Working from home: A new approach to saving and investing

Let’s face it, if there’s one thing that we’ve learnt over the past seven months, it’s that working from home isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. Whether struggling with time management, staying motivated, or not being able to switch off from work, the reality is that we all had our little battles that we needed to overcome. One thing that we can all agree on, though, is that working from home is a lot more cost effective than having to go into the office every day. It’s also very likely that going forward you’ll be able to work from home more often, even once the threat of the Coronavirus has dissipated. In this article, we unpack three ways in which working remotely could save you money.

Commuting

Depending on which study you read, the average South African typically spends between 30 minutes to 1 hour every day commuting to and from work, with the cost of traveling dependent on whether you commute by car, train, bus or taxi. With that being said, regardless of how far you travel or which mode of transport you use, not having to commute to and from work every day saves you both time and money. And if you previously made use of your own transport, you also have the benefit of saving on wear-and-tear as well as insurance – with most insurance companies offering reduced premiums during lockdown – all of which translates into a healthy saving.

Lunch

Most of us know by now that it’s far cheaper to make lunch at home and bring it to work than to buy lunch every day. But despite knowing this, we somehow still fall into the trap of buying food or snacks at work. Working from home increases the chances of you snacking on what’s in the kitchen instead of walking to the nearest fish-and-chips shop or burger outlet. Granted, your grocery bill at the beginning of each month might increase slightly, but it’s unlikely that it’ll offset the savings that you’ll make by not “eating out” five days a week.

Clothes

Since the beginning of lockdown, we’ve gone through three seasonal changes: autumn, winter and spring. In a pre-Covid world, this would have meant having to adjust your work-wardrobe to account for the change in weather (and seasonal trends), which typically means spending money on new clothes. The benefit of working from home, however, is that the only time your colleagues and clients see you is via virtual meetings (depending on whether you have your camera on), all of which lessens the need to have the latest seasonal wardrobe for work. People have generally become pretty relaxed regarding what they wear while working from home – with most making do with the clothes that they already have. All which (and you guessed it) translates into reduced expenditure and increased savings.

Read the full article: https://prudential.co.za/insights/articlesreleases/working-from-home-a-new-approach-to-saving-and-investing/ 

March 18 2021 By prudential.co.za Personal Investing