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?

1.05-2 h is a huge variance but I would advise assuming 2 hours. Or at least most days.

I would say don't do this. I did london to Brighton (plus another bus from station or half hour walk). That was over 2h in total. 3 days a week. I had a lovely honeymoon period and adored both places but that commute takes up so much of your life, energy and availability even for just 3 days. It quickly became exhausting. Fine one day a week or temporarily but don't tie yourself full time to it if jobs in your field are rare.

You say you've looked everywhere but do you mean other cities too? There may be something at one of the big teaching hospitals outside London?

The question I would have is what is the commute like. If it’s sitting in a car two hours each way then no, I wouldn’t do it. If it were on a train so I could watch Netflix, browse the internet etc then maybe, but for me personally no way for that money. I recently took up a big commute for a promotion. In the car it is 2.5 hours each way due to the traffic, but on the train it is 1 hour. I put on Netflix or listen to music and actually quite enjoy my commute - I’m heading out of central London in the morning and then back in for the evening so always get a seat, going against the flow of rush hour etc. I also have a motorbike which takes about an hour too when the weather is nice. For me it’s worth it as the money was significantly more, and I decided to sell my soul to the corporate devil a long time ago rather than do something I love but have to watch the pennies. Sounds like for you you’d find a lot of your cash eaten up by the commute. Are you really therefore going to have a much better standard of life 50 miles outside of London if you are dropping 10k a year on train fares / petrol etc?

I think you have to be realistic about the toll it might take on you and how much it might impact on your partner’s ability to work. My husband does a 30 mile drive every day which is usually an hour but has been 1h30 or 2 when traffic is bad. It was costing £400 a month in fuel until we switched to an electric car. On days we were both commuting there was always a risk of something going wrong re childcare pick ups and it does restrict what you can do if someone has to be able to leave by 4. It was too much for us to manage a double commute in the end and I changed my job.

No. Haven’t RTFT but at £58k (presuming you work 40 hours a week) your hourly rate is £20.89. Add four hours a day travel time and that’s a 60 hour week. That brings your hourly rate down to £13.92. Then factor in travel costs. Minimum wage is set to increase to £12.21 in April. You might as well take a local minimum wage job – you’ll earn more for your time. Salaries in the UK are woefully low for many jobs compared with the cost of living, it’s hardly worth studying and training to specialise in many areas.

That’s all just financial too. The impact on time with your family will be significant.

Look at the longer term options.

Yes, moving outside London to somewhere affordable and with virtually no commute, you might take a pay cut/demotion in the short term but will it give you more job security and options in the longer term? Can you do extra training to increase your range of skills?

I changed careers twice in my earlier working years and doubled my salary in my last job because I had the right mix of skills and experience.

Career progression doesn't always follows a linear trajectory.

My commute is 1hr 5mins each way from SW London into London (usually ends up being 1hr 15m) but it’s walking/train. I’ve done similar for the past 8 years but I don’t think I’d do a similar commute length if it was by car - DH’s commute is technically 30 mins by car but rarely less than 45mins -1hr, where as trains are much more predictable.

Not in a million years no. 3 to 4 hour round trip every day? No way. And especially not for £58K. My 2 DC are on a similar salary in the Midlands. One of their partners is on £70K.

They are all in their late 20s/early 30s, and 3 of them have a degree. Hilariously, the one earning the most money didn't go to Uni. Go figure!

Oh, and they all work within 5-7 miles from where they live! (8-10 minute drive, or 20 minutes on the bus!)

.

My husband used to have a 1.5 hour commute each way. Most of the time he did it by train, which he found easier as he could read/nap/chill out a bit more whereas the odd day when he had to drive were even more exhausting (the days when he took the train were exhausting too). He had to leave before me and the kids woke up in the morning, and would get home just in time to wolf down some dinner and then help get the kids ready for bed (we had a newborn baby and a toddler at the time so I was absolutely spent by time he got home too, and every weekday I was just waiting for the weekend to come). He was absolutely knackered, neither of us had any time to ourselves or with each other.

That only lasted 5 months before he was able to start wfh - I don't think we could have managed much longer than that tbh. He has now moved to a new job that is also 1.5-2 hours' drive away, and our plan is to move closer to his job as soon as possible.

I’ve found google maps is pretty accurate provided you set the actual time you’re going to do the journey.

God no. £58k isn’t enough for you to do that.

I've done it, my ex did it.
It was just part of the drudge, but no I don't think I'd do it again.
Unless that commute was on the train, then maybe yeah, cos I'd carve that out as "my time" or use it as time to do my reports that I'd need to do at home otherwise.

Not for that salary. it's only worth it if a) you have absolutely no other choice, or b) you are earning enough to be able to outsource some of the household grind so that you can prioritise your time at home on family stuff rather than chores.

i did a 150 mile round trip commute previously. it's a killer. if you are reliant on trains then you also need to factor in delays and cancellations.

If you have to drive into London, it will be horrible.

That commute isn't feasible with a small child. Equally some days it'll be 3 hours if you are hitting the M25.

Whatever your specialism, if you are patient-facing there will be an opening in another city. Why stay so close to London? cost of living will be much less elsewhere.

That's one of the benefits of working in healthcare - staff are always needed somewhere.

Not in a million years.

No. I wouldn’t.

I travel to London once a month and it’s 2 hours each way. I hate it. Wouldn’t do it everyday.

Pre--covid (ie when wfh was pretty rare) I commuted 5 days a week 1.5hrs each way. Did it for 8 years pre-DC, then after maternity leave did it 4 days a week for 2 years before finding local, significantly lower paid work but far better work-life balance.

Yes commuting was tiring but we wanted a house with garden and had the time & energy pre-DC to build my career and earn the commute was the trade-off and really not unusual amongst our circle at that time.

Now I'm in a completely different industry that is not people-facing and fully remote and wouldn't consider a commute anywhere more than 1, possibly 2 days a week.

Bucking the trend here, I think we need more information.

I'm in London and my commute to work is about 50 mins door to door each way - I think this is pretty normal to be honest. So if it actually is 1 hour 5 min that is a standard commute.

What are the variables involved? Are you driving or public transport? If you tell us the areas involved, people on here can probably be of more use.

For those who don't know this - Google Maps defaults to telling you how long a journey would take if you left now, but you can specify a departure or arrival time instead, in which case it gives you a time range according to traffic patterns at that time of day.

Thanks everyone for your messages.

Answers to the most common queries

1. Yes, I'm NHS. The issue isn't so much a drop in salary (the London weighting wouldn't make a huge difference) but the fact that most of the roles I've seen (so far, outside London even in bigger cities eg Leeds/Manchester) are entry level. I've been working for almost 13 years. I really wouldn't want to go back down to this level.

My job isn't "specialist" per se, but I am in a specialist area which I love. 58k is higher up there for public sector, imo but I could be wrong!

1. We were looking at Milton Keynes. I'd be driving, as it is quicker for me than the train.L

Added info

I just don't know how anyone does this! We'd like to have a second child at some point, it just doesn't seem feasible on a lower salary - already struggle to pay childcare as it is! Although I suppose that would be lower cost outside London.
How do people time it as well? Need a new job before getting a mortgage etc.

Perhaps the commute could be done short term.

Like a pp mentioned Google maps timings can be way off. According to mine it should take me 22 mins, I don't think it's ever taken that, I always leave at least 45 mins

If I didn't have children I would.......but I do. So no I wouldn't.

Does the role exist outside London but people just tend to stay in post till they die? Might it be worth emailing some other departments to see ask if they have openings at a higher level? I am guessing you might have contacts in other hospitals in the same specialist area as you anyway?