Between the years 2019 and 2021, the number of people in the US who worked from home almost tripled from 5.7% to 17.9%. In some states, such as Maryland and Colorado, roughly 1 in 4 people ended up working from home. With these sorts of statistics, this article explores the monetary benefits of working remotely from home.
The Monetary Benefits Of Working From Home
Travel And Commuting Costs
Commuting to work is one of the largest costs that an individual incurs on a daily basis. Remote working will help to alleviate costs such as this.
According to studies, commuters across the US spend approximately $8,500 per year on annual commute, which works out at roughly 19% of their annual income. With remote working now being so readily accessible, that is a huge amount to save per year, approximately $23 per day!
Not only are you achieving a monetary benefit each month by working remote, but it also frees up time from commuting, with the average American saving 25-27 minutes a day not travelling into the office. An average saving of 25-27 minutes a day on your commute (let’s round that up to 30 minutes), is a saving of 150 minutes in a 5 day work week, 600 minutes in a 4 week month, and approximately 7200 minutes across a year of working days. That works out at 120 hours per year saved.
Time is a cost that most people don’t think about when it comes to monetary savings. However, with that extra time many people have started successful side hustles, with around 5 million new businesses started in the US in 2022 alone.
Eating Out
The second biggest expense aside from commuting in an office job, is the food and drink that you buy during the day. There are those select few people who will be massively dedicated to waking up early and preparing themselves a home cooked meal to take to work, but the vast majority will look to eat out when they go into the officer.
A recent survey found that the average American spends roughly $2,800 a year on lunches, with some reporting as much as $9,000. A saving of that magnitude each year could be very useful for a rainy day fund, to save someone having to go down the route of a payday loan or emergency loan further down the line, if they were in a position where they needed to borrow money instantly.
So far, just on commuting and eating out, the average American will be able to save $11,300 per year by working remotely vs commuting to the office each day, a staggering amount of money! However, if you still order takeout when working from home, this will eat into that saving quite significantly.
Childcare
This saving won’t apply to everyone reading this article of course, only the individuals who have children and need to arrange childcare while they have to go to and from work each day. The average cost of childcare in a state such as California for example, is on average $17.16 per hour.
If both parents had to work a full day in the office even 2 days a week, that would cost over an 8-hour day about $137. This would be $274 over 2 days, $1096 a month, and a whopping $13,152 a year, based on childcare just 2 days a week!
This shows just how large a financial benefit working from home can be if childcare is included in these costs. The benefits far outweigh the negatives of your kids barging in occasionally while you’re on a zoom call.
In total, if you used to have all 3 of these costs and switch to working remotely, the amount saved would be almost $25,000 a year! With products such as installment loans and payday loans being in high demand across the US, it’s no surprise why when you look at how much the average American has to spend each year.
Vehicle Depreciation
The more miles you put on any vehicle, the lower it is worth when you come to sell it. With the average American commuting around 41 miles per day, that’s about 200 miles each working week, 800 miles a month, and 9600 extra miles a year to your vehicle! If you decide to finance your vehicle through an auto loan over 3 years, that’s almost 30,000 extra miles that is added to your vehicle.
According to car experts, each mile driven depreciates the car by $0.08, which means if you do an extra 30,000 miles on commuting that’s $2400 down the drain, and roughly $800 per year. So working from home can help you save money on your car in the long run. As well as this, if you are reducing the number of miles you drive each year it is worth getting in touch with your car insurance who may be able to reduce the price of your annual payments since there will be less risk involved.
The Bottom Line
Working from home has so many benefits to Americans wherever it is you live, with the financial benefit for some totalling almost $30,000 a year from what we have discussed in this article alone! If you are looking to make the switch to remote working, but really enjoy the office environment, think about whether the benefits outweigh the costs and then look to decide what you want to do.
