Higher salary but more risk, WWYD?

[Wife2b]

I’m currently on a permanent contract for £33k (I think it works out to be around £17ish per hour). I’ve been with my employer 2 years and recently moved away so now have to travel 60miles typically 2-3 days per week.

I’ve been looking into agency work which would equate to around £65k per year before tax. Typically £30-37 per hour. I’d still probably travel 30-50 miles 3 times per week. The downside with agency is that it’s more risky because you haven’t got protection as an employee, no sick pay and they can give you a weeks notice.

In my situation, what would you do? Would you take the risk and start to build a safety nest? Or would you personally choose job security over salary? I should say that in my industry there is always work so I’m not too concerned about that.

I struggle to understand why permanent is supposed to be better. DH works in a company that's all permanent positions & they let go of people all the time. There's no job security at all in so-called 'permanent' positions.

I'd go for the agency work instead.

If you go the agency route then will you be self-employed? Do you understand the implications of that?

Hourly rates are higher because you have to make your own provision for sickness, pension, periods of low demand etc, but you have flexibility over how you do that.

The key to taking on risk is to do your research and understand what you need to do to manage risks to a level that is acceptable to you.

How much job satisfaction do you have at the moment? That's important too, as well as the team around you.

Pension is another consideration and if NHS (I may be completely wrong here), impact on continuous service. Agency work unlikely to count towards that.

Hmmm I’m not sure if you are classed as self-employed so I’ll look into that. It’s social work if that makes any difference so usually hired by the local authority/council.

I had factored in having no holiday pay, having to pay own pension etc. I suppose I hadn’t thought about the pension in great detail though. I think it worked out that after paying back student loan, pension, tax etc I would come out with roughly £1.5k more per month then I usually do. But obviously there is still the element of risk

What's your financial management style? Are you the kind of person who'd set up savings and investments to make sure that your pension, tax, sick pay was covered, or would you be more likely to increase your cost of living to fit your new salary?

This isn't just a question of are you a saver or a spender, but how good you are at staying on top of admin - I'm happy to put a chunk of my salary in a savings account, but I'm dreadful at things like sorting out insurance, and I'm happy to pay for the convenience of my employer dealing with tax and pension on my behalf. I also struggle with networking and I know if my income depended on making lots of client connections I'd find that difficult.

Lots of people in my field have gone freelance/contractors and I know that the business development side of the work isn't worth the extra income payoff for me. That might be something that you're really comfortable with, though, so it's worth thinking about the kind of soft skills that are different between the two types of role, and where you fit.