anyone basically work for childcare/costs?

[juliahenry]

If your salary only just covers your costs to work (childcare, commuting etc), how do you do it? Are you happy with your job? and do you see it contributing to other goals or the cost situation getting better over time?

I work part time, SAHM part time, and I've been really wanting to get a full time job now that dd is in preschool. Some of the stuff I'm interested in doesn't pay a whole lot and would require a lot more childcare costs, gas for commuting to another city, etc.

I'm not sure where to draw the line, or how to figure out the minimum salary/hours/costs etc. I know it's all very personal but what were your criteria and how did you decide whether or not a job was "worth it" to you?

Thanks for any answers.

[cheerleader08]

As I began to see teacher jobs become harder and harder to get, I got more and more nervous about being rehired. So I was willing to take any teaching job I could find. It is worth it to me because I feel like my chances of getting a full time job are better now than they would be if I had stayed at home for five years with a five year break from teaching.

[Deleted]

I have for the past 1.5yrs. I only work part time & in the summer I essentially pay to work. I did it because the job fell in my lap after 7 yrs of SAH, it was in my field, it was flexible & low stress. I do not work for the money & I get zero benefits. Up until recently I've enjoyed getting out of the house though this summer kind of sucked because I feel my girls got short changed. Now I hate the project I'm on & have been very tempted to quit. Guilt of leaving the person who hired me (a mom friend) high & dry has kept me here. I'm having my 4th in early Spring & I've never worked with a baby & frankly I'm not sure I'm willing to. I plan on it now but things may change. I went back because I eventually wanted to work full time again when my kids were all in school. I experienced it for 7 days (I was in a jury) this Fall & it sucked truly. Now I think I want to work part time at most indefinitely. We will see, like I say I'm doing this all solely for my own goals & future. If my family is suffering (like I felt they were) i will no longer do it since we don't "need" the money (at least at this point).

[meltoine]

MIL did this basically until DH and BIL were out of college, if you count private school tuition and college tuition as "childcare costs". (And even now, actually, as I think they're putting away a fair bit of money for DS's education.)

When they were babies/ young kids her salary barely covered the nanny. Then they both went to private elementary school because the public school near them was not good. They went to public high school, but we're far enough apart that one was still in grade school untilt the other went to college.

She and I had a long talk about this when I was pregnant with DS. She worked very hard to have the career she does (engineer) and sacrificed a lot to even become a professional (emigrated, leaving her whole family behind, her parents spent every dime they had to send her to college, etc) She felt it was important for her sons to understand the value of their educations and what it could lead them to later in life, so she wanted to set an example of hard work in education paying off with a successful career. She also wanted them to understand that women can be just as successful as men, even in male-dominated fields like hers.

It worked, for the most part. DH really wanted me to keep working after DS was born for all of those reasons. However, those are just not my reasons and with our family dynamic (H is miltary and we move constantly, which makes having a successful career challenging for me) it's just not worth it to me. But I can absolutely see how it's a great choice for people like my ILs, who place such a high value on prestigious education and being able to fully provide that for their kids, like it was provided for them.

[Deleted]

Oh I will add that I property manage our 2 places (4 tenants) which averages an hour a month of work & brings in more profit a month than my monthly paycheck (50-60 hours) is before paying "childcare" (preschool). Of course we invested a lot of cash into it but the rate of return is great. We are looking for a small apartment building too which I will also run.

[cosmowife]

Yes. In fact, once #2 is here, if I don't get the raise that I asked for (over a month ago!), I will be losing money by coming to work. I basically work for the health insurance because DH is self-employed. It sucks but I figure it is temporary. I think the long term benefits of this job will outweigh the couple years of overlap. I would also need to wait to have a #3 because then I would be looking at 4-5 years of two in daycare. This is also not counting private school starting with Grade 6. Not sure how we are going to swing that one.

[egishere]

Most of my paycheck goes to the nanny. I have some left over but not much. I'm basically working for my bonus, company stock and 401k and to keep a good job since eventually they will be in school and we need to save for three in college at the same time!

[vanillacourage]

You're not "just" working for your paycheck. Taking time off will result in a lot of money lost in retirement savings, and make it that much harder to get back into the workforce later (and at a lower salary, likely). Compounded, it's likely thousands of dollars lost on top of not having a paycheck.

[imojoebunny]

I have friends who do. They are not working to fund their 401ks or pay for a better school, they basically just work for child care. One, whose salary after taxes doesn't even cover child care completely is very honest that she does it because the thought of staying home all day with her kids would result in her drinking wine all day. She just doesn't want to be a SAHM. I say, if you want to work, and you can afford it, work. I also know some people who do it because it is temporary. Free school starts here at 4 years, so once your kids hits pre-k, your child care cost drop dramatically. I know a lot of people who worked for the year or two not even covering child care when they had two kids in daycare because it didn't make sense to quit a job that they liked and wanted to keep for a short term problem. Now that their kids are in school full time, child care cost dropped considerably and they are back to making money.

[Deleted]

I currently work right now to max out retirement for me (DH maxes his own already). I bring home nothing after daycare expenses. We don't even save more with my job, so our quality of life is no better than when I was a SAHM.

My story is a little unique/dumb, depending on your views. I worked in Wall Street and was sick of it, so I left my job to move and follow DH to FL. While there, I couldn't find a full time position in my field so I consulted for 3 years. We moved again this summer and I thought I wanted to start a new career in fundraising, so I got a job that supports fundraisers. I figured this would be my way of starting from scratch in a new industry. Alas, it's given me more headaches that it's been worth. I do like fundraising overall, just not here where I work. When we have #2, I really hope I am in a position that pays much more and is something that is more aligned to what I want/like to do. I am already looking for another job now so we'll see.

[barefootcontessa]

I SAH, for a variety of reasons, but it would be hard for me to find a job to cover all the costs for caring for our relatively large family. I do enjoy using my professional skills, though, so I do a variety of consulting and entrepreneurial work. What I bring in varies from year to year, but it is substantial and allows us to do things we could not afford to otherwise.

[litebright]

I started a PT, WAH, contract job for my former employer a few months ago. In order for it to work, we hired a sitter who comes 4 hours a day, 5 days a week. I'm with the girls in the afternoons, so I still get plenty of time with them.

I'm still waiting to see whether I barely break even or if I actually make a little money. But honestly, I do think it's worth it in the long term. I'd been out of the workforce by choice for four years and they called me up and said hey, you want a job? It's in my field, in my area of most recent expertise, and it means my resume is current again and I'm learning new relevant skills. All of those things are huge, since I do plan to return to FT work at some point. I think I would've regretted turning it down; those kind of opportunities don't just crop up every day.

I also remind myself that this is probably the most expensive phase -- next fall DD1 will start kindy, probably full-day; and I think I can find a half-day preschool program for DD2. Even paying for both of those, I think it'll still likely be less than our current costs and will only go down from there. Since we aren't losing money, we're taking the long-term view on this, and the benefits to my career outweigh the current measly profit on this venture.

The other thing for me is that my job is portable. Since everyone WAH, if DH decides to switch jobs and we have to relocate, I can keep continue to work for this company no matter where I am. That's a really big perk.

[Deleted]

Dec 5, 2012 11:22:12 GMT -5 vanillacourage said:

You're not "just" working for your paycheck. Taking time off will result in a lot of money lost in retirement savings, and make it that much harder to get back into the workforce later (and at a lower salary, likely). Compounded, it's likely thousands of dollars lost on top of not having a paycheck.

This and Social Security, lost work experience etc.

[Deleted]

I dont, but I would, for all of the aforementioned reasons.

[Deleted]

I was making enough to cover daycare expenses and have a little left over but when you factor in daycare, vehicle and gas expense, work wardrobe, etc. I wasn't making anything. When DH got a raise that allowed us to put more in retirement and cover the little bit I was bringing home I decided to become a sahm. Some days I would rather work, but over all I think it was a good decision for us and now that DH has a new job we are even better off financially than when I originally quit so we are fine.