ktulu
Well-known member
My wife is in the admin/clerical category. Works for Auburn University. She sits at her desk and plays bejeweled all day.
Spouse Occupation
- Thread starter Road Guy
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MonteBiker
Bridge Engineer
We have no student loans or credit card debt. We own our vehicles outright. We don't have cable tv or phones with data plans. When we looked at buying a house, we limited ourselves to what we could afford assuming my salary alone (less than 28%). We have spent the last several years preparing by putting as much into retirement funds as possible and increasing our savings. To this date, we have always lived off of my salary and just put hers into savings.
Ble_PE
I need a beer.
I don't know about everyone else, but it works for us because we don't have any credit card debt, I'm the only one with student loans (wife's was paid for by her dad), and when we bought our house our combined income was less than I make now. When I started working at my current company my pay went up almost 50%, so that is probably the biggest reason. If I was working where I used to work, then there is no way this would have worked out.
Master slacker
Something awesome.
We don't have any CC debt either. I've never carried a balance in the 13 years I've had a card. We put 20% down on the house, always socked away money into savings about equal to her pay (after everything was paid, that's what we had left), but I can't expect to pay for another mouth, education, etc... by my salary alone. Man, I don't understand how fathers who make less than me do it. :wacko:
Dark Knight
Silent Guardian
Mine is a Speech Therapist, or was. She refuses to go back to work because the language barrier. She does not even try. In the mean time I have had to take care of a family of 5...Now, with two kids in college and a High School sophmore....you can figure out the rest.
OSUguy98
Well-known member
SAHSTBM... (Stay-at-home-soon-to-be-mom)... She has a Bach. in Psychology, minor in Accounting (a 4.0 through college), but she wants to be an SAHM. So far we've made ends meet and have never fallen behind... No student loans, my car is paid off, I inherited my dad's truck... No "bad" CC Debt... the only CC Debt we have is the 6 or 12mo same as cash type (currently remodeling the bathroom) , and I pay the same amount every month so they get paid off a month before the offer runs out... We have a VERY low COL, compared to the rest of the country... and we don't really eat out much, nor go to the movies,etc... I work, we work on the house, and my wife shops yard sales 3 or 4 times a year... Occasionally we treat ourselves to something (I just bought an Xbox 360).... but generally, we end up putting away around $250-400 a month, and we're good with that...
MechGuy
Well-known member
We've struggled a bit over the past few years on just my income. But that's mostly because one of my rental homes has had a low occupancy rate... I guess all the foreclosures didn't result in more people renting like I thought it would!
But we make it work. I've found over the years that we usually live within our means, whatever those are. So if my wife worked and more money came in, we'd probably buy more things that we wouldn't normally buy just because we could. I would hope that we would save more, but realistically we'd probably just blow more money on crap.
But we make it work. I've found over the years that we usually live within our means, whatever those are. So if my wife worked and more money came in, we'd probably buy more things that we wouldn't normally buy just because we could. I would hope that we would save more, but realistically we'd probably just blow more money on crap.
snickerd3
Taking suggestions
Chucktown PE
Well-known member
I think Mrs. Chucktown uses her brain, it's just different brain work. She spends a lot of time with our kids doing arts/crafts stuff, reading activities, etc.. They watch about 30 minutes of TV a day and that's it. It's almost like she's a preschool teach although they are in preschool. The four year old goes 3 days a week and the 2 year old goes 2 days a week.
It is definitely tough. No student loans is the first thing, no other debt is the other. We've been renting for the last year and a half since my company bought my house in ATL. Have you claimed mine Master slacker on your taxes yet? That makes a huge difference. I make $85k a year, hopefully $90k next year and I have some other investments outside of retirement that will produce anywhere between $5k and $10k extra. Mrs. Chucktown did some contract work for her former employer before we moved and at the peak I think that brought in an extra $10k a year, but I was making substantially less then. I think you can make it on $80k pretty easily, and seriously, the coupon thing is huge. That will save us at least $4000 out of pocket a year.
snickerd3
Taking suggestions
That's one reason we waited to have kids. Got my student loans and both cars paid off. All we have is the mortgage. Like other we pay the credit cards in full. Only reason we don't do the debit route is the discover cash back.
MonteBiker
Bridge Engineer
Slightly off topic... The Discover cash back is great. We put all of our purchases on it and pay it off at the end of every month. We just do gift cards for everyone for the holidays through them. We also just got our new stroller on sale using the gift cards from Discover for one of the companies that gives you an extra 25% in gift cards over the cash. For our nursery furniture, we gathered the 20% off coupons for the store and rang up each piece of furniture as a different purchase (making sure that we put all of the costs back on the discover card so we got the bonus points too) and then paid it off at the end of the month.
DVINNY
2-time 10K winner
My wife is the bigger breadwinner $$$$$ in the family, hence my shiney toys like my Camaro. 
I wish she made more $$
She probably wonders how she ended up with my pathetic arse.
I wish she made more $$
She probably wonders how she ended up with my pathetic arse.
MGX
Well-known member
My girlfriend is graduating with a degree in Meteorology and going for a masters. I want to get married and have her study something $$$ like geo-petro-physics so I can collect from the couch and she can bring home the bacon.
any tips?
any tips?
Master slacker
Something awesome.
The only debt we have are the house and student loans. Student loans are locked at 4.5% and 2.25% and mortgage is 6%. There's no need to pay off the student loans when CD's and 401k are paying out more than our debt interest. That would just be a bad financial decision. Besides that, the mortgage will be done in 27 years, student loans in 17, but I won't retire for another 35 years. Retirement funding > debt killing.
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Road Guy
Well-known member
my wife was a stay at home mom for the first 4 years of our kid raising years, she worked some on weekends and every know and then at night. It was tough financially, and that was back when I made $40,000 a year and begged for OT.... I think thats work you either love or hate, my wife hated it to be honest I think..
csb
Well-known member
I wouldn't be able to stay at home all the time. I'm also the breadwinner for our house...my husband's shiny toy is a '65 Mustang Fastback that got a new engine last year.
cement
gray haired dude
My wife makes the big $ for us. When we applied for our mortgage I had a job offer pending, but no pay stubs to show and the load officer said that I didn't need to work for us to qualify for the loan.
The wife said, "yes he does, otherwise I'd have to kill him"
The wife said, "yes he does, otherwise I'd have to kill him"
My wife runs an environmental laboratory, but I clicked "stripper" just for the momentary thrill.
I have had two good friends who did stints as SAHDs. The first was a good friend of mine who's wife was the manager of a ritzy duty-free type store, I think it was a Chanel. He just kicked back and enjoyed himself taking care of the kids. They moved away to New York and she started making the really big $$$, and he got bored so he went back to school and got a law degree. Last I heard, his wife said "it's your turn now, MF!" and quite her job, and he's working his ass off now as a junior attorney at some law firm.
The other friend is an "MS, PE" - masters of science in physical education!!!! He was working (sort of) as a PE teacher, but his lawyer wife finally achieved her dream of going to work for the State Department, and now he is a SAHD living the high life in Brussels. Bastard!
I have had two good friends who did stints as SAHDs. The first was a good friend of mine who's wife was the manager of a ritzy duty-free type store, I think it was a Chanel. He just kicked back and enjoyed himself taking care of the kids. They moved away to New York and she started making the really big $$$, and he got bored so he went back to school and got a law degree. Last I heard, his wife said "it's your turn now, MF!" and quite her job, and he's working his ass off now as a junior attorney at some law firm.
The other friend is an "MS, PE" - masters of science in physical education!!!! He was working (sort of) as a PE teacher, but his lawyer wife finally achieved her dream of going to work for the State Department, and now he is a SAHD living the high life in Brussels. Bastard!
DVINNY
2-time 10K winner
my wife stopped working and was a SAHM. She loved it and did a great job raising the kids. It was tough cash-wise but we survived. Once the kids hit Jr. high and then HS, I gave her a "gimme a break here time to get back to work." She doesn't like it but then again I don't like going to work either.
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