sadsack

I was just offered figuratively a $7.00 an hour increase to work for another company. This change would definitely end my biking to work. Currently I commute daily (20.2 mi. total) on a bike path that essentially connects my front door to the door of my office. With this being such a pleasant, unique (for these parts) and therapeutic ride, I'm finding I'm putting a very high value on this so called asset and turning down this great offer. What are your thoughts on the value of your valuable ride?

tsl

Whenever I have to choose between money and sanity, I choose sanity. I love my commute. Keeps me sane. Or nearly so.

MVclyde

Tough question. I lean more toward the job with the better commute. But depends on how bad you need the money. I had a similar situation where I left a job that was moving to an area where the commute would have sucked. I found a new job where I didn't have to change my commute. Same salary when I changed jobs, but I sacrificed upward mobility. I would probably be making $6-7K more a year by now if I stayed with the other company. To me it was a no-brainer.

Tequila Joe

Lets put this into perspective...

$7 / hr X 40 hrs / week = $280
$280 X 52 weeks / year = $14 560 (before tax)

Its not chump change but my decision would be more based on my current financial siutuation, job security, if I was unhappy at my current job, future career opportunities and benefits.

FunkyStickman

yeah, that's not an easy call. Almost $15K is significant, but you have to factor in car costs that will eat up some of it... chances are, after commute expenses, etc. and possibly antidepressants (from the driving, LOL), it'd be a wash.

Bat56

I would not change jobs for money; there must be more to it than that.

That aside, my commute is valuable to me. I do not want to be a slave to oil to get to work. I won't be unless it is the last resort.

Titmawz

I dont live that far from my job anymore but the ride is priceless. I get to work and I am woken up and I feel great =) And after a long day at work I get home completely relaxed and look forward to riding with my homies around Miami =)

SactoDoug

That is a significant amount of money. Don't count it all though because you will be incurring the cost of driving rather than cycling.

If you drive that same distance then with the cost of gas, maintenance on a car, higher insurance rates for more miles driven, etc., it costs about $0.40-0.50 per mile. So that is $8 per day using the low number. Most people work 240 days a year so that is $1920 additional cost to drive. Let's say you spend $220 a year to maintain your bike. That is a net cost of $1700 a year.

While that is another $15k a year gross, your actual take home will be closer to $8-10k after taxes. People always seem to get stuck on gross income when it doesn't mean anything. It is what you take home that pays the bills and buys you things.

$10k take home minus $1.7k additional commuting costs and your actual take home pay will go up $8.3k or about $700/month which is still a very significant sum of money.

This is assuming that you don't incur other costs such as if you gain weight and have to spend money on a gym membership and/or exercise equipment. One thing I always know when I try to do a budget is that there are always hidden costs that you don't think about when you run the initial numbers.

tjspiel

+1

Salary and commute are just part of the picture. I really like where I live and the fact that I have a pretty nice commute would make it harder to convince me to work farther away, but not impossible. It would take more than a pay hike though. I'd have to be really interested in the new job. I might be able to get my current employer to up my pay if they knew I was ready to leave. Maybe that's an option for you?

velosprinter

One of my favorite lines in an Indigo Girls song, "Thing about compromise is don't do it if it hurts inside. Either way your screwed, might as well have some pride."

That is a lot of money but what will it do for you? Will it give you the same happiness as the bike?

dynodonn 

How secure is this job that offers a 7 dollar an hour wage increase? That will be a question on the top of my list since I've seen better paying jobs evaporate a year or two later. The next question is do I really need the extra money? I personally make enough to pay all my expenses and still have enough left over to pad the savings account. The more you make the more you spend.

colleen c

You did not mention why the job change will put an end to your commute. Milage? Route? Or is it just the quality of the ride will be different?

Cyclaholic

There's no way on earth I would ever give up bike commuting for an additional $15K (minus the cost of driving). As an engineer I'm paid well enough that an additional $15k won't make a lick of difference to my quality of life, but losing bike commuting certainly will. Multiply that figure by at least 5 and I'll start considering it.

We're all in different situations, you have to make your own decision based on your own circumstances and priorities.

wunderkind

This would be a personal decision. Where you are in your career, values, financial situation etc.
Some folks value cycling, some vacations, some sports cars, some high-end watches etc.

If you're young, don't stay stagnant.

Seattle Forrest

I would think long and hard about it. Why would this end your bike commuting? Would you be able to do (and enjoy?) long recreational rides to make up for it? How do the jobs themselves compare?

I'm making a little bit less than I did at my last job, but I'm almost infinitely happier. Some of that is that I live a lot closer, and getting home from work involves a bike ride instead of an hour of gridlock. Also some of that is working fair hours, and not being stressed. It's a tough decision. But you'll make the right call.

BSB

Depending on your situation, you may be able to use the offer as leverage to get a raise from your current employer. You get the extra income, won't spend a chunk of it driving to work, and get to keep your bike commute!

Of course if you're going to attempt it, you should do it diplomatically. An ultimatum is not a great idea, nor is giving them the impression that you are not loyal to the company and only care about money. Tell them about the offer, let them know how much you enjoy working for them and don't want to leave, but it would mean paying off the mortgage that much sooner. Then say you haven't made a decision yet but are considering it, and thought it was only fair to keep them informed. They may volunteer something extra. If they don't, you can still keep the current job if you wish - just give it a couple days, then tell them you've decided the intangible benefits outweigh the extra income, and you've turned down the offer.

ETA: ... or just casually mention that you got a great offer for a bunch more money, but that you turned it down because <company> is such a great place to work. Might earn you a few brownie points...

vantassell

With an extra 15 grand a year, you can probably afford to move closer to the new job.

What's the reason you wouldn't be able to commute by bike?

sggoodri

I am currently house hunting, within my current zip code, and I am willing to pay a premium for a home with easy bike routes to their school(s), local shopping, and parks on low speed residential streets and/or greenways. It's worth it to me to spend an extra half of my annual income in $$ for an ideal home location for utilitarian cycling by my kids. Some of the more affordable homes I like are unfortunately isolated from parks, schools and shops by busy 50 mph arterials, so I've passed on them. I'm okay with the kids crossing these roads at signalized locations, but I don't want them bike on those arterials for any distance until they are of driving age, or to cross them without signal protection. A lot of the neighborhoods here are in pods with internal street networks that dump out onto the 50 mph arterials at single-sided, unsignalized intersections with no other outlets.

Now that I have kids in school, I'd like to avoid moving them between schools, and so it would be harder for me to move to be closer to a new job if I couldn't continue to work where I do now. I think I would sacrifice my own bike commute in favor of my kids having a good neighborhood for cycling, which they do now.

Fizzaly

I consider my self lucky as my commute now is only 3.5 miles each way, a year and a half ago it 19miles each way same job i just found a closer place to live, but to tell you the truth if i found a good job i would be willing to ride to it. Granted i am carfree so i dont have much of a choice. I say you look at the route you would have to take and see if it is indeed worth it, i mean really you cant have your cake and eat it too

doc0c

Completely agree with this post. Even if you only get half the raise, it would be worth it as you get to keep commuting.

CptjohnC

I had this very dilemma earlier this year -- deciding between 2 jobs, one of which (I thought) would put an end to my bike commuting. The differential in gross pay was actually not too different from what you describe, but the other benefits, including perceived stability and opportunity for advancement, were quite different (civil service vs. commercial banking). after much deliberation, I elected the job which would end my bicycle commuting, at least for the foreseeable future.

But that isn't the end of the story... the day I accepted the job without a bicycle commute option (because of distance -- 53 miles each way is just beyond my riding capacity and time constraints), my new boss called me and offered to let me work from a different office belonging to the same agency, returning the bicycle portion of my commute to 11-12 miles each way (or less, or more, depending on how I choose to do it). So sometimes things just work out.

Obviously this won't happen every time, so you can't make a decision based on the possibility that things will work out. But perhaps you can seek some alternatives that keep part of your cycling commute intact -- multi-mode commuting works really well for me (either car to bike or bike to mass transit).

ItsJustMe

I figure it costs me about $7000 a year to bike commute. I work overtime every day, at about $43 NET take home per hour, and if I weren't riding my bike, I would almost certainly be working the extra 45 minutes a day PLUS the time it takes to maintain my bike, wash and dry my cycling clothes (I sweat a lot even when it's cold), and the time it takes for one extra shower per day. Say an hour per day. That's > $10,000 a year take home, subtracting out gas, car maintenance, etc and allowing for the fact that I would have to at least occasionally not drive, or at least take that hour and spend it on the stairmaster or something to keep from flabbing out, it's gotta be at least $5000, probably closer to $7000 a year.

I may actually wind up dropping to 2 or 3 times a week, because I'm trying to build a vacation fund and cushion for the next time my wife decides she needs a new car. I friggin HATE car payments, and I've vowed I'm never buying another new car for myself, I think new cars are a total waste of money. So I guess "it depends" but it may be somewhere between $4000 and $10000/year that I'm willing to pay to ride a bike instead of drive.

Artkansas 

You haven't told us any other benefits the new job might have. So it's hard to really have an opinion. I've turned down higher paying jobs because the lower one kept me more sane and had better career experience, (tossing boxes at UPS vs being a graphic artist).

My bicycling is the real engine of my financial progress. I seem to put about the same amount into savings as it would cost me to drive to work.

Driving a car costs money, about $7834 dollars per year on average accoding to the Boston Globe. Then you have to subtract the taxes on your new income. So if you make say 11K more after taxes and spend 8K on transportation. Thats a 3K bonus. Or just over 60 bucks a week.

wunderkind

This is a risky game plan. It really depends how replaceable a resource is. The current employer may play along while behind the scenes look for new candidates. It's corporate America. Unless of course you are in some sort of Unionized job. Then again, I don't think you have any negotiating chip since it is done through the Union.
Bottom line is, how critical is the resource is to the company.
As a previous poster has noted, $ is not the entire package. One has to look into other benefits like health coverage, vacation time, flex hours, progression (important if you are ambitious), corporate culture etc. Money is just one of the variable.

mustachiod

i took more than a $10K/year pay cut to switch from a job that required flying/being away from my family 4 days a week to one where I could walk my kids to school and ride my bike to work every day. no regrets! sure, we could use the money to pay off debt, but you can't put a price on sanity.