happens, stick at it I'm sure you will find the right solution for your circumstances.

GOOD LUCK