Best of Both Worlds!

[HoopingRN]

Hey all! I am an ER nurse and exhausted at my present place of employment (not the job mostly management). I love to travel but also recently bought a house that I love. So, is it feasible to, say, work a 13 week assignment and then have that hold me over at my home base for 13 weeks and maybe alternate? My housing expenses are very low (motgage/car/bills/etc does not run more than $1200/month). Does anyone have any experience with a similar situation? Pros and cons please :)

[shoegalRN, RN]

I will attempt to help, but understand I am on my first travel assignment and I am also a homeowner in my hometown. I'm also PRN status at both of my home jobs and they have both agreed to hold my positions, considering I'm only doing an 8 week assignment.

Right now, I make enough as a travel RN to pay all my home expenses (mortgage, car payment, bills, etc) and still able to shop and do things within my current assignment. I also save a little bit of money each week. This is with me taking the housing stipend, finding my own housing, and pocketing the rest.

[NedRN]

If you could afford right now to work three months at your current job and take three months off, you can do it as a traveler too.

[Truckee]

I have done it and am doing it. Just remember it is a numbers thing. There are some expenses that travel with you and some that won't. Cell phone, Gas, Auto insurance, will travel with you (you pay them while at home and you will pay them while on the road). Cable and Internet will be one that you can drop at home and probably not pay while traveling.

Then there are expenses that will be added while traveling. Dining, sight seeing, will be an expenses that is added when you travel.

Make a budget and run the numbers.

[eager1hasbegun]

I've met many travelers who spend extended time at home between contracts (1-2 months). Many of them don't have mortgages or have an additional person contributing income. For me, as a single homeowner, the extra money I'm able to save as a traveler is better spent on travel experiences/tourism and long term savings, not taking time off at home. One thing to consider is looking into travel assignments near your home for when you wanna stay local. You don't get a housing stipend but base rate is more. I always do searches for assignments near my home to check out the market in case I want to take a break and visit home. You could also take on per diem work at home as well.

[NedRN]

You don't get a housing stipend but base rate is more.

The rules that have been in place for a couple of years now say that agencies must pay housing stipends for all travelers if they do it for any, and then M&IE would also be required. The only difference is the agency must withhold taxes on travelers without tax homes. As I understand it, most of the large agencies are now doing it this way. A small distinction.

[eager1hasbegun]

NedRN, I think you misunderstand my context. Why would you get a housing stipend if you're traveling locally, that is to say working as an agency nurse in or near your hometown? You have no extra expenses.

[NedRN]

Nope, no misunderstanding. The compensation package should be identical, just the taxation is different. The underlying reason is that recharacterizing wages as tax free is illegal. So if you treat travelers differently, negotiating pay packages differently for those with and without a tax home, (or commuting from home versus someone who must arrange local accommodations), you have effectively recharacterized taxable wages.

While most travelers try to do just this and negotiate to minimize taxes, this process or the appearance of this is illegal. Think about two travelers with the same agency and working at the same hospital with different tax treatments, apparently negotiated separately. The IRS doesn't like ad lib tax evasion. Any consequences would be penalties against the agencies, not the travelers, and as a result of massive industry audits over the last several years, the IRS has issued rulings to help standardization of practices and agencies are now conforming to avoid penalties.

From the standpoint that the hospital bill rate to the agency does not change based on the taxable status of the worker, why should the total compensation change? Yes, if your hourly rate is raised exactly to compensate for the loss of housing stipends and such, there is no downside from the traveler perspective. But since you have now created different classes of workers by compensation packages, it creates the appearance and actual effect of evading taxes by the agency. So agencies are not supposed to be doing that anymore.