These days so many employers are allowing staff to work from home. It does make some who’s job function does not allow it to be jealous either around the office, or among friends and family who would love to be in your shoes now being able to work out of the comfort of your own home every day. Being one to hates traffic, and well, people for the most part, working from home is the best I could ask for when it comes to collecting a paycheck. Not to say that I don’t work while I’m at home (friends make fun thinking that because I’m home I get to lay around all day), I do work hard, but it certainly does take discipline to focus on work all day when there is so much you can do around the house, or would rather be doing instead of work. I have a computer room where I physically sit at all day, otherwise if I took my laptop into bed I may not keep my current routine of actually working and there would be no going back. Working from home actually does save money more than you think, in addition to being able to work in your pajamas.
Take Care of the House
Let’s be honest, how much downtime do you spend at the office surfing the internet, texting and checking Facebook, to chatting with co-workers throughout the day, not to mention breaks. To quote Office Space, “I generally come in at least fifteen minutes late”, “I just sorta space out for about an hour”, and “I probably only do about fifteen minutes of real, actual, work”, you do have down time at the office, so you do as well at home. During this time, you can get laundry done and vacuum, but you can also save on hired help such as tedious work such as painting. Spread across a week, a little bit each day, and you can free up nights and weekends.
Low Fuel Alternative
Not having to drive into work really does save at the pump. I was driving around 30 miles each way, so filling up at least once a week just for work, let alone doing regular errands. If figure your salary does not change, you could be saving an extra couple hundred dollars a month just on gas, adding up to a “bonus” of between two and three thousand dollars a year. That is also figuring normal traffic, which if you work standard day shift schedule, there is always rush hour, which really eats into your miles per gallon. So basically, you get to save a few thousand a year just for doing your normal job, so I would say that is a pretty substantial savings.
Tax Break
Believe it or not you actually do get a tax break for working at home, and that is with your normal day job or self-employed work. Consult your tax preparation service to point out that you do use your home office for business and you can take the tax advantage for the % of your home that you use as part of your home office. If you do self-employed work or items that you have to purchase at your own expense for work, you can write these items off as well, but be sure to keep all receipts.
Is Actually a Benefit to Your Employer
While it seems that is nothing but a positive for you working from home, it does also benefit your employer as you can imagine you would not be granted this privilege otherwise. Your company not does not have to pay your cubicle space, but what you may not realize is that your absences are greatly decreased and your overall production is higher than it would be going into the office.
It Could Be Worse
All of our jobs are stressful for different reasons, but while you are at home in comfortable clothes, sipping on your coffee with the TV or radio on in the background, it could be much worse. While you are taking advantage of the mentally happier day to day operations, your employer enjoying your morale boost with higher production, so it is a win-win for all. Since we are primarily focused on saving money, working from home not only saves money on gas and a tax deduction for the home office space, the stress-free lifestyle, while you get to take care of necessary chores around the house to free up time at night and on the weekend, is priceless. Take it from me, seek out a work from home job and your life, and wallet, will immediately improve.
