Calculating the Real Financial Cost of Having a Job

Is your job costing you more than it pays? Learn how to calculate the hidden financial and physical costs of employment to reclaim your freedom.

Did you ever sit down to calculate how much you spend being employed? One of the first things I did that got me out of the box with some mental ease was actually calculating how much it costs me to have a job.

Being an artist, one may have more previous employers than the average bear. I most certainly have an inordinate amount of jobs, careers, entrepreneurial ventures and reinventions. Until I finally took a good look at this cycle of gain and loss, high and low, in and out, up and down.

Long story short- I have been pursuing an art form that never paid the bills. Well, maybe they paid to delay bills but never did a windfall of money enter to wipe out debt. In fact, until I stopped fearing math, I hadn’t realized how much my life was financially out of balance.

I would have the day job, pursue comedy at night. Until comedy would disgust me and I would quit, find another job with a “future” in it and quit that. Then go back to my creative streak and start a business- t-shirts, candles, personal training, sound bowls, Reiki, plant based tasting programs, and on and on. When those failed I would take comedy back which cues a side job.

By the way, I love the side job. I feel free. Why? I can walk at any point. That is my own leverage that I quietly negotiate with myself. I wish that freedom for everyone. I hard quit jobs like it’s my job. Not a brag, just facts. My time is my value. Don’t fuck with it. If you hire me, utilize me. Don’t waste my time. I am not tall enough or dumb enough to just sit and look pretty. Too many organizations that run like shit shows. Can’t be a part of it, unless you let me fix it.

So fast forward to the job that should have changed the trajectory of my life. The job on paper that held the promises of finally arriving into poper adulthood… health insurance, 401K (don’t get me started on that), vacation time, prestigious title promised on the horizon of one year. Everything was building up to this moment in my life, unbeknownst to me. I never had “executive director” positon on my bingo card.

I start with all the hopeful relief this secure and forward moving position promised. And in less than a week the mistake set in and was confirmed when I was told I had to stop whistling. Not allowed. Not allowed to whistle while I work. This is a problem because I don’t even notice my whistling.

Ok, so now I am going to have to explain this logic of bailing on this “perfect” position of the many perfect positions I have eventually departed. Hear me out. The fact that I can’t whistle was not a strong enough argument. So I did the math.

The math ain’t mathin’. Without getting into the actual numbers, I realized that this position does not move me out of the bracket I began in. The only thing it offered was dealing with an imbalanced (although funny) personality at the helm. A realization that she was full of shit and I wasn’t going to get anything promised in the interview. And finally, the realization that there was no way out but to escape quick with the least amount of damage. Still burned a bridge. A few actually.

I wanted none of that to happen. I would have been so relieved to finally stop the searching, the endless sense of being a fuck up. I would have traded almost anything. But my health. And there’s the rub.

I am a mind body wellness chick. If my mind is well, my body will be. And at this point in my life, my body was failing and at the edge of giving up mentally and physically before this out of the blue opportunity came into my world. Was this it? Was this the final puzzle peice?

Nope. Can’t whistle…A.K.A. be myself. And that is just the tip of the iceberg. I jumped that ship quick. And the point is, the argument I made involved something I never looked at before…the financial cost of having a job. I made this move by instead seeing where I could cut costs rather than seek to make more.

The cost of maintaining a car. Unaffordable at the moment. Sold it. No insurance cost, no gas cost, no repairs. Bleeding stemmed. How about the cost of eating? Clothing? Other necessities you wouldn’t run into if you didn’t work that job? How many times I bought a coffee or extra snack? Or got roped into some expense ordered by the top dogs? Or suddenly a certification is required? It is endless.

I simplified my life. I took another approach with my health being the most important aspect of all my choices. I haven’t had or needed a car in 3 years. That alone is thousands of dollars in savings. Do I need rides, sure. But I can live according to a budget. Real cash. If I have it in my pocket I can go. Where as if I had a job, I always looked at it as a never ending flow of money. But it wasn’t. It was a never ending flow of expenses, health issues and oddly growing debt. Huh? The light bulb went on finally. How much am I making? How much am I spending? Is this moving me ahead? Am I happy? Answer to all was “out of balance.”

Selling your car may not be an option for you. But there are places where you can simply spend less rather than being constantly driven by the social standards of more, more, more. Where haven’t you looked yet? What haven’t you considered? I haven’t fallen since that choice. I am living healthier and more aligned than ever. The money is starting to follow and debt is starting to diminish with no returning in sight. I am learning what living within my means actually means. And sometimes it doesn’t think what you think it means.

Check the math. You may have options you never considered.

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