Random Poll: Which lifestyle would you rather have?

CleoKitty

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[Poll]

august06mom

Honestly, I can't imagine being poor and not having stress. I stress about money -- it's in my nature. So if I'm going to have stress, I may as well be financially sound.  

CleoKitty

august06mom:

Honestly, I can't imagine being poor and not having stress. I stress about money -- it's in my nature. So if I'm going to have stress, I may as well be financially sound.  

Oh, totally. I just meant you'd be trading one kind of stressful situation (low income but lots of family time) for another stressful situation (financially stable but a sh!t family life.) One extreme vs. another extreme...

ETA: I slightly edited the phrasing of my question. 

Namast

I voted for poor. It's kinda my situation right now. I was laid off when DD1 was 1yrs old. When I couldn't find a job, we re-prioritized our life. It took about 2yrs of struggling, but we are comfortable now and have no debt. Am I saving for retirement like I wish...no. But in my opinion, I can work and save when both of my kids are in school full time. I could never get this time with them back and it works great for my family. We are very happy with our living situation at the moment. On that note...I don't judge others that choose to work. I did choose to work, it just didn't choose me

EnceeKatz

neither.  How about Rich with time.  LOL

suzymarie

I don't know how to choose.

On one hand I am a SAHM and so we conciously chose to live on half the income and have more family time (at least for me... not so much for DH).

On the other hand DH has a pretty well paying job, and we have savings in the bank, and if we were truly living paycheck to paycheck I would probably go back to work.

But back to the other hand, I would happily live in a much smaller house, 1 car, no cable, no luxuries, etc to afford to stay home. 

august06mom

Yeah, I still would pick comfortable with work stress instead of poor with how-am-I-going-to-feed-DS stress. I can't imagine a worse feeling than knowing you can't provide basic needs for your children.

And that's what I think of when I hear poor -- I don't think of not having cable or not saving for retirement or not havung a big house. Or, hell, even a small house. To me, poor is you're one missed paycheck away from losing your home.

Namast

august06mom - I agree with you on the definition poor you are talking about.  If I couldn't afford to feed my kids or were losing my home, then I absolutely would get a job...doing ANYTHING.     

I joke when I say I'm poor.  We have a roof over our head, food in our bellies, and clothes on our back.  For that I am grateful.  I know other's would view me as "rich" to their living situations.  I say I'm poor compared to other's standards around me.  I choose to drive an old car so I don't have a car payment, shop only sales and coupons, not to eat out at restaurants, etc.  I choose this so that we can live on DH's income alone.   

WBs_Bride

I chose A, which is pretty much how we are living now, although "poor" is an exaggeration. We're doing OK--not great, but OK. After having DC#2, I decided to cut my job down to part-time, and we've definitely had to make some sacrifices. We were able to save a lot more and had more "fun money" when I worked F/T. I miss the money, but I feel like I had to make this choice to be a good mom. My job can become all-consuming (partially due to my own nature), and having that stress reduced so I can focus more on my kids/family helps a lot and is worth it. Work is manageable most of the time--sometimes it still gets crazy and I'm working way more than I should, but if I were still F/T it would be insane. I'll probably go back F/T to make up lost savings once the kids are well established in school.

Andrewsgal

I did not vote because I honestly would not be happy with either. Money is my #1 stressor, we are not even close to living paycheck to paycheck and live very comfortably with lots of extras, but if I went back to work we could have a lot more. That being said the job I work (sped teacher/Behavior specialist) I don't find stressful and the hours/days are school days so I get a lot of built in vaccation. I would go back to work in a heartbeat if it meant we started to struggle financially, I would not SAH if it meant we could not afford basic luxeries.