Extra Income vs. Saving Money – Have You Considered Everything?

I’m sometimes confronted with various options for either making additional money or saving money by doing something myself, and I then need to reconcile that with my available time.  Add to that mix the financial benefits net of expenses and taxes and before you know it, it’s become a little more involved than just gross dollar amounts.  Here’s an example:

Let’s say you’re a tradesman that can work overtime on weekends.  You also have various home projects that you could either pay someone to do or do yourself.  You don’t have a preference for one type of work over the other – it’s your time and your wallet you’re primarily concerned with.  Given that you only want to spend Saturday doing one or the other since you have plans Sunday, which wins out?

Overtime Work:

• 12 hours available

• $40/hr base * 1.5 OT rate = $60/hr

• 12*60 = $720

Home Project:

• Same 12 hours to do (all day project)

• $550 quote from contractor with materials included

At first glance, people often focus on making more money with their time instead of saving money.  In this case, $720 seems like more than $550 and it’s a no-brainer.

However, when factoring all the various federal, state, FICA taxes where you keep only ~60% of your paycheck, that $720 is actually $432 in after-tax dollars.

Now which option looks more attractive?  You’re better off by over $100 doing the home project instead of working.

While this is an extremely rudimentary example, in looking at the bigger picture with multiple decisions across long period of time that really add up, do you always factor in ALL the variables?

The intent here is to reinforce that you’re not always comparing apples to apples when you’re talking about money that is pre-tax vs. after-tax.  The same holds true for investments, business deals and figuring out what you believe your “hourly rate” to be when thinking through whether it’s worth your time to do something.

• If you’re thinking about debt you have for housing vs. say, a car payment, keep in mind that for many, home mortgage interest is deductible while car payments aren’t.

• We get several hundred dollars per year back on our cash-back credit cards by using them instead of cash or checks and paying back the interest.  If it’s $500 one year, I think of it in terms of making an additional $750 in earnings.  It’s tax-free cash with no strings attached!

• I’ve seen people jump ship to a new company for a 5-10% increase.  Meantime, they’re now paying more for the commute, they lost the accumulation on a company pension, and other intangibles that probably render the move a net neutral or even a loser.  Sometimes that extra few hundred in the paycheck is deceiving.

• Conversely, sometimes, we eat out with someone or they make a large electronics purchase or something along those lines and they say, “Ah, I’ll write it off, it’s a business expense [chuckle]”.  Aside from the fact that it’s not, they’re kidding themselves when they act like it’s “free”.  They’re really just getting say, a 25% discount on something that perhaps they didn’t even need to begin with.  Using the “business writeoff” mentality to justify spending probably costs many small business owners more than it actually saves.

Food for thought.  Any thoughts or relevant examples?

Tagged as: Career, Saving Tips