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I'm thinking of taking two full-time jobs...
McCly
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
It'll probably be only for a few months, but I feel like it's necessary to get me through the current financial situation I'm in. Has anyone else done this, or have any advice?
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-You will spend a lot more money on eating out when you do this, because you'll be working and when you're hungry you want to eat something good, who cares what it is. It adds up. Even if you bring food with you some days you'll think "Screw this, I'm working a lot, I want something better than a turkey sandwich."
-You have to accept that for however long you do it, that's it. If you try to skimp on sleep, you won't make it, and make mistakes that can screw you over on both jobs. Take the weekend to catch up and work out and recharge.
-Don't do it if you have a pet, or let your pet stay with a family member or someone who will look after it. It's not fair to the animal to only see you when you sleep, and have to be alone for 2/3 of the day. I didn't have a pet (and you could swap in kid or significant other in this too) but thinking about what Aoi says its true.
In all, it can be done, and for me was a real zen thing, helped me really understand people are just wusses these days who can't handle anything. As long as you have nothing depending on you, do it. Looking back, it really helped in establishing just what is tough and not tough. It makes all the meaningless mishaps that happen in a boring work office seem so insignificant.
Try to make sure one of the jobs is something you really, really want to do. If waiting tables sounds abhorrent, don't do it. If, however, your selling video games or something, and think talking games with people a few hours a night sounds great, then that will probably make it easier to bear.
It is doable in the short-term, for a month or maybe two, and it can make for some interesting stories/life experience, but if I were you I would cut back on all the spending you can cut back on first and see how things go financially having done that. A full-time and a part-time would be difficult as well, but perhaps more feasible.
If you do decide on two jobs where at least one is full-time, make sure you have one full day off. That day can do wonders for your sanity.
There will likely also be 2x travel costs involved, unless one or both jobs can be done at home.
Bracket 1: $20000-$34999 = 15%
Bracket 2: $35000-$49999 = 20%
Bracket 3: $50000-$74999 = 25%
Lets say the two jobs bring in $20000 and $40000, you'd be taxed $3000 and $5250 + $1000 = $6250 respectfully because taxes are paid in a ladder format (so 15% * $34999 + 20% * $5001 to cover all $40000 of job 2). Now, when you work both of these jobs together, you'd be making $60000, which means a tax cost of $5250 + $3000 + $2500 = $10750. This is a difference of $1500 that would not normally be considered in the amount each employer withholds.
Now, my example is trivial; the real brackets are different and there are various tax laws that do various things to these numbers. There is also social security and medicare withdraws, state and federal taxes, retirement funds, etc. You can combat the extra costs by changing your tax information, asking for more to be withheld, but that will obviously reduce the amount you take home.
If you are certain you can get the money together in time for tax day, then you should be fine... but do remember that it will bite you by a bit.
Murphy's Paradox: The more you plan, the more that can go wrong. The less you plan, the less likely your plan will succeed.
Edit: nevermind, I'm on crack. When you fill out your W-4 for your second job, though, just make sure you fill it out accurately. They'll automatically withhold more since there's a section on there for having multiple jobs.
I only ask because in my experience this decision is very easy to make when you have no job and are sick of your free time. Not so easy when full time work makes you realize how precious your time off is.
If you already have a full time job and are considering picking up a second, all the power to you, I couldn't do it.
Of course some days were better, and some days were much much worse. Once got back to the shop just before midnight, and home at about 12:45, crash and wake up in a few hours... Of course, at least you'll be at multiple jobs, but I have to say I started HATING seeing my coworkers, there was a week where no one barely spoke while working because we'd seen so damned much of eachother.
one of the jobs is as a contractor and isn't taxed on the paycheck. Will that make a difference?
I'm fairly exhausted
I don't know if this is a good idea; isn't there a penalty on the 1040 if your withholding is far enough below what it should be?
If the contract employer really won't withhold taxes for you (which seems strange to me), there's a way to adjust for it on the W-4 of your other job. The form comes with a worksheet to do the calculations. (I had to work through a variant on this since my wife and I both work.)