What-Me Work?:Top 10 Reasons to Telecommute
by Karen Bartell of www.WorkAtHomeAuthority.com
David Letterman Junkie? Well, Then, Here are the Top 10 Reasons Why Telecommuting (Working from Home) is Preferable to Working at a “Traditional” Job.
10) Significant Tax Breaks for Independent Contractors, the Most Common Work-from-Home Arrangement.
a)No Federal or State Tax is Withheld From Your Pay.
Well, just that! No federal or state tax is withheld from the paychecks of independent contractors; since you are independent and not an employee, it is up to you to claim your taxes at the end of the year. Needless to say, this affords you a great advantage over your employee counterparts, who often wonder who swallowed the other half of their paychecks each week!
b)You Can Take Increased Business Deductions.
Unlike your office-trudging counterparts, when you work from home, you may claim income tax deductions for work-related expenses such as computer, internet service, fax, phone, paper, pens, etc.
9) Very Flexible Hours
Most work-from-home jobs offer completely flexible schedules; individuals can usually work part-time, full-time, and often around the clock. This kind of flexibility not only allows for greater comfort and convenience, but enables an individual to keep his or her daytime job while adding the work-from-home job as a second source of income, or grants the individual enough time to "test" the second job without having to lose the first one.
8) No More Paying to Work!
Are you paying to work? Read this and find out why, if you commute each day to a traditional office job, you very well might be.
a)In a traditional job arrangement, here is the average annual expenditure for a typical employee, making $28,000 :
- $3,000 for Federal and State government income tax, Social Security payments and Medicare tax. - $6,000 for childcare - $2,400 extra for car payments, car insurance, and personal property tax for a newer car. - $1,700 for a 10-mile-a-day commute. -$1,000 for clothes, dry cleaning and other items and services related to professional appearance. - $1,000 for lunches. - $2,600 for convenience foods and dining out due to overexhaustion from work. - $2,400 for I-deserve-this-because-I-work-so-hard items and guilt treats (toys, special outings) for the kids.
Voila! This person is spending a whopping $20,100 a year to work! Now, you take another typical employee not even earning as much, say, $20,000 yearly, and there you have it - this person is actually PAYING to work. Note: in today's economy, with salaries on the decline and everything else on the incline, the latter scenario is even MORE likely.
7) No More Rushing to Complete Errands During Your "Lunch Hour."
In a traditional job, you usually have an hour for lunch.The problem is, so does everyone else, and it's usually the SAME hour. This means if you have to go to the bank, the store, or just to get lunch, chances are everybody else is utilizing this same block of time to get the same stuff done. Pretty hectic, huh? And AFTER the work day is done, anything left over will have to be completed in the evening, again, during the same block of time as everyone else. Not so when you work from home. In most cases, since you are your own boss setting your own hours, YOU get to choose when to take lunch hours and breaks, so you can take a trip to the bank, the store or the deli anytime you please. The only way to work.
6) Conserve Time, Your Most Precious Asset!
Being able to save substantial time each day not having to commute to and from work will free you to pursue other endeavors, not the least of which can be devoting more time to the job itself (flexible hours, remember?) to generate more income.
5) Wear and Tear on Car
If you drive to get to work, well, we all know the price of gas these days! Add to this the added mileage and wear and tear on your clunker and pretty soon we're back to that "PAYING to WORK" scenario we talked about earlier. I know someone who swears that he works to support his car!
4) Wear and Tear on YOU
a) Health
I have a friend who refuses to work from home, saying that he needs the "health benefits" his job provides. Meanwhile his job entails working 12-hour grueling days out on the road with some heavy lifting, the very reason for his diminished health! Are you ruining your health for medical benefits, too?
b)Stress
Well, this one speaks for itself! With all the rushing around, commuting, trying to accomplish everything during your "lunch hour," spending infinite amounts of money on commuting, clothing and then coming home to a family that wants you to start your second job of caring for THEIR needs, excuse me, I have to go rest just thinking about it!
3) More Environment Friendly
Good news! If you work from home, you not only can feel good about the reduction in stress and financial expenditure, you also get to feel you are doing your part to protect the environment! Working from home helps to reduce overall car and bus emissions, therefore making for a cleaner environment!
2) Reduces the Need for Outsourcing, or "Offshoring" as it's Called Today.
For the politically motivated, many will find the idea of working from home on a global scale appealing, for the reason that it keeps jobs domestic, where they belong, and reduces the need or desire to ship jobs abroad. A positive trend for our economy overall.
And the number one reason working at home is preferable to a “traditional job”?
1) No Office Politics!
This is a biggie! Many people (including myself) simply work more efficiently from home, able to concentrate and stay more focused on the task at hand without the constant distractions that occur in an office setting. Without having to worry about whether you’ve said the right thing to whom, whether the boss is looking over your shoulder and really “has it in for you anyway” or whether to go to that office party Friday or spend the rest of the working day ruminating over how to get out of it (sure sounds productive to me!), you can simply relax, stretch out, have a cup of coffee (on your own time, of course, which is anytime you like- did I mention you get to arrange your OWN breaks?!), kick off your shoes (not that you need to wear any- need I remind you that you can work in your underwear, your birthday suit- make sure you live on a high floor or have good blinds for this one- or, for those die-hard enthusiasts, an Armani suit if you like?), and, well, if you can remember after all this freedom that you're actually working, WORK!
You get the picture. You could probably add a few of your own. The point is, that telecommuting (working from home), now more than ever, simply makes sense!
Karen Bartell is a freelance web designer and copywriter, and the owner of www.workathomeauthority.com, which features an extensive listing of companies hiring telecommuters, plus hundreds of Online Survey companies, Mystery Shopping companies and Home Business opportunities. She can be reached at kbartell@workathomeauthority.com
