Need reassurance making the right decision - family/job

cheerio14

Thank you to everyone for your input, you're all right and you've reassured me that I'm making the right decision!

fairy_lights

cheerio14 wrote: »

I guess I'm worried about money but I'm also worried about the impact on my career

Presumably there will be opportunities for promotion in the new job though?

Noctu

In financial terms, the smaller commute would offset some of the £10k drop in pay, right? Will you also pay less tax?

In family terms, what would you do if your little one was ill and you needed to pick him up? 50 miles is a fair way...

You will burn yourself out (or at the least, stress yourself out loads) with a commute like that. I did it myself for a year. No good for you, and no good for your little one.

Sounds like you're definitely doing the right thing.

jaydeeuk1

£10k is around £210 a week. 500 miles a week easily £50 fuel, so that's £160 left, plus extra maintenance and servicing / depreciation can easily make another £60 a month.

Not even taking in to consideration any child care costs, youre now only taking around £4800 pay cut, but youre now 'working' 10 hours a week less that would have been unpaid. Assuming £10 an hour, that's £400 a month, and £4800 a year, therefore youre actually no worse off

pollyanna24

Plus, if you are on £10K less, are you entitled to any tax credits?

I'm in the dilemma of working 4 days a week at the moment (with no tax credits) and am thinking if I cut down to 3 days a week, then I might be entitled to some tax credits (won't entirely bridge the gap, but the time with my little ones would be worth it).

BrassicWoman

cheerio14 wrote: »

I've never been totally career focused but it's always been a consideration and one that my parents are keen on.

I tend to think about how my parents lived and what their values were before taking on board their advice. Were they awesome parents? Did you get as much dad time as you wanted? and so on.

KiKi

Out of interest, what profession are you in / what career do you have? There are very few careers that penalise someone for taking a back seat for a while.

And, if you can afford it, you're DEFINITELY doing the right thing. Not seeing your son for 11 hours every single day must be awful.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Think of it this way - in an average working year of 48 weeks, if you could do the journey in an hour, you would be spending 480 of them in the car. At 10 minutes each way, you'll be doing 80 hours.

How much is 472 extra hours with your little boy worth in a year? If you were working those hours at £10/hour, that's not far off half of your pay cut. If you spend 90 minutes each way, or 720 hours, that's nearly three quarters. And two hours each way, well - that's almost exactly what you've had cut.

If you have a roof over your heads and food on the table, you don't need much else.

Enjoy your life and ignore any sniffiness about the change in salary.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

jaydeeuk1 wrote: »

£10k is around £210 a week. 500 miles a week easily £50 fuel, so that's £160 left, plus extra maintenance and servicing / depreciation can easily make another £60 a month.

Not even taking in to consideration any child care costs, youre now only taking around £4800 pay cut, but youre now 'working' 10 hours a week less that would have been unpaid. Assuming £10 an hour, that's £400 a month, and £4800 a year, therefore youre actually no worse off

Ha Ha! I didn't read this first!

Kynthia

Time is so valuable and a long commute is so draining. So you are definitely gaining something for the drop in income. Plus nothing has to be permanent. When things settle down a bit you can look around for a job that isn't such a step back or reduction in pay that is still a short commute away if you want, or wait a few years.