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?

My colleague did the move. And did the research on train lines and fastest services to London fitting her commute time.

She located town by examining trains first. She enjoys her train time.

She got affordable place where she is happy with a good commute.

this would kill me. I did a few months of a 3 hour commute (I know, insane) and I was nearly dead. That was twice a week and only during uni term time. Never again.
What is the entry salary?

No, don't do it. This is just too far.

Ok but those roles exist right? Just not at the moment? Or they only exist at entry level everywhere else?

I mean for example could you say look at OUH and then live in one of the villages or towns outside Oxford? It's just an example if the role seems to only exist in the large city NHS places.

No I wouldn’t do it! I’d wait until you find a job at the right level outside of London as you mentioned the ones you’ve seen are more junior so not comparing like for like.
That kind of commute means not seeing much of your child and sounds exhausting esp if you do it everyday or even multiple times a week.
No disrespect but £58k is not a high salary for London so I’m not surprised you’re struggling to buy. We moved out of London too. London prices are insane.

DP does 100 mile round trip to work. Takes just over an hour. Can be worse depending on if there’s been an accident on the motorway and is currently taking him longer as it’s Christmas time. I expect this to continue until January. The commute doesn’t bother him at all. The only thing he whines about is his petrol cost to be honest.

But if you’re even thinking about it I would do multiple practise runs at that time. Traffic is unpredictable and if it’s saying it could be up to two hours then I would take it as two hours and not bank on it being less. I know my DP is travelling the same distance but he wouldn’t be doing it if it was two hours each way.

I would never ever work that far away from home on daily basis incase something happened to my kids

You work with patients you say there will be patients with the ailments you specialise in all across the UK

I'm amazed (and pleased) at how many people won't even countenance this. I don't think I've ever had a job that didn't involve at least 45 minutes commute. My current commute is just under an hour. I'm sure I read somewhere that the national average is 45 mins. However I chose to live out in the sticks and did so knowing that would mean a commute. I also rode a motorcycle, which slashes the time considerably during rush hour. I work 50-60 hour weeks and travel in about 3-4 days (used to do 5) and it does mean long days. I'm blessed that I have great energy levels, don't need a lot of sleep and my DC are older. My shortest commute was when they were younger and I sacrificed earnings to ensure I was around enough.

The reason I'm pleased is because the more

Don't do it, it'll be exhausting and stressful and you won't see enough of your family.
Have you tried looking in London outer Zones for a small house or flat with two or three bedrooms, close to tube or station? Don't know what your budget is but perhaps you could stretch to something along these lines: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/150584153#/media?activePlan=1&id=media3&ref=photoCollage&channel=RES_BUY
or
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/152979380#/?channel=RES_BUY

I wouldn't commute 30mins, let alone 2hrs.

It’s not ideal, sometimes you have to do what you have to do. I’d be worried about missing important time with my child though, you can always earn more money in the future but you can’t get the time with them again

My husband drives to central London and round trip, it’s about 3hrs a day if traffic is good, more if it’s not. He said it’s worth it to live out in the sticks of Surrey with a house and large one acre garden that we could never afford in London. He’s been doing this for the last 30yrs and we have children. Yes, it’s tedious but he tries to only work a 3-4 day week and works from home as often as he can. He always said he’d rather do that and drive than live back nearer the city again!

It's way too much. We moved a 20 mile drive away from my office into central Manchester. Google maps says 40 mins. Realistically it's a 2 hour addition onto each way with rush hour traffic, including public transport options. I can work from home most of the time so it's not a massive impact, if I had to do every day I would change jobs. Not just the impact of commuting you need to consider family time and what impact it will have on spending time with your child plus when they go to school what impact it will have on pick up and drop off times, wraparound only goes to certain times.

The What Works Centre for Wellbeing found that while people get used to a lot of bad things and begin to take for granted good things over time, that doesn’t apply to commutes: if you hate it, it doesn’t get loads easier in time.

So beyond polling the internet, if you can, I’d recommend renting somewhere in an area you’re considering. Commute in for a week and see how it feels. Some people love the chance to get into a podcast, also some train lines are easier than others. The journey either end of the train makes a difference too, as well as how often you’d travel at peak times.

An alternative is to go much further so you are closer to another economic centre where more specialists might be required.

An hour each way is pretty normal even with traffic. My husband used to do a few hours each way each day or stay away all week and our relationship and his with my kids/his step kids was not affected in the slightest as you make it work

I work this distance from my role- same reasons that I can’t find the opportunities nearby. I travel 3 times to a week with a commute of 1hr 50 mins each way and have done so for 3 years.

as much as the job is great it’s really impacted my life, that of my family and ultimately my health. Also year on year the season ticket prices are eye watering and so with a heavy heart I think this will have to be my last year in the job. I’m just existing at this point. Think very very carefully about it. If you have never done long commutes before it’s quite a shock in respect to the gruelling nature of all that travel before and after work, not to mention the big dent it causes in any work life balance

I’d definitely look at Kent, A2 corridor, maybe towards the coast, my brother lives this area, I grew up there and worked my twenties but now live further away.

DB uses Gravesend to London, and Ebsfleet to London, trains, can be expensive but 20 mins Ebsfleet to St Pancreas. (A2 traffic can be slow though). He has a 15 minute car journey to pick up these train lines as he’s further out.

I think I read some time ago about some quick trains from Folkestone area, lots of new houses being built that way. We have a few friends looking to move there from London.

You’re absolutely mad if you think a commute from Milton Keynes is regularly going to be less than 2 hours each way. I wouldn’t do it. Honestly, you probably can’t afford to have a second child without it being hugely stressful. DH and I both earned more than that and had a small mortgage (£1300/month) on a 2 bed flat, we could have covered childcare fine but 2 lots of childcare would have really stretched us.

How much will commuting cost you in time and money? Can you start early so you avoid the rush hour?

do all the calculations

keeping the car
increase milage on insurance
extra petrol/electric
extra car maintenance
parking
extra childcare to cover the hours
tube/train fares
cleaner

tbh, if it would add it all up money wise and I could wfh at least a couple of days a week I would not discount a move.

fwiw my commute by cycle & train is usually 1.5 hours but driving would be closer to 2 hours. so consider that as well. a direct/fast train might be better than trying to drive past m25.

Driving no way. Rail- I'd consider if the commute is under 90min each way door to door. I live v near London and have that length commute as I don't have any non stopping service options. Plenty of people do the same commute, some of them women with children. You will be tired though. I like my job but I view my commute as stolen time!

We're in a similar boat to you. On the property ladder but the next size up where we are isn't worth the £ and wouldn't be on the nicer streets in town. I'm currently the bread winner in a London centric job and I am in more or less all the time. I don't want to leave (public sector) so I'll be targeting hybrid roles for my next job move (not that imminent though) so I can live further out.

Factoring in my commute limits us but I'm not keen to step out of my area of work and I have more options to progress internally rather than externally atm. It's a v long game. We currently don't have DC but I'm pushing DH to upscale at work. He's hybrid and has more flexibility of where he works/ options to move. Then if we have DC I would feel better about being PT for a bit

@ThisPeachSnake I do this commute (plus a bit extra) and have done for a number of years.

(1) you need to work out the actual maths. Commute costs tend to go up over time vs your mortgage going down. We chose to live outside of London for the lifestyle and family not because of the cost. I would hypothesise that on that salary the commute costs will take a significant chunk of it. You don't ever get that back. Wheras a mortgage means you have the investment in your home.

(2) You need to consider the implications of doing this x number of days per week. How will you feel if you have to work late? Can you do some of your job remotely if you need to leave to cover childcare?

(3) In an NHS role you will eventually be able to find a match outside of London. Have you considered looking at places a bit further afield? Or towards the SE or West of London? There are good NHS providers in both regions and more affordable house prices.

It is probably doable but hard.

DH used to commute every day from South Manchester to Barnsley which was 45 miles and about 1.5 hours each way.

It was very tiring for him and, because we wanted to eat as a family, we would sometimes not eat until 7-7.30pm. The DC were early teens so not great.

His commute had some motorways and some single roads that could get log jammed. Sometimes it was over 2 hours which was exhausting on a daily basis.

For someone without commitments in their 20s it's fine. If you have to come home and do parenting etc. it may not be doable in the long term.

I did a 100 mile round trip commute for £22k in my 20s (10 years ago for context) whilst in the depths of childcare! Basically brought home nothing after commuting and childcare costs. But it was a really important career step in the midst of relocating, I only needed to do it for 11 months before a more local step up presented itself. Don't regret a thing.

Dd1 is ST6 and had an hour and a half drive each way to her hospital which she found particularly difficult whilst pregnant. She is now on maternity leave but thankfully her new placement, when she goes back, is only 20 minutes each way.