So you are trying to make the decision, apply for a bunch of 9-5 jobs, make a couple extra thousand dollars a year, or apply for some of these telecommuting jobs online that pay less. Which route do you take and why? I won’t try to talk you out of the typical 9-5 job, but I will give you some food for thought on added benefits to working from home.

Think of this real quick: If you drive to work, let’s say 30 miles round trip and the average car gets 30 MPG (which they don’t), the cost of gas is $2.50 per gallon and you work 230 days a year (which is low) – you are already saving $575 in gas alone. Those 6,900 miles you just put on your car, easily equate to $1000-2000 in depreciated value; trust me I know from experience. Now what about meals? Let’s be honest, no one brings food to work for every meal. A very realistic average of $5 per day in meal cost is another $1,150. I know you have to eat when working from home, but you won’t be tempted to stop at Starbucks, nor will you go to that crappy mexican place your co-worker loves. So in food/travel alone, you’ve spent nearly $3,000. It adds up and we didn’t even think about accidents, tickets, vending machine trips, etc. On the opposite side of the spectrum, if you are a business owner, the cost savings on overhead are quite substantial.

There is no way I can put a cost on freedoms.. things like going to the post office, running to the beach because the weather/waves are amazing, finishing up a good book, waking up an hour or two later, not having people look over your shoulder every 20 minutes, etc. These things, to me, are worth SO much more than an extra couple hundred dollars a month can bring. Yes, if you have to pay bills, that’s another story.

I’ve been extremely happy in my move out of the 9-5 world, into Thought & Theory and the iwearyourshirt.com project. If there is one thing a crappy economy is good for, it is inspiring people to adapt, to make changes and to innovate/create to succeed.

By the way, it just so happens one of our clients lists jobs based on flexibility/telecommuting (with an update coming very soon) – Career Life Connection