£20000.00 higher pay with new job but may be not worth it?

paddyrg

I can give you a cunning tip or two as I used to commute from Oxford to Liverpool St every day for 7 months for a contract.

1) can you do odd hours? Commuting at peak times is blooming miserable, and Reading - Paddington is always packed at peak hours and the journey is miserable.
2) First class season ticket will cost ~50% more than standard, but is worth it if you can catch a quieter service so get a seat, tea and coffee, newspaper etc. Also means you get to use the lounge at Paddington which is an absolute godsend.
2a) If you get a first class season ticket, get your tube season ticket/oyster separately, no point in paying the first class uplift on the tube section of the journey - at least check and compare prices either way.
3) Paddington --> City - only a mug would sit on the circle or bakerloo/metropolitan lines. The smart commuters walk 5 mins to Lancaster Gate, then it's central line straight to wherever you want to be.
4) It is just as fast to commute from Reading as it is from many parts of London, and the return trains run late.
5) If there are train problems, there is a cunning (if slightly dearer and slower) route via coach from Reading station to Heathrow, then the tube into the city centre - when there was a disrailment once outside Paddington it got me back to Oxford at least.
6) Walking - Paddington to City is about an hour on foot - it is wonderful to do some evenings, you get to enjoy a bit of London that way too
7) Shared taxis - at Paddington at peak times the taxi ranks are obviously busy, but they run a fixed price shared cab scheme where everyone pays the same price (I think it was £6.50 ish but this was a while back - maybe allow for £8ish) including any tips, and everyone going to one area (and plenty are off to City area) hops in a cab and gets carried to the door (or near enough)

Personally I wouldn't move to London, any area you can afford will soak up the extra cash and it won't save you that much commuting time.

paddyrg

Oh - another tip...

8) Hailo - install Hailo on your smartphone. It is brilliant, one of the best apps I have. It hails a black cab (ie driver knows where they're going) for you from anywhere, you get the driver's name, photo and phone number with the booking so you can call them if there's a problem, they get your GPS location to come to you, 5 mins free waiting time, you only pay the meter price and you have the option to put a credit card on the account so you don't even need cash. And you can auto-tip, and you get a receipt via email. It has been done brilliantly, it is the future.

I've made the false economy of using a hotel-booked minicab before from Putney Bridge to Paddington. The driver started off with 'OK, Paddington - what street is on, for GPS?'. !!!!!!. Or one night from the O2 across the river - £13 in a black cab, £25 in a minicab. Now it's black cabs only, and Hailo makes it really easy and convenient even from backstreets off the beaten track as they come and find you when you hail one. Lifesaver.

somethingcorporate

I wouldn't do it - £20k is not anywhere near enough to get me back living and working in the city. I'd consider it for an extra £50k perhaps, but to be honest, I don't think I would even take that.

Some things are more important and being out of that horrible place (IMHO) is one of them. I now earn the same money but live and work from my home city with a 30 second commute upstairs to my office.

After 3 years of 90+ mins into the city it is enough to make you want to top yourself. Look at the faces of the commuters who you do it with, if you want to get a general opinion of the prospect of regular long commutes with the rat race.

djcat

Dunroamin wrote: »

You're moving to London, not Sodom and Gomorrah!

Quite right, as we have seen during the riots, too.

djcat

Dear all,

thank you so much for all your help and valuable insight. I must admit, that it is the first time where I am not going for the better salary right away and instantly; which is quite an unknown situation for me to be in...

The comments on commuting and pension did actually light up a few areas I did not see in this way before. Even if I rent a house for a reasonable price in London, it will probably be in the outskirts away from public transport and take as long or longer to get me to the City as from Reading itself.

Pension is actually a good point, too, which I did not consider in detail.

I do not want to go back to house sharing, the times I had to listen to a housemate having fun with his GF at night and I had to queue up to have a shower thanks god are over, and I decided that this will stay that way. I also decided that I like to enjoy the privacy, safety and space I have worked hard for, meaning the only way for me to live are with my partner, my immediate family, in my space, with my stuff and my car in my garage.

This means that I would have to rent a house with a garage in London, in any safe area there it would cost me 8000 Pounds more a year than I am paying now, effectively eating up most of the net gains.

Commuting into London from Reading for me is dreadful, although I know some do it every day and it would cost me "only" 4000 Pounds more than I have to spend on my commute today (walking distance). I used to live in London for over a year and that was the time I was most sick in my entire life, I guess a train is as healthy as a hospital with all that time sharing a metal tube on wheels with a few hundred strangers, probably breathing in germs that have been discovered on the far side of the earth a few weeks earlier.

Either that or going into London by car or motorbike. The first is crazy and out of the question, the latter doable as its quicker and more economical than trains.

Hence, to decide if I take the job or not I am looking to stay at my current residence and thinking if I would be happy commuting on two wheels into London every day. If its reasonable, I will take the job. If not, I don't.

[Deleted User]

Put it this way - after your extra costs, what percentage of a pay rise is it? I now have a rule of thumb to not move jobs unless its for 20% more

Also, how would the move effect your relationship? Less time, more stress..

Savvy_Sue

djcat wrote: »

Even if I rent a house for a reasonable price in London, it will probably be in the outskirts away from public transport and take as long or longer to get me to the City as from Reading itself.

Personally, I think you're underestimating how much transport has improved in London in recent years. I know I don't commute any more (and couldn't / wouldn't cope with it every day), but I don't think you'd find anywhere 'away' from public transport 'in' London these days.

The trick, as already stated, is to find somewhere which is a sensible journey, by whatever means. But those means can now include the Boris Bike!

(Of course I could pontificate on whether some places are 'in' London or not: there are some places which were not considered to be 'in' London when I was young, but now they are.)

getmore4less

Another thing you can do is take advantage of any deals in hotels.

eg the Hoxton £1 nights. to save on some travel time, work late/early or have the OH come in and you do something in london

Lincoln_Imp

djcat wrote: »

Either that or going into London by car or motorbike. The first is crazy and out of the question, the latter doable as its quicker and more economical than trains.

Bear in mind our great british weather if considering a motorbike

I travel 30 mile round trip to work and sometimes go on my bike but more often than not its the car because its either raining or forecast to rain when on the way home

Havent read all the posts but didnt see any mention on the job itself ,is it worth the extra 20k ?

Its nice to get opinions on what to do but only you can decide whats best
The main thing is no regrets on what you decide

djcat

I was awake quite late yesterday, trying to find a way to somehow justify the move. It just does not feel right to not take a job offer that will get me 20 thousand Pounds more. I was looking into different ways of commuting from Reading, different places in London, moving to another place outside of London and moving halfway there. None of them made any more sense to me than staying where I am now, as even if I move ten miles closer e.g. to Egham, due to train and road connections it will still take as much time to get to central London than from Reading (on a good day), whilst I would not be saving anything more than I am now.

I tried hard to justify accepting the job, writing it all down in a cash flow spreadsheet but in addition to their pension contribution of only 3% compared to 5% at my actual job, the extra costs of renting, car insurances, the commute itself and the stress of it and last but certainly not least income tax, the answer became more and more obvious.

At the end though it was my GF who said the obvious, telling me that she thinks it would not be a good move for us now.

As said previously by somebody, 20 grand more net after all extra expenses looks like a significant increase, but not gross salary wise. It is incredible, that with such a high pay rise and base salary to start with it is not possible to live the same life that I would consider normal in London and make it worth financially to move there, but it also showed me that I am happy where I am but did not know it.

And on that insight, I say thank you all for your input. Have a great Christmas and a wonderful, happy new year!