When Calculating Your True Hourly Pay, Include that Commuting Time Too

As a freelancer, sometimes I need a day job (for assorted reasons), just like other people. While I could get better paying jobs in Dallas proper, I've been there, done that. Now I prefer to stick to my neck of the woods on the DFW outskirts. So, while a $20/hour Dallas job does tempt me at times of extreme need, but, with an estimated fifteen-hour weekly commute, that $20/hour for 40 hours ($800/week pretax) becomes $14.55/hour for 55 hours ($800/week pretax) from my viewpoint. Having done the calculation, now I know to seek out that $14.55/hour rate here locally, because it saves me all that time commuting, which I don't get paid for.

Yes, I would need to work 55 hours not 40 hours to make the potential $800/week. And I'm okay with that. I've essentially recouped my transit time and made it hours for which I get paid. In fact I could only work 40 hours at $14.55/hour and could still make $582/week pretax. Which I could make work with my pared-down expenses.

Yes, I could also listen to books on tape to make use of that time other than simply traveling, but my car radio has been on the fritz for years. Actually I think it is more about the speakers blowing out yearly for two years straight, when I stopped replacing them. I've tried listening to my Kindle in the car, but that requires earphones to be able to hear better, and my first attempt wasn't that great. I could try a different set of earbuds perhaps. And I haven't figured out how to work on a copy edit project to earn money while driving my vehicle. Ha! But why bother, when in less than twenty minutes' time, I'll be able to read in the comfort of my own home (or listen to those books on tape or copyedit).

The true hourly rate may be something for you nonfreelancers to consider too, depending on where your preferences are at this time in your life. If you have no other time commitments or goals than your day-job work, go for it. Travel the fifteen commuting hours weekly to bring home the proposed $800.00.

As for me, I'd much rather be five miles from home and spend that fifteen hours I just saved by avoiding lengthier commutes to instead be at home reading and writing, for my personal pleasure, maybe even learning something to boot. That's where my passion resides.

#copyeditor+

"If your vocation isn’t a vacation, then quit, leap, change careers."

Denise Barker, Author, Blogger, Copy Editor
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