Everyone needs a second job (like a hole in the head)

Many of us are short of cash or afraid of the future. One solution is the second job. This is tempting but it is generally a mistake.
Rather than increasing your hours further - have you thought of reducing them?
Take a typically overworked American who may work sixty hours a week, or a typically overworked Brit who may work forty five hours if they have the misfortune to be male. Let us imagine that they both reduce their workload to the European average of thirty or thirty five hours.
What would happen?
Well. Their income would initially fall- but what else?
A second income would arise automatically. This does not even have to be planned. It just happens.
This is an invented example but fairly real.
WEEK ONE.
You slow down a little. Catch up on your sleep and wonder what you will do with the twenty or more hours free time you have each week. You find that your tax bill is reduced by about a third of what you would have otherwise earned. In other words you are getting back at least £33 pounds for every £100 you have surrendered in wages.
Further savings will come on line in the coming months. This includes wear and tear on work clothes, dry cleaning and travel.
WEEK TWO.
You find that you have time for household tasks such as defrosting the refrigerator (which saves on energy costs) and buying food in the cheaper supermarkets. I am not talking about cheap and nasty food here. I am talking about planning your shopping and cooking proper meals at home.
Household savings will accumulate over time because old fashioned housekeeping is a lost skill for many people. It is quite reasonable to expect savings of twenty five pounds per adult per week within three months.
WEEK THREE.
Your mind is clearer. In fact you begin to look for new challenges. Maybe you decide to learn a new skill. This is quite easy to do over the Internet free of charge. This may start as a hobby but may open doors in the future.
WEEK FOUR.
Something strange happens at work. You find that you are getting as much work done in thirty hours as you previously did in sixty. This is noticed by your line manager.
You also notice that you seem to have the same amount of money in your account at the end of the month even though you are working half the hours you previously did. It is not clear why this is at first but you analyse your bank account and find that you are no longer spending money on alcohol, cigarettes and impulse purchases. These pick me ups are the result of tiredness and depression- neither of which you suffer from now.
So.. if working more is not working for you- try working less!