Would I be crazy to stay in a 40k role instead of a 75k?!

[worklifedilemma]

On the surface I know YES looks wild...

Here's the dilemma:

I'm a mum to 3 primary age DC, currently in a FT role 40k per year. It's remote mostly with very occasional travel into London (1-2x a month) - I live west of London, very rural, around 1hr30 door to door. It's also technically a self-employed contract which means I can pop expenses onto my tax assessment etc. Also qualify for child benefit etc. I'm a middle manager at a private company, in case that helps context.

Not yet formally offered but going well a side side step career wise (no people management and stand alone), but in a more 'money' direction. (Comparable to say moving from criminal law to corporate - just more money in certain niches). £75k, PAYE. Obviously better pension wise etc as I only have my own self employed one at the moment. Almost double the money at £75k, but where it's PAYE no tax relief on expenses, which would be higher as they would want me in their London HQ 2-3 days per week. This is also longer days and would have to ensure we could make it work with childcare. So my overall expenses would be much higher, job much more taxing due to travel and time in office, and I'd lose child benefit. This would make my take home (after travel) around £400 ish more a month.

Just can't figure out if that £400 is worth the extra work/time/travel less time with the kids etc? Long term career I guess so.

Any words of wisdom? Any thoughts on what you would do if it were you?

@GoldenSunflowers 15 minute drive, 50 min train, 10 min tube, short walk 😁

@worklifedilemma that's shorter than my London commute when I lived in zone 6 😂

I don’t get it either, in zone 5 and with only 30 minutes train ride.

You can definitely have shorter commutes from much further out. I'm about 90 minutes from office at Marylebone coming from zone 5 south of the river. It's faster to come from loads of rural places straight into paddington. Although colleagues who do that have only one option so if their 5.30 train (or whatever) is cancelled they're screwed. I have loads of ways to get home albeit all pretty hasslesome!

@Butterworths you’re right about the limited options if you’re further away. I can’t be late for work so I leave enough time to allow for a train cancellation (another 10-20 minutes), congestion on the Tube etc. So what in estate agents terms would be 10 minutes walk to the station and 30 minutes train into London, in a working day means much longer, realistically.

I would be looking to leave your current role before your employer gets busted for breaking the PAYE laws.

Take the legal job with the better pay and security, get DH to step up, protect yourself

Yes the options are more limited. Trains every 30 mins so I either can get in office for around 835 or 905 meaning usually I have to take the earlier train. And if one is cancelled I am late no other option.

It’s the fast train - there’s lots of places outside of london with a train less than an hour ☺️

They are much more expensive once you’re out of London zones though so travel is a lot even if the time isn’t much difference.

So realistically a 9-5 job would be a 7-7 ish day with commute included.

You’d still get child benefit. I’m assuming you’d be paying a decent chunk into a pension, and you have to earn at least 80k after pension contributions to lose all child benefit.
I’m sure you’ve calculated it in depth but I just cannot see how an extra 35k a year would only be £400 a month more

when you say your husbands business is failing
presumably that’s resulting in substantial family debt?

@allaboutsign debt, no. Depletion of savings - yes😫

he does all school drops offs and collections… is he the only one that drives?

how long has he been self employed?

why have you put your career on the backburner for a decade when your eldest is 7?

how long has he been self employed?

why do you think it’s failing ?

@worklifedilemma sorry didn't mean to make it sound like I don't believe you, I live 70 miles out of London now and my commute would be 1.5 hours if I worked close to the station I come in on (sadly I don't!) it is bloody expensive though! Was just amusing to me that your rural commute was faster than my previous zone 6 commute! (Though I know mine would have been much cheaper!)

does your husband think you should take the job?

@Mostunexpected that’s net after travel expenses, any expected drop in child benefit (though I shouldn’t count that as I’ll likely lose it when DH back to work anyway), also student loan scales rapidly and I still have some left due to lower earnings over maternity and part time whilst the kids were small.

Also a small amount I can make in tax savings with tax deductible expenses which I would lose on a PAYE contract.

@allaboutsign we share school drop offs we both drive.

I haven’t had it on the back burner for 10 years, 7-8 since I went on maternity with my eldest. Unintentionally also as my job wouldn’t allow my flexible working request and I couldn’t make it work around nursery hours.

how long has he been self employed for? does he accept it’s failing?

@allaboutsign about 3 years. It was okay for the first 18-24 months and then went downhill.

Very difficult industry primary reason - a few things out of his control around software development where he got screwed over by a tech team. So a combination of factors really.

@allaboutsign he has finally accepted it’s time to stop yes. It’s taken a while but he is there. He’d like to try and get it in a ‘healthy’ enough position to sell on but like I said either way he has 6 months max runway and so he is now building a pipeline of contract work he can do in the meantime.

he will struggle then to go back in to a 6 figure role quickly

how’s your marriage op? are you happy?

@allaboutsign he should struggle on paper but he won’t - he has a good network and people he could pull favours with fortunately.

It’s okay. Not perfect. Could be better but life is stressful and we’re doing our best.

that is illogical

if he gets it to a sufficiently “healthy state” to appeal to a buyer.. then he’s not going to sell it

and he seriously thinks he can get it in to a healthy state despite over a year it not being healthy?

He hasn’t accepted it’s failing op

what does he think about this job potential offer?

when will you know if a really successful?