1099 VS. W2 Employee

Cherokeekid88

Cherokeekid88

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 30, 2007
Location
High Point, NC
First off, I want to say that God is good!
My wife and I were off all last week for a staycation and have been given a very good opportunity that are coming in two different directions. My wife is a Dental Assistant and has been for the past 13 years. She spent the first 12 years at a pediatric office and the last year at a General office that she can't stand. 2 Opportunities have fallen into her lap. 1. She has already accepted and will be putting in her two weeks notice today. New job is with a dental office where she will be working up front (which is what she has been wanting to do) with working as an assistant when someone is out, which is totally fine with her, she also will be making more money at this new office as well as PTO, 401K with them matching up to a certain %, monthly bonuses, one doctor vs the 4 she works for now, and its a small close knit office and one of her best friends works there as well and has been trying to get Emily on for a while, but their just wasn't a spot open until now. While all this is happening, My wife's Brother told her about an opportunity with his company that he works for, which is a work from home 1099 job where you basically write reports and the amount you can earn is really whatever you want, So my wife could make this a full time job and make more money than she ever has and will be at home and work less hours (Potentially) but this job is a 1099 and there are no benefits at all other than the amount of money you could potentially make.

I am looking at this from a very conservative outlook.

The more reliable, safe, smart, choice would be the dentist office. You have health benefits, 401K, Bonuses, etc

The risky choice would be the 1099 job. She could literally sit at home and work, but she gets no benefits at all, but the money to be made could potentially be more than we've ever seen before.

What are your guys' thoughts on 1099 jobs...because even with us currently doing this part time on the side, I am not trying to rack up as many as I can, because I know there is a 24% tax that's attached to all the money you make. I also am just weary of making this a full time gig until I see how it folds out for a little while. Are there slow months? how quickly could this go south? could it be the best thing ever? These are all the questions running through my head,

My thought is to for her to take the Dental Job (like planned) and also do the side gig part time, make the extra money and see how it all unfolds.
 
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I honestly don’t think you need advice, you have laid out a very good plan with a lot of the right questions already identified :rockon:
 
I think youve got it figured out. Take the full time dental job and use the 1099 job to get some spending cash. Thats what I did with working for race tracks as a FF. Work events that are convenient for me and get a little spending money to just blow on whatever.
 
Cherokeekid88 said:
My wife's Brother told her about an opportunity with his company that he works for, which is a work from home 1099 job where you basically write reports and the amount you can earn is really whatever you want, So my wife could make this a full time job and make more money than she ever has and will be at home and work less hours (Potentially) but this job is a 1099 and there are no benefits at all other than the amount of money you could potentially make.
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1. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
Cherokeekid88 said:
My thought is to for her to take the Dental Job (like planned) and also do the side gig part time, make the extra money and see how it all unfolds.
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2. You'll never know if you don't try. This is a good way to find out. I'd make sure to not miss out on the opportunity for a better stable job for your wife.
 
jeepinmatt said:
1. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

2. You'll never know if you don't try. This is a good way to find out. I'd make sure to not miss out on the opportunity for a better stable job for your wife.
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This is exactly how we feel. Although her brother seems to think this a once in a lifetime thing and can't believe she would take a safe comfy dental job over this, but the unknown portion of this 1099 job is just too risky for us. I mean, it could work out great for a year or more but if it doesn't, then she would be screwed. Where as with the dental job, as long as people let their teeth go to hell, there's always going to be the need for dentists.
 
there is no value you can place on working somewhere you like, with people you like, and it’s something you enjoy, regardless of the pay.

I’ve made tons of $ but absolutely hated my job and the people. The only way it was manageable was the $ and even with that, it probably wasn’t worth it. It will put a toll on you at some point.

I’ve found that when you do what you enjoy, you are much happier regardless of the $ involved.

I’d say take the dental job and do the other job part time to see how it works out.
 
Agree w/ everyone else, especially @rockcity. Its not about pay, it about happiness.

A note about the 1099 thing. If you want to compare $$ (and you say its a lot more than you currently make) you need to make it an apples-apple comparison. Take the estimated wage doing the 1099 thing the same # of hours, then also remove the cost of healthcare, 401k, etc. Then also don't forget taxes, you'll be paying both employee AND employer FICA (so it will be higher). Right now FICA for W-2 employees is 7.65% and for 1099 it is 15.3%. In other words, even with equivalent benefits, a 1099 employee has to make 7.3% more just to bring home the same amount of $$.
Be sure to include all of those things.... THEN compare.
Its often easy to see 1099 income as more money when in reality it isn't.

Aaaaand - don't fall into the trap that working from home means no daycare costs or whatever. You can't be mommy and working at the same time. This is the kind of thing that makes managers crazy and untrusting of WFH. It means flexibility, so maybe you can work odd or different or inconsistent hours, but not fewer or double-time w/ home life.
I'll admit there are some parts of some jobs you can multi-task, do while kiddo takes a nap or watches TV or whatever but thats more the exception than the rule.
 
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RatLabGuy said:
Agree w/ everyone else, especially @rockcity. Its not about pay, it about happiness.
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People who make enough money to pay their bills say things like this. People who are scraping by view it a little differently.
 
jeepinmatt said:
People who make enough money to pay their bills say things like this. People who are scraping by view it a little differently.
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Correct - people who are just scraping by wouldn't be asking the question.
 
jeepinmatt said:
People who make enough money to pay their bills say things like this. People who are scraping by view it a little differently.
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“I love those people who try to tell you money is the root of all that kills. I bet they’ve never been poor - never known the joy of a welfare Christmas”
 
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benXJ said:
Siting at home 'writing reports' and making more than you ever have?
What's that saying? I that someone mentioned it above.

Or, send me the details and I'm starting tomorrow.

What are we writing about?
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I was assuming something like medical transcription, since she was in medical (dental) field anyway.
 
RatLabGuy said:
Aaaaand - don't fall into the trap that working from home means no daycare costs or whatever. You can't be mommy and working at the same time. .
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This! I WFH for 2.5 years.

X8 or whatever on taking the new dental job where her friend works.
 
RatLabGuy said:
Agree w/ everyone else, especially @rockcity. Its not about pay, it about happiness.

A note about the 1099 thing. If you want to compare $$ (and you say its a lot more than you currently make) you need to make it an apples-apple comparison. Take the estimated wage doing the 1099 thing the same # of hours, then also remove the cost of healthcare, 401k, etc. Then also don't forget taxes, you'll be paying both employee AND employer FICA (so it will be higher). Right now FICA for W-2 employees is 7.65% and for 1099 it is 15.3%. In other words, even with equivalent benefits, a 1099 employee has to make 7.3% more just to bring home the same amount of $$.
Be sure to include all of those things.... THEN compare.
Its often easy to see 1099 income as more money when in reality it isn't.

Aaaaand - don't fall into the trap that working from home means no daycare costs or whatever. You can't be mommy and working at the same time. This is the kind of thing that makes managers crazy and untrusting of WFH. It means flexibility, so maybe you can work odd or different or inconsistent hours, but not fewer or double-time w/ home life.
I'll admit there are some parts of some jobs you can multi-task, do while kiddo takes a nap or watches TV or whatever but thats more the exception than the rule.
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Yeap. I just ran internet to my shop because we started working from home some. With beth and the boys home all day every day, there was no way I was working in the house.
 
RatLabGuy said:
Agree w/ everyone else, especially @rockcity. Its not about pay, it about happiness.

A note about the 1099 thing. If you want to compare $$ (and you say its a lot more than you currently make) you need to make it an apples-apple comparison. Take the estimated wage doing the 1099 thing the same # of hours, then also remove the cost of healthcare, 401k, etc. Then also don't forget taxes, you'll be paying both employee AND employer FICA (so it will be higher). Right now FICA for W-2 employees is 7.65% and for 1099 it is 15.3%. In other words, even with equivalent benefits, a 1099 employee has to make 7.3% more just to bring home the same amount of $$.
Be sure to include all of those things.... THEN compare.
Its often easy to see 1099 income as more money when in reality it isn't.

Aaaaand - don't fall into the trap that working from home means no daycare costs or whatever. You can't be mommy and working at the same time. This is the kind of thing that makes managers crazy and untrusting of WFH. It means flexibility, so maybe you can work odd or different or inconsistent hours, but not fewer or double-time w/ home life.
I'll admit there are some parts of some jobs you can multi-task, do while kiddo takes a nap or watches TV or whatever but thats more the exception than the rule.
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My two biggest concerns are the taxes and the longevity. My BIL and SIL have worked for this company for less than a year and just some of the comments they've made about the job itself like "how fast the company is growing" and "we are riding this wave while the gettin is good" just scare me a little bit.
 
So I am reviving this thread because its been about 4 months or so since my wife took the Dental job (and she absolutely loves it btw and its a small office, so there isn't hardly any drama) and also started this side 1099 job. So right now we are at a crossroads with where we are in life. We have one child that is out of Daycare and in Kindergarten and that is the time where we said we would sit down and discuss having another baby. So at this moment with her working her full time job (Monday-Thursday) and then working her other side job a couple nights a week and usually a good amount on Friday and then some on Sunday, which has been really nice for us to pay down bills, take a little vacation, do some things to the house and its honestly working out beautifully, but with having another baby means daycare for the next 5 years which would be $1020 a month plus our oldest child going there afterschool at $400 a month putting us at $1420 a month for both kids, which means more side job work would be needed to supplement that. Wifey is also growing out her little mazda that's paid for and wants another, bigger car. which would also throw another car payment into the mix... the good news though is that I am about 6 months away from paying my car off. The question that is coming up is the side job that my wife is doing for the company her brother works at would allow her to go full time and she would just work from home, but again it is a 1099 job, no benefits, no 401K. But the benefit of it would be, she could stay at home and work, we would never have to worry about who was going to take off work to stay home with the kids if one of them was sick, wouldn't have to pay daycare for either, kids would never have to ride the bus and she would have the ability to raise our next child all the way up to Kindergarten and then during the summer, our daughter now would be able to stay at home. As awesome as that sounds, I worry about our future. I worry about not contributing to a 401K, which she also has a Roth IRA that she can put money into. She is already on my insurance as well as my oldest daughter, but adding another child is going to bring my take home pay down even more, which means the wifey would need to pick up the slack on her end and I just worry that it would become a lot on her. I also have trouble in having true faith in this company that she is working for on the side. It seems legit but I have trouble putting my faith into this company long term and I am afraid of her giving up this nice dental job where she is treated SO well and comes home not dreading going back and gets 401K, quarterly bonuses after she's been there a year and just having a more concrete, stabile position than this side job. I try to weigh it out and see what makes sense, and I would love for my wife to stay home and take care of the kids, but I know that's going to come with a price. Another option is for her to keep her current full time job and just work more on the side job to help pay for daycare for both kids...

If you want to PM me to talk, I'm ok with that. I know that a lot of you are certainly in favor of having your kids at home but I also understand that it may not work out for everyone and I am just looking at this long term, after our seconds child is in Kindergarten, would she want to continue this job working from home? I don't know. We are just kind of stuck as to what is the right cap to have on at this point.
 
Sounds like you need to do a decision matrix (basically a spreadsheet with weighted columns) and figure out what makes the most sense to both of yall for your situation. But I'm also an engineer and a numbers guy, so I might be a bit overly "calculated" ( :laughing:) in my decision making sometimes.
 
DSM Turbos said:
How would she work from home ft and take care of a kid that isn’t in day care at the same time?
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So with this side job, there aren't really any time lines throughout the day, Just when the deadline is due for all her reports. She would work while the child was asleep or after I get home and work at night. But yeah, I know that would be rough to do.
 
DSM Turbos said:
How would she work from home ft and take care of a kid that isn’t in day care at the same time?
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This.

This is the #1 mistake people make when thinking about the beauty of working from home to save on daycare costs.
If you're working, you're not being mommy. If you're being mommy you're not working. It only works if the WFH means flexible hours that let her work when YOU are at home to be daddy and take care of kids.

Also don't discount the need to do the math on what the 1099 job actually brings in after you account for the higher self-employment taxes + loss of 401k etc.

Re: bills- if you car is paid off in 6 months, well even if you get lucky tonight you got more time than that before daycare is a bill and Mommy needs a bigger car for 2 kids (which btw... you CAN live w/ 2 kids in a Mazda. I did it. Its not fun but definitely possible)..
 
Cherokeekid88 said:
So with this side job, there aren't really any time lines throughout the day, Just when the deadline is due for all her reports. She would work while the child was asleep or after I get home and work at night. But yeah, I know that would be rough to do.
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Sounds miserable. Especially with a young baby and a mom trying to do all she has to do for them. You will get maybe 2 hours during the day of actual focus time, and I’m sure there are other things she needs to do also in that time.
 
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