Workers set for bank holiday moonlighting
* Laura Brady
* guardian.co.uk,
* Thursday August 23 2007
* Article history
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This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Thursday August 23 2007. It was last updated at 15:49 on August 23 2007.
Even if the sun does make an appearance this bank holiday, a growing number of Britons won't see the benefit as they'll be moonlighting in other jobs in a bid to bring in extra cash.
According to Fool.co.uk, the "layman" financial website, 30% of the country's workers have second jobs, while one in 14 people (7%) have two additional jobs and 2% admit to having three.
However, not everyone is honest about their extra-curricular activities, with a significant 70% of respondents omitting to tell their boss. Almost half say this is because their company or manager will not allow them to take multiple jobs.
Taking on other jobs aside from your main profession can be financially fruitful and boost earnings by an average of 6%, says the survey.
However, one in five people (19%) don't moonlight for this same reason.They say their motivation is to broaden their horizons, while a quarter of people feel they are not sufficiently recognised in their day job.
However, David Kuo, head of personal finance at Fool.co.uk, said that instead of moonlighting it can often be more productive to examine the way we live our lives.
"Revisiting our budgets, for example, is a good way to identify savings that will allow us to improve our wealth without working extra hours," he said. "After all, it's not what we earn that makes us rich, but how we spend what we have."
Mr Kuo also warned moonlighters to keep a record of what they earn, and make sure they put aside enough to be able to pay tax on earnings if it hasn't already been deducted.
He also recommended to check with your main employer before taking on another job, and to give 100% of your efforts to this source of income during scheduled working hours.