Would you still stay home if you were basically just lowering your debt verrrry slowly on one income, renting, and not building any savings? Or would you wait until the kids are in school and then really focus on saving up for college/ mortgage etc.
I know the answers will vary, just curious.
Re: S/O how could you afford it..
Me personally?- Not at all.
I don't care what anyone else does though.
Ditto.
This is us too.
Yes. As long as we weren't going into debt, or drastically cutting into our savings, I would stay at home. We're both comfortable with a much lower that "average" standard of living.
It depends. How slowly would I be lowering debt? Paying only the minimum payment? How much debt?
Renting wouldn't change my decision either way.
It would also depend on how much savings we already had. If we had a healthy e-fund and a cushion, adding more very slowly may not be much of an issue.
If we were renting and had debt I would not be staying at home.
For us those decisions weren't for the fact of staying home, but for the fact of having a child. When I was working, I wasn't really bringing in enough to make a difference after paying daycare so I really wasn't changing much by staying home.
We rent and also have 2 car payments. To us, owning a home isn't a priority. We have less than $1000 in debt that isn't a car, although I will now be getting some debt by way of student loans.
oh now you are all making me feel gulity. i would stay home. in fact i am staying home.
when i first had dd and stayed home we were making well beyond enough money. well beyond. then we had dd#2 and dh switched jobs. and for the last year we have been living off our savings. it is gone and now we are struggling. maybe i am an a$$ but putting the kids in daycare would be the entire cost of my paychecks so it just never made sence. now i feel guilty though like maybe i could have prevented the situation a little bit.
No. If I stayed home with no financial security we would be screwed if DH lost his job, got injured, had to take a pay cut, etc. And that wouldn't be fair to DS.
I am fine with renting, but can't sacrifice savings.
We didn't want a child until we could afford to live off of one income.
yep. we rent but that's because we made the choice to live 100% debt free, so we are saving to pay cash for a fixer-upper house. also, dh is getting medically retired from the army, so the largest chunk of our income will be guaranteed for life.
we will do whatever we can to have me remain at home with lo.
sorry for no caps-1ht