Archive | October, 2011

What is the real cost of working

13 Oct

So unless you’re a farmer then chances are you have to at least in
some way, commute to work. Unless of course you are a hobo and
then….well…..you get the point.

I know lots of people drive or take the public transit to work so
let’s assume a person is paid roughly $40 000 per year or divide by 2080 working hours per year = $19.25 not bad you think
By the time you chisel down the net taxes ($6071.00) in ontario , you are at about $34,000 the fluctuating cost of fuel lets say at best $100 per week or $5,200 per year, you are down to about $29,000. insurance, maintenance on a vehicle and parking,about $200 at best per month if you can find it cheap enough then you are down to about $26,000 then take into account the intangible aspect of traveling to work. you know the time you spend it head bopping on the train or in the car trying to stay awake. lets say 1 hour each way AT BEST. SO that is 2 hours a day and at 260 working days a year = 520 hours traveling.

SO $26,000 which is what is left after you do all the stuff divide by the working hours 2,080 hours per year = $12.5 per hour.
Now take the 2080 working hours that you theoretically get paid for and add the 520 hours that you don’t get paid for and you are down to about $10.00 per Hour WOW.
Even if you work with the same salary and use public transit, a TTC Metro Pass for example will still cost you over a hundred bucks per month.

Having said all the above its not really my main point about the cost of working You Should also take into account that the time you spend commuting to a job is also time spent away from your family How much is that worth to you how much is At least one hour of travel each way costing you. What is the real Toll on your health and on your life and on your family. Think about it.

work the numbers you may find that working closer to home with less money may actually net you more at the end and give you more quality time. but then again it all depends on your priorities. It might be that you use the phrase that I always use the road to a successful marriage is to travel a lot. Think about it.

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“How was copper wire invented? Two Scottish guys were fighting over a penny.”

4 Oct

So I probably learned handy little nugget from my brother in-laws. We
all know that everyone is being penny pinched, or at least 80% of us
over the things that matter. I’m sure somewhere right now there is
some rich person complaining that they don’t have enough money on hand
to have their pet bald endangered eagle dipped into liquefied
diamonds, but you get the point and those people are for another blog
(yes its coming) The 80% of us that work for our money are having to
keep it real with our savings and watch every dime we spend.

You see people always blame somebody else for not having enough money
on things like vacations or similar things. When we go on our
vacations we are accustomed to spending money that these days we
should probably be a little more careful about. Here is what I did
with my family:

One day we packed up the car with our clothes and went to Northern
Ontario. We stayed in this relatively less expensive hotel because it
was not in the center of lets say Blue Mountain. Then we went and
bought food from Loblaws after discovering they have those and Wal
Mart up there. Over the following two days we traveled to visit and
enjoy various spots around the area. Following that we checked
ourselves out, hit the road again and drove around checking out the
various water falls in Ontario, before we finally went back home.

On a scale of fun it was a 10 the kids had a blast we had lots of
quality time together being together as a family. It probably was the
least expensive and most enjoyable trip we took in a long time. The
trick is to look around be imaginative. You don’t have to spend lots
of money to have a great time. Look around you. There is so much you
can do with what you have if you just use a little creativity, a little
open-mindedness and have a sense of new adventure.

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