Suppose you are working from home as a freelancer and trying to supplement your spouse’s income. Both of your incomes would help you guys pay off your debts faster than you would expect. To accentuate your earnings, you might have taken up a few more assignments. You would notice that you have to devote more time while completing those assignments while you have increased your savings.
As you spend your whole day working, you do not have time for yourself or your family. While it’s always good to earn extra money, is it worth giving so much time to your assignments? Is overworking costing you money in a way you are not able to comprehend? Well, the following discusses just that.
The High Cost of Working for Long Hours
Have you ever thought about the fact that raking in more money can cost you more money? You might ask how that is possible. As you start devoting more time to your assignments, you won’t have much time to cook, clean, and spend with your family. Since you can’t cook as much as you used to before, you will eventually order food from outside or visit the grocery store more often as you fail to organize your meals.
There are many such things which you might have avoided if you wouldn’t have been overworking. Not only would you neglect your duties towards your household, but you will also end up shelling out more money than usual. If such a lifestyle continues, you will feel stressed out. If you are working late into the night, you will have less time to sleep as you would have to wake up early in the morning to take out more time for your assignments. That will put you under stress.
Is All that Money Worth It?
There are some simple questions you can answer to figure out if the extra income you have aimed for is worth it or not. Are you more stressed now? Do you miss the time you devoted to pursuing your passions before you started overworking? Do you wish you had more time to take care of your family?
Are you dining out or ordering food from outside regularly instead of cooking at home? Are you wondering where all your money is going even though you are raking an extra income? Or are you shelling out an extra amount for your laundry, daycare, and all the other stuff you used to do yourself? If yes is the answer, then probably an extra income is not coming to any use.
Before you commit yourself to more responsibilities and more time at work, you must realize whether that will be of any benefit to you financially. Since you have less time to focus on saving money, you will spend more. In situations when you will be forced to hire help for housekeeping, gardening, or babysitting, just because you don’t have the time and energy, you will have to shell out more. Your health might deteriorate as you will be under stress owing to lack of sleep. You will also hate that you have no more time to enjoy quality time with your family, make friends, build relationships, or follow your hobbies.
The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has a lethal effect on human lives as well the world economy. Countless people have lost their jobs. In such a scenario, taking up more work was considered necessary by many. Since people had to work from their homes, they got more time with their respective families. They didn’t have to commute from their homes to their offices and back.
And thus, saving a lot of time. Now that the economy is improving a bit, many would be required to head back to their workplaces. This will be when people would realize the value of those extra hours they got throughout the pandemic.
Working More Might Not Be the Solution
There are so many folks out there who will say they need to overwork to make ends meet. This might be true for some, but they need to go to their basics for the majority. Do you want more stress and less time in your lives?
What about those dance classes that you were excited to join? What about that book that you were looking forward to reading? Will you cancel that trip which you have been planning with your family for a long? If it all boils down to a few extra dollars as your savings, are you willing to sacrifice all the other things you dream of doing?
Ultimately, you are the best person to answer. Different people face different situations. You need to figure out if your effort of earning some extra money by overworking costs you more.