______ Yearly income
______ Benefits (stock, insurance, retirement, etc.
______ Total Income

Expenses

______Federal and state taxes. If your combined income bumps you into a higher tax bracket, calculate these higher rates on the second income.

_____ Withholdings for redundant benefits (benefits you pay for but which are received anyway through spouse’s work)

______ Transportation/commuting costs. (A good guesstimate is 34 cents/mile for subcompacts, 39 for compacts, 43 for midsize, 49 for large cars/SUVs, and 70 for luxury cars.)

______ Tools of the trade. Cell phone, computer, software, separate phone line, business books and journals, home office supplies, fax machine, association dues that are not reimbursed by your company.

______ Clothing. Work-related clothing and accessories, plus tailoring/alterations.

______ Cleaning. Drycleaning and laundering the above.

______ Grooming. Hair cuts, makeup, toiletries, nail care above what your stay-at-home needs would be.

______ Daycare and babysitting. Include before- and after-school care.

______ Lunch. If you don’t brownbag every day, how much is spent eating lunch out? (The average homemade lunch costs about $1.35.)

______ Dinner expenses. How often are you eating out, picking up expensive take-out, or dining on high-priced delivery pizza because you’ve run out of energy to cook? (The average dinner prepared at home runs about $2.75/person.)

______ Guilt. Do you buy the kids unplanned treats at the grocery, impulse purchases at the toy store, or meals at McDonald’s to appease the requests of children who spent much of the week with a sitter? Add it up.

______ Pick-me-up expenses. Lattes in the morning, sweet rolls during coffee break, microwave popcorn & a soda in the afternoon.

______ Decompression expenses. A drink after work, weekly massage or therapy sessions, video rentals, drugs. Whatever you spend on yourself and rationalize by saying, "I work hard and deserve this."

______ Food. If you don’t plan your food menu around weekly sales and take the time to be a smart food shopper, take 30% of your yearly food bill and treat it as an expense.

______ Home maintenance. Housecleaning, lawn upkeep, gutter cleaning, painting, repairs ... how much are you spending on these types of jobs you would do yourself if time allowed?

______ Unresearched expenditures. Unless you take the time to compare prices, you undoubtedly overspend on cars, furniture, insurance, electronics, appliances, sports equipment, photography gear, remodeling, legal advice, home maintenance, equipment repairs, etc. Figure that on all unresearched expenditures over $100, you overspent by 20%. Treat that as an expense.

______ Miscellaneous expenses. Continuing education fees, job-related medical expenses, phone bills you absorb.

______ Total expenses related to your second income.

Your Disposable Income

$______ Subtract total expenses from total income.

Your True Hourly Wage

Carefully calculate how much of the average day and weekend is spent devoted to the job. Besides the time you punched the clock, add how much time is spent grooming in the morning, delivering children to daycare, commuting, parking the car, working through lunch and breaks, overtime, fetching the children, attending business seminars, unwinding from the day, completing projects brought home, reading journals and books related to your job. How much of the weekend is related to: dry-cleaning clothes, pressing shirts, catching up on paperwork, attending training workshops?

______ Average hours per week devoted to work

______ Hours per year devoted to the job (multiply the weekly number by the number of weeks you work; exclude vacations and holidays, unless you’re one of the 65% of people who work during their vacation.)

Divide your disposable income by the number of hours you work per week, and you’ve got your true hourly wage.

In your case, this works out to $_____ per hour. Sad, isn’t it?

Submitted by Julia Haskett, NC