To travel 100 miles a day for work for this salary?

[ThisPeachSnake]

Basically, I'm stuck. I've built my career in London, up to a salary now of 58k. I'm now a specialist in my field and I've worked hard to get here. We have been looking to move out of the city, as we just can't afford to buy here. We have one small child. I'm the main breadwinner, although my partner also works FT.

The only issue is that I can't find an equivalent job outside London. At all. The specs are wrong, or I'd have to take a massive salary cut and be demoted.

The place we are looking at is 50 miles from my work in London. Takes anything between 1hr5min to 2 hours according to Google maps. I can't work from home as I'm in a patient facing job.

So, just that really. Would you travel two hours a day to keep your job?

i was suggesting a trial commute not a trial of the job. Just realised I wasn’t very clear on that

No. I’d do an hour each way if it was 3 days a week maybe. But not full time. Too draining.

There are lots of people who live rurally who have to travel that. I have to do an eighty mile round trip just to the supermarket. And 3.5 hours to main hospital. 🤷‍♀️

@ThisPeachSnake

Have you looked carefully at the area you’re moving to?
The chances are that you could find an equivalent job and salary if you looked elsewhere outside London.

Never. Not unless I absolutely had to. That's 4 hours of your life wasted every day. That's hobby time gone, friends time gone, me time gone.

She says she can't work from home , she's patient facing.

I used to commute up to 2 hours, each way, for a job. It was worth it for a short period of time (just over a year) but became very old, very quickly. I was single, no kids and no mortgage at the time, so I made the decision to move closer, which wouldn’t be an option in your case.

The salary really isn't high enough to cover fares from so far out, do the maths. Often it's better to take a lower salary and little commute

Stay in London, that commute would be hell.

look at cheaper areas, see where you can compromise.

Also what is the difference in take home pay if you took a local job, factoring in travel expenses and your hourly rate for losing up to 4 hours a day travelling?

2 hours is too long, especially if your in a patient facing role, I imagine situations can happen where you can’t just leave at “clocking off time”. So if you are relying on public transport and miss a train, you will also have to factor in waiting around for the next one etc

Depends. Dh did that and more for more years than I care to think about. I worked full time in the next city.
As long as one of you is local to do drop offs/pick ups etc it's fine.
We relocated. Dh now wfh and I commute an hour and some each way. It's an easy one though, by train with no changes.

We used to drive from Huntingdon to Canary Wharf, morning and night. 1hr30 each way. If we didn't drive, the train took 1hr45.

But we didn't have children then.

My DHs commute is 2hrs each way to the city, but only 3 days a week.

It's entirely doable with a good book, but you will be tired.

No, not for that salary. That is a very low salary for London. What field do you work in?

I’d suggest moving to another big city where there’ll be more jobs rather than a small town with a long commute to London.

We live in Manchester and DH and I both earn more than double your salary. I commute 15 minutes on the tram to work.

It’s a 2 hour train ride to London so we still go down regularly to visit DH’s family.

There are lots of well paid jobs in cities throughout the UK, where the cost of living is lower than London. Have a look at Bristol, Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Liverpool.

I'd at least look for somewhere you can commute by public transport, and ideally a shorter journey. There's the congestion charge to take into account as well in your costings.

What house budget do you have, and where in London do you need to get to?

Driving or train? My commute is 1hr15 and completley normal, I live in the commuter belt.

No.

I think you have to seriously take into account that generally London jobs pay more

There aren’t a lot of work opportunities where I am I have never had a job with less than an hours commute each way. It’s normal in certain parts of the country and just what you have to do.

I'd say anything up to 1hr 30 is doable. Over that it becomes draining to do it every day

No, I wouldn’t. I’ve done it for a couple of months twice and both times it was awful and I was very glad it was a temporary situation.

Would another option be to move to an entirely different city which also has specialist roles in your field?

No. I did it for about 9 months because I had no other choice, but I wouldn't do it again. Although I guess it does depend on the type of journey you have and how stressful you find it. If you can get a fast train (and a seat!) the whole way, then it's not actually that bad (unless there are delays/cancellations), but if it involves massive crowds at the station each way, having to let multiple trains go by before you can force your way onto one, standing crushed against strangers for an hour before changing onto a tube, which is even worse, then no, definitely don't do it.

I wouldn't do it.

For me it would be a choice between staying in London or looking at other jobs/ upskilling in something else.

If you can tell us where you're travelling to and from we might be able to be more specific?
I used to commute Surrey to Camden and it would take about an hour (train and tube).

I wouldn't do it if it's driving every day. That could be up to 4 hours driving! If it was by train and the service is reliable and your home (or nursery) and workplace are close to the stations then that's much more doable.

I've always worked FT in London even when my kids were little (post covid I only go in twice a week). My commute is about an hour and 20 mins each way. I can use the train time to do household admin, message friends, read something I enjoy. Those things wouldn't have been possible if I had to drive. Yes I had quite limited time with the kids during the week (went to work v early so I could leave at 4, pick up around 5.30, would get a good couple of hours with them before bed) but they still seem to love me and be none the worse for it!

As other PP have said you need to do the maths. A commutable area from London plus train season ticket may not save much as you think.