Thinking of leaving corporate world - budgeting advice from those who've managed it

[crisi]

In the end, we have decided as a family that we want our daughter to have time with family instead of hired help all the time. Thank you all for the responses and insight.

In the end, that's what its about and you'll make it work one way or the other. For us, we had two professional jobs, but enough flexibility that once the kids were in school, there were less than two hours that they had time free that we didn't. Now that they are teens, we are home more than they are! And since neither my husband or I had the desire or the patience for stay at home parenting, our family was well suited to two working parents

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

Thanks for all of the replies. You have all given me lots of good advice and lots to think about.

1) We have an appt. with our financial advisor to go over our retirement portfolio and how much we need to be putting aside.

2) I am looking to see what I can find in terms of part time work teaching at one of the local colleges, tech schools or law school. I have been approached to do this before when I was doing big firm work and I recall the pay wasn't great, but it would keep me working in the field and have flexibility. I am also looking to see if there is any other part time work in the field that might still e exempt from the pro-bono requirements. It's a little difficult to put out feelers without it getting out that I am considering leaving, but I'm determined to figure out something.

3) I put together a spread sheet of our fixed monthly expenses to determine exactly what we will have left over each month.

4) My last paycheck is in the savings account and the plan is to keep putting them in there until we make the final decision.

The good thing on this timing is that DH's recently got a pretty decent increase in salary so the income loss won't be as much of a hit since we haven't gotten used to spending based on his new income level.

In the end, we have decided as a family that we want our daughter to have time with family instead of hired help all the time. Thank you all for the responses and insight.

It sounds like you are doing all of the right things. Good for you!

 

[waltfan42]

Hi OP! 10 years ago I was in your position. When I had my first child, I was able to work part-time in our felony pre-trial unit which was really fortunate. The other lawyer and I were the first to be able to do that in our office. My husband and I had always planned on me staying home full time with our kids---so when I became pregnant with my second child I "retired". I wanted to mention to you that when I finally did quit, I had 3 law firms approach me with offers of part time work (I declined)----you may find that to be the case as well. For me, I have never regretted my decision. I feel very blessed that I have had the option to stay at home and I have loved every minute of it. I did plan my exit for quite some time----paid off student loans, lived on my husband's paycheck only, cut coupons, didn't buy unnecessary things, etc. Also, we beefed up our life insurance policies. It was scary to think of what would happen if something terrible happened and I couldn't find work right away. In the beginning when money was tight--I found it kind of fun to figure out how to "make it work" if that makes sense. One last (probably obvious) thing---keep in touch with your co-workers/contacts. It helps you to feel connected and keep up with things. At any rate, best of luck to you!!!

 

[swilshire]

My husband makes enough that we should be fine financially, but we will have to change some spending habits. So for those of you who have taken the plunge from 2 incomes to 1, what ways have you found to save money? Any tips appreciated.

My husband has been a stay-at-home Dad for many years. The one thing I never considered fully was the impact this will have on our retirement. Now that my company is in financial trouble and has offered me early retirement a few times, I realize how far away we are from having enough retirement savings to live a comfortable life.

Even though he could have gone back once all the kids were in school all day, it is very hard after a long break to jump back in. The amount he would have earned has never been enough for us to add one more schedule to work around when we want to plan trips.

Sheila

 

[sweetdana]

I'm considering giving up my job to be a SAHM, Disney obsesser, crafter, baker, homemaker, etc. My DH's job is requiring more travel and having both of us working full time is becoming difficult to manage logistically.

We both have to work late sometimes, he has to travel overnight about 1 night a week and sometime more. We don't have grandparents or family in town to pick up our daughter when we are both late which is happening more often. We both feel like we rush home to try to get a couple of hours with our daughter before bedtime and then trying to squeeze every minute of family time in on the weekends. That's fine, but then I realize that it's Sunday night and the laundry's not done, last week's laundry isn't all put away, I forgot to call my mom on her birthday, I didn't get together the 100 items for the 100th day of school, etc, etc., etc.

My husband makes enough that we should be fine financially, but we will have to change some spending habits. So for those of you who have taken the plunge from 2 incomes to 1, what ways have you found to save money? Any tips appreciated.

I hired a full time nanny. For us it works. I struggle with this exact decision. I found someone through a referral service and no looking back. I come home to dinner For DH and I 3 days a week, and my kids are always fed. My house is cleaned and she does thing like take care of Girl Scouts and making formula for the night. It isn't that I don't sometimes want to stay home, but I love the freedom to plan a 4 th dw trip n know it won't be in debt. When I pay my house of b4 I'm 40 I will relook again. I had planned on being a sahm sometime after paid mat was over I had to go back for a few weeks and just stuck it out. I more pro is it gives us a back up if 1 of our jobs goes south either of us could take care of all the bills ... Minus 3 of those trips and kids col savings.

 

[Karlzmom]

I have thought about that, but my job is not one I can do 1/2 or 3/4 time. I wish it was. I am a criminal prosecutor and if I am in trial, I'm there until we finish. I've been at work from 6 a.m. until midnight when I am in the middle of trial. So to go part time, I would have to change to another employer and part time legal positions are hard to come by, not to mention our state requirement of mandatory pro bono work. If you are practicing even part time, the state requires you take appointed cases and it's based on your experience. Since my experience is criminal law, I could easily get appointed to defend someone charged with murder, rape, etc. And then I would be back to being in trial. Each lawyer is appointed approximately 6 clients a year, which doesn't sound like much until you get stuck in court with one of them or spend 80 hours a week prepping for a trial.

from another Prosecutor! I can completely relate to your work concerns. I've been very fortunate to have DH as our "stay at home" parent since DS was born, so while I have never ending mommy-guillt in the long hours followed by the inevitable brain-churn when I'm home at least I know DS is in good hands. It seems that years ago I read a breakdown on how much money it actually costs to send both parents to work. It was a real eye opener as it even factored in the surcharge that frequently gets spent because there isn't time to shop around for the best prices! Just think abot not having to pay for and dry clean the trial wardrobe -(especially if you are an office that requires pantyhose) Add in the tax ramifications, day care, convenience foods, etc, etc, etc. Anyway, I wish you the best of luck and a tip of the white hat.....

 

[kelcoppens]

We tried it and we were pulling out of our savings every month to cover bills, so I had to go back to work. I was VERY fortunate to find a job when I did. The job market is TOUGH though. So if you decide to leave your job, make absolutely sure you wont need to look for another job in a few months to make ends meet.

I have to agree with one of the above posts... you dont know what may happen in the future. Your DH may get suddenly laid off. That is what happened to me, and I am the breadwinner of our family.

 

[ForMyBoys]

Thanks for all of the replies. You have all given me lots of good advice and lots to think about.

1) We have an appt. with our financial advisor to go over our retirement portfolio and how much we need to be putting aside.

2) I am looking to see what I can find in terms of part time work teaching at one of the local colleges, tech schools or law school. I have been approached to do this before when I was doing big firm work and I recall the pay wasn't great, but it would keep me working in the field and have flexibility. I am also looking to see if there is any other part time work in the field that might still e exempt from the pro-bono requirements. It's a little difficult to put out feelers without it getting out that I am considering leaving, but I'm determined to figure out something.

3) I put together a spread sheet of our fixed monthly expenses to determine exactly what we will have left over each month.

4) My last paycheck is in the savings account and the plan is to keep putting them in there until we make the final decision.

The good thing on this timing is that DH's recently got a pretty decent increase in salary so the income loss won't be as much of a hit since we haven't gotten used to spending based on his new income level.

In the end, we have decided as a family that we want our daughter to have time with family instead of hired help all the time. Thank you all for the responses and insight.

Hi There! 5 years ago I left a very fast, paced, lots of overtime required high level job at a big 4 accounting firm to move to a client on a reduced hour basis. My employer at the time did offer reduced schedules but because of how short handed we were and my personality I ended up working a ton of non-paid hours after I went part time so I made the decision to find something else.

In hind site I wish I would have just confided in my boss as I think I ended up burning some bridges by taking the job with the client. It seems you are worried about the word getting around that you are looking for something, so rather than worry about what people will find out I would just talk directly with your employer, explain why it isn't working for you right now and what you would be looking for. If they can't offer it at least they will understand where you are coming from, and you never know, they may be able to recomment a job that is a fit (either with them or somewhere else). It seems you've already made up your mind to either quit or find something with more reasonable hours so I don't really see any downside to asking for help finding what you are looking for.

 

[Caradana]

I hired a full time nanny. For us it works. I struggle with this exact decision. I found someone through a referral service and no looking back. I come home to dinner For DH and I 3 days a week, and my kids are always fed. My house is cleaned and she does thing like take care of Girl Scouts and making formula for the night. It isn't that I don't sometimes want to stay home, but I love the freedom to plan a 4 th dw trip n know it won't be in debt. When I pay my house of b4 I'm 40 I will relook again. I had planned on being a sahm sometime after paid mat was over I had to go back for a few weeks and just stuck it out. I more pro is it gives us a back up if 1 of our jobs goes south either of us could take care of all the bills ... Minus 3 of those trips and kids col savings.

Agree 1000%. Same situation here.

 

[Teresa Pitman]

Everyone is different. For me, it was really important to have the time with my children. You couldn't pay me enough money to give up those years of full-time mothering and those memories.

TP

 

[scottmel]

I am such a firm believer in you spend what you have so to speak. I became a SAHM 13 years ago. I hate to cook so believe me this was a challenge! But honestly I still made sure DH maxed out 401, our roths, education IRA. I would not budge on those. We ended up living very nicely b/c I cut the waste - not as much eating out, stayed off the internet for temptation, etc. and managed to pay our morgage off in 10 years. It was amazing that we made less , spent less but the money stretched further.

In 2009 we made our last morgage payment however I still paid the ficticous morgage to savings, or vacation fund, etc whatever. And started sending DD to a private school when morgage was paid off.

We have gone to disney every year since I became a SAHM and live very well. you would be AMAZED at how fast 20 here saved and 20 there saved adds up.

The biggest money savers for me:
1. I shop on line for groceries at our local Giant Eagle. They deliver them curbside to my car. No last minute junk purchases in the cart, I can shop on line with coupons and follow recipes etc. and have every ingredient I need for the week on hand. That saved me time and a lot of money.

2. I constantly sign up for new credit cards - always paying balances in full - and have flown our family for free to disney the last 5 years. Every year. I use reward points from Chase to pay for our food at disney. Vacations are a must have for me!

3. I sell A LOT on ebay and craigs list. A LOT. I have no junk in the house left and many many months this money would be my christmas money come November.

DH told me once, I forget his logic, but he figured out I earned 48k a year for our family with coupon clipping, I rarely pay for gas for the car due to fuel perks at the grocers, my selling items, deals on vacations, eating in,e tc.

I felt well paid for my position!

2.

 

[stayhomemom77]

I've been a stay home mom for 6 years now and I love it!

As others have stated...a lot of expenses fall off right away when you leave your professional life behind.

One thing we did that really helped whas to give ourselves an "allowance" each month. When you're used to buying what you want, when you want it...it's sometimes hard to shift the mindset to waiting or even passing something by altogether.

This might be an idea to consider to help cut down on the "disposal" part of your income.

HTH!! Good luck to you and your family!

 

[richkaryn]

I left a great paying corporate job about 7 years ago to go back to school for teaching.(In our area, this career change would already dock our income by about $25,000--not to mention the cut in half we'd take while I was earning my second college degree!) After I graduated, I went 2 years without obtaining a full-time teaching job. I taught last year, and then budget cuts eliminated my position for this year so we had gotten a taste of making more $ again for a year only to be knocked back down. I use a website called mint dot com.It links to your bank account (online banking) and other online accounts . It allows you to set budget parameters and seperates all of your transactions into spending categories. This gave us a really good look at what we spent where, and we were appalled to find we were spending $500+ eating out monthly. (We started this during spring/summer bc with ball practice, ball games, etc for both DS and DH it was convenient.) This was a real eye opener for us. We were able to reign this in and change alot of our spending habits and have had more $ for other things since. I work part-time a few hours a week and sub a few days a month. Now that I see we can make it okay how we are and still manage to have some fun, I am debating whether I want to try to go back to teaching next year.