Brits Want More Leisure

70% of Brits are unhappy with the amount of leisure time they have outside of work and 51% would happily pay their employer for an extra hour off each day.

We've cooked up a new idea here at TMF HQ -- the "leisure index." This is an attempt to measure how much people would be prepared to pay to have an extra hour off work each day.

With help from YouGov, we surveyed over 2000 people and found that 70% of us are unhappy with the amount of leisure time we have outside of work and 51% would happily pay our employer for an extra hour off each day.

What's more, the average Brit would pay £5 a day to reduce his/her daily work time by an hour. Unsurprisingly, men would pay more for the extra leisure time (£6.25) whereas an average woman would only pay £3.37 for an extra hour.

The most popular activity for the extra leisure time would be 'spend leisure time with friends, family or partner,' but 32% of respondents would choose to 'sleep or do nothing with their time.'

Of course, many of us aren't able to have as much leisure as we would like due to financial considerations. However, we can gradually increase our wealth via the traditional Foolish approach of spending less than you earn, and gradually building up a nest egg by saving.

It's not always possible to do this -- depending on your circumstances -- but if you can save, do so. Even if you can only put away £20 a month, it's worth doing. Put the money in a table-topping savings account such as the Icesave Savings Account (currently paying 5.95% AER), and you could gradually build up a sizeable sum over the years.

So go on, start saving for more leisure!

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