Can You Afford to Stay Home?
It seems like most families can’t make it any more on just one income. While many moms want to take advantage of the years when their children are young, and stay home to raise them, they need to go to work in order to make ends meet.
The following is a look at some of the questions you have to ask yourself in order to determine if you can afford to be at home or if you should return to work after maternity. Most of them have to deal with things like determining what you can live without in order to be able to afford to live on one income:
- How much are your bills each month? In order to determine if you can afford to leave your job, you need to determine how much money you would have to have to pay for your bills and obligations. Take a few minutes to write down and tally up all of the bills you are obligated to pay each month.
- How does that compare with your income if you don’t work? Once you have your bills figured out, you should see if the income of one parent can cover your monthly obligations. It may be tight, but if you want to see if you can afford to stay at home, you have to see if the income you do bring in can support your already obliged money. If it is close, do not worry yet, it may still be affordable for you to be at home, you just have to figure a few more things out.
- What can you cut out, pay off, or sell in order to reduce your monthly obligations? Sometimes the monthly obligations exceed one income by too much to make it plausible for you to quit your job. However, sometimes, a few simple adjustments can make it possible. For example, you could cut down your cable television package, cell phone plan, and other monthly expenses. In addition, make sure that you get rid of any unnecessary debts. Sell any toys or extras that you have that you are making payments on and don’t need.
- What expenses would you eliminate if you were to leave employment? (child care, eating lunch out, wardrobe, etc.) Once you figure out how to cut out some expense, look at what other expenses you would save if you were to stop working, so you can see just how much money you really need to have from your income. If it is not much, you may be able to stay home just by cutting out a few extras like eating out too much, or the like.
- Would you lose anything like health insurance that would cost more if you stayed home? If you stay home, what will it cost you besides your wages? Are you getting benefits that you will no longer have if you quit? How much will that cost to replace? In most cases, insurance outside of a group policy is far too expensive to pay for on your own. Of course, if you have benefits in the other parent’s job, this won’t be a consideration.
- What are you willing to do without in order to be a stay-at-home mother? The real question of whether or not you can afford to stay home is asking yourself what you can do without in order to stay home. Can you do without seeing the first movies that come out? Can you do without eating out? Can you do without television, internet, and extra electronic devices?
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