Today’s younger generations are making career choices that often give them the ability to work from home. Before leaving your current job behind, it’s best to weigh the pros and cons to see if you have what it takes to succeed.
PROS:
Independence/Freedom
Working from home gives you the ability to create your own work schedule, which is very desirable–especially to parents who are raising young children. If you have class trips or afterschool sports practices or games, you have the freedom to attend.
No Salary Cap
Many of the jobs where you work for an employer have a point when you reach a certain salary and then it’s basically a cost-of-living raise thereafter. This is not the case when you work for yourself. For instance, loan officer jobs entail securing a loan for people. And, in most cases, you receive a percentage of the home’s or business’s sale price at the time of closing. If you take on multiple clients each month with an average home price of $300,000. at 1% you make $3,000. and that’s just one home closing.
Save Money
When you work from home you don’t need money to buy coffee or lunch; you eat at home. You also don’t have to spend a lot of money on gas or car repairs caused by long commutes. And, as far as a wardrobe goes, if you meet with clients you’ll only need a few staples to get by, versus the necessity of an entire office-friendly wardrobe.
CONS:
Distractions
When you work from home you need to separate yourself from your family and the rest of the house. Ultimately, you should have a room designated as your office with a desk, a good quality chair, a computer, and other office supplies. When you are “at work,” you simply close the door and then open it back up when you are done for the day. Unfortunately, not everyone can separate from their family or their home, and this leads to reduced earnings and frustrations.
No Benefits
Something that you must consider is that, when you work from home, you give up all of your benefits. This means that you will have no more paid vacations, no retirement plan, and no health insurance. While you can acquire health insurance and retirement plans on your own, they are quite expensive. Any day that you don’t work, you don’t get paid. So, if you come down sick with the flu for a few days, your wallet is going to suffer.
Isolation
Maybe some of your co-workers are annoying. However, when you work from home, especially as, say, a freelance writer, you’re not interacting much with the outside world. Many people don’t respond well to spending most of their time alone, and it’s definitely something that you will need to get used to.
No Guarantees
While it’s true that when you work from home there is no salary cap, there’s also no guarantee of a salary at all. Freelancers know all too well the nature of the industry and, for the most part, it’s either feast or famine. You either have too much work or none at all.
Acquiring a Loan
When you are self-employed, getting a loan can become difficult to say the least. While you can provide W-2 and tax returns to show wages earned when you work for an employer, providing self-employed financial records to a bank doesn’t actually guarantee your solvency. Again, there’s no guarantee that what you make this year, you will make the next year.
Pursuing Your Dreams
If you decide that the pros outweigh the cons, you can become very successful working from home. You’ll learn to budget and save money when you can to hold you over through dry spells and enjoy the freedom that comes with the territory.