Everybody wants to know how much you make. But who ever asks, "How much does your job cost?". Do you know?
We spend a lot of money on our jobs and we don't even realize it. Eating out, wear and tear on the car, clothes, day care, etc.
Have you ever actually written it down to see what it all costs? When I help people with their finances I'm stunned to see how much money they spend on just having a job. They're also stunned when I show it to them!
The most eye opening thing is to take your take home pay deduct the work expenses and then divide by the number of hours you work. This can be very frightening for some, even negative! When you realize that after taxes and work related expenses that you're making around $5/hr. It'll bring some people to tears.
The good news is that you will soon know this and can take steps to adjust. So let's look at the variables that cost you to work:
Car - assume 20 miles round trip per day with govt allowance of 55 cents a mile
Childcare - assume between $14 to $74 per working day
Clothing - assume a cost of $2 per day for cleaning and proper attire
Eating out - assume you eat out a low cost place, instead of bringing your own lunch liked you eat at home
Misc - could be anything, pot luck at work, additional cost of getting sick, Christmas gift exchange, etc.
The above scenario is the average American family. Mom and Dad work, and are extremely busy with at least 1 child.
Daycare is the biggest variable, so here are the two costs showing the extreme. The person with the low cost daycare spends about $3.90 per hour on going to work. While the high cost daycare spends $11.40 per hour on going to work. The later may be more than some of you make!
Now take how much you bring home in your paycheck (after all taxes), divide by the number of hours you worked and then subtract the above figure from what you make. This is truly how much you make from your job. Feel free to change the numbers above based upon your actual situation. So what can you do about this?
1. Find a job closer to home. Preferably one that you can ride your bike to.
2. Seriously look at quitting your job if this figure is ridiculously high, like if you live in the Northeast and have multiple kids. You can still bring in more income by looking after other children in addition to your own. Just be sure to see what the state regulations are on this so that you don't break the law.
3. Find a job that doesn't require you to look like a lawyer or banker. They can easily spend a few hundred a month on clothing and dry cleaning. Ridiculous!
4. Always always always bring your lunch to work, along with any snacks to hold you over for the day. It's healthier and will save you a ton of money. At least $5 a meal.
5. Not much you can do about this, but it only costs you about 20 cents a day, so it's just part of the deal.
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