“Stuck” at current level due to 30 hours threshold?

[stuckinapickle]

I’m hoping for some constructive comments or any suggestions I may not have considered please.

I currently earn £100k plus bonuses. Get a company car so travel costs are low. Everything above £100k goes into pension, so we are entitled to 30 free childcare hours.

I’ve been in current role for +5 years and have been ready for a new challenge for some time. The next role up the ladder for me, salary would be approx £120k. Would likely be in London so commuting costs of about £17k GROSS, £12k net. If I continued to Sal sac everything above £100k, I’d be considerably worse off each month due to travel costs. So a more stressful job, more commuting, but less take home pay. There’s 3 more years until my child will be in school.

Do I just suck up the career stagnation in the meantime for the sake of being better off each month? The longer I stay in this role, I feel like I’m becoming less attractive for new roles as I look like I’m not career driven?

I’ll begin by saying - the policy is insane, and incentivises the wrong behaviour, and the government are stupid for not doing anything about it.

But - keep progressing and putting money in your pension etc. You can put £60k a year in - plus other salary sacrifice benefits if you need to. I know some people who have then gone part time to accommodate.

After age 3 you are losing less as you do at least get 15 of the hours…

Where are you commuting in from to cost 17k/year? That seems like an awful lot.

Yeah, I’d take the progression. Even though you take home less as any increase would need to be salary sacrificed, that’s extra in your pension + extra from tax relief + extra from compounding. So you are gaining - but in the future.

Just put it in your pension. This isn’t worth the moan.

So it’s roughly £1000 a month on travel. Thats a lot of money and a quarter of your salary (?),

In reality, will you have to travel so much, or can you work hybrid (assuming that’s travelling five days per week, although my dh’s London costs + car parking is £60 per day)?

Can you wait a year or consider other job roles which will make life easier?

Unless you are very close, I wouldn’t do a London commute every day with a child in nursery.

Mine are primary school aged and I still find my London days (only a couple of times a month) really stressful. I’m often late into London in the morning (childcare drop time is fixed plus travel time is quite tight so it only takes a short delay), and coming home (luckily have a good support network).

If you can find a London role on 120k which is mainly working from home with one day a week in person, I’d say continue with the salary sacrifice and suck up the commuting costs. But I think you’ll be a lot more stressed and have less money if you take full time in London.

Why would your commute be so expensive? I'm assuming you're nowhere london, which in itself is not compatible with small children.
But yeah, wait or chuck the extra into your pension for a couple of years. There's not really another option.

Most likely OP needs to earn £17k pre tax to cover the rail fare which will be approx half. That’s how I read it.

What’s the total comp? This is really important.
I’d take the role & either continue with the SS & Pensions to keep below the £100k. That way, when the little one is a bit older you’ll have the whole jump up waiting for you. Or, I’d take the role & pay the CC (if the bonus & any equity makes it worth that). You can check the take home pay by looking at the Gvmt take home pay calculator to compare the two. I think people say about £150/160k is the breakeven point but worth doing the numbers for yourself.