Saving money and riding bikes

Whilst I’m hardly in penury, I’m trying to save a bit of money now that I am only working four days a week. This got me thinking – it is more tax efficient to cut down on your spending than increase your income.  The other bonus is that spending less subtly unplugs you from a system you may not be all that happy with.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m a dyed-in-the-wool free market capitalist, but that concept extends to declining to participate in transactions you don’t want to be a part of.

But back to the tax efficiency.  My marginal rate of tax is 40% or thereabouts – 20% income tax, 11% national insurance, 9% student loan repayments.  I am soon to cancel my monthly bus pass, which costs £42 a month.  That is £42 a month that will be available to me to spend on other things.  If I were to increase my take home pay by that much, I would have to earn an extra £70 a month before deductions.  Can’t be bothered.  Also, every time you decline to earn more and spend more you are depriving the great beast of Government of funds, which is always a bonus in my book.

We have a strange idea of personal success.  We measure the success of a business by profit, not revenue; yet we don’t do the same for people.  If a high earner has a high cost of living (as in boring stuff like rent, transport etc) then their profit is low and they may not actually be that successful.  Earning just enough and living frugally can be just as good.

So, I’ll be saving £42 a month, or £504 a year.  I can do this because I have recently bought a bike.  Well that will have paid for itself financially after about 8 months or so of saved bus fares, which is a good pay back time.  I will also still have a bike at the end of it, rather than a small pile of expired bus passes.  I am also moving closer to work, so on the days when I don’t want to ride in I can walk, rather than get the bus (rent in new place is cheaper too).

Best of all though, I love riding in to work!  I realised how much I hate the bus.  Waiting for it to turn up, being stuck in traffic, having to listen to some selfish arse play hip hop all the way, and still a 15 minute walk at the end.  Door to desk (i.e. including showering and changing once at work) is the same if I ride or get the bus.  My endorphin-stimulated good mood wears off pretty quickly once I am at work though.  Still, you can’t have everything.