Comparing Jobs? Consider Your Costs

It’s no surprise that car ownership is expensive. Yet it’s an easily overlooked factor in our career decisions. The prospect of a healthy raise both financially and in status may tempt a mid-career professional to accept a more distant job opportunity. Similarly, people working temporary jobs these days are experiencing the luxury of choosing between competing offers. Pay and perks are generally the deciding factors for them, too.
However, lurking beneath the surface is the cost of getting to work. For most of us, this is an expense we bear ourselves. The increasing costs of gasoline along with other rising costs can mean the apparent increase in pay coming from that attractive offer is lost in commute costs.
When you look at the costs of using a car to commute, it’s shocking to see the cost per mile even to travel to a nearby job. The current mileage rate allowed by the IRS is $0.56 per mile. This allowance does not apply to most commuters, specifically those who incomes are reported on a W-2, but it is a useful basis for comparison to understand the costs of operating your car to get to work.
To help prevent an unpleasant surprise in your next career move, we’ve assembled a calculator to give you a rough idea of what you can expect to spend to drive to your new job. You will need a copy of Microsoft Excel ’97 or later to use the calculator.
Please use it as part of your decision making when considering the next job.
Let’s assume you’re a temporary employee considering accepting an assignment and you expect to drive back and forth.
First, let’s MapQuest your commute. You find it 10 miles away (20 miles round trip). Let’s assume you have a new, economical 4 cylinder car that you’ll use 5 days a week to get back and forth to work. You happen to live less than half a mile from the freeway, and the workplace is right off the freeway exit.
Now we have everything we need to see what the costs of getting to work are. To use the calculator, go to the top section and look in the Type of Car column to find your 4 cylinder car. You’ll see it’s coded “A”. Next look up your Type of Commute (S for surface streets, F for freeway, or M for mix of freeway and surface streets). Because your home and work locations are both close to the freeway, this is a freeway (“F”) commute.
Now come down to the “Commute” section (in the middle part of the calculator) and enter your data:
in the “Miles round trip” field enter: 20 miles,then
5 days a week,
type of car: A,
type of commute: F.
Press “Enter” to move between each of the cells and be sure to press “Enter” after entering the Type of commute to finish the calculation.
Now come down to the Calculator Results (in the third part of the calculator) to see your costs. After considering the costs listed, you can see that you’ll pay about $251 per month to use your new economy car. As it happens, this car and this commute will cost $0.59 a mile. Everyday you’ll need to earn $12.57 before your job begins to pay you just for showing up.
Now, let’s say you have a big eight cylinder car that isn’t so easy on gas. Entering “C” for the Type of Car shows that you’ll be paying $375 a month for the privilege of going to work. That translates to $0.88 a mile and almost $19 every day before you begin to earn a penny on the job.
How many people say “I need to set aside $13 or $19 a day from every paycheck to deal with the costs of getting to work?” Nonetheless, the economics of driving will demand this from you now or later. If you don’t pay yourself the money now, you’ll find yourself borrowing in the future. This is one of the big reasons people find themselves in debt.
Here are the assumptions we built into the calculator:
Car replacement costs: 4 cylinder car $20,000, 6 cylinder car $30,000, 8 cylinder car $40,000
Car life:  150,000 miles
Tire replacement: $500 every 40,000 miles
Maintenance: $100 every 3,000 miles
License: 4 cylinder $200, 6 cylinder $300, 8 cylinder $400
Insurance: Full coverage, good record $1320 annually
If you want to customize the calculator, Unprotect the sheet. In Excel 2007, find the “Review” tab, then “Unprotect Sheet” button. Once you press “Unprotect”, you can change any cell. You may need to use help to find out how to Unprotect in other versions of Excel.
Finally, we’ve found that the spreadsheet does not work on all hand-held devices. If you have trouble using it with your smart phone, please download it on a computer.

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