Are You Able To Survive On Your Income Alone?

[Learning Daycare]

After you've paid all of your bills, do you have money left over to invest in retirement AND to enjoy the fruits of your labor? How well are you with budgeting? I know going in to business, I'm really going to have to focus on the books and budget more. Right now, my SO handles the finances. I'm a little nervous to have the weight on my shoulders.

[TwinKristi]

Currently we could tighten our belts and live off my income but 3 kids leaving again would completely change that. My dh & I are both self-employed and have been for the last 6-7 years. It's been pretty hard honestly. We've made a LOT of changes to spending money once it caught up with us and we realized not having an every Friday set paycheck really changes your views on making and spending money. We cut our monthly expenses down a lot about 3yrs ago and now have things pretty well under control. We have the must-pays every month (rent, water, gas/elec, garbage, internet, cell phones, etc) and the annual fees we get however often (Costco in Oct, Amazon in May, my DC ins renewal in Aug, his car reg in May, my car reg in Nov, my license renewal in Dec, his license renewal in May...) and are able to take a vacation once or twice a year. Maybe it's a long weekend camping or a weekend in the snow, some years it's Disneyland or a cabin at the lake. Some years it's nada!
We are changing this though. Dh is ending his business and going to get a job for someone else hopefully with benefits, vacation, weekly paycheck... That will help us with budgeting tremendously!!!!

My income is a little more steady believe it or not. I have the same clients for a period of time paying regularly unless something changes which happens all too often. His clients come and go and are different every day for weeks or the same person for 6 mos. very different! I've been open going on 2 years and have had 7 kids come and go through here not including drop-ins. So that's 7 changes in income in 2 years plus changes with current clients seasonally, 3 left in 3 months last Fall. I've had one boy go from very PT to FT to PT again in 18 mos. I've considered having my dh get his license qualifications and changing to a large daycare but only taking like 2 more kids to make ends meet without him working elsewhere. He wouldn't have to be here all the time if we did that, since we have some PT and sone SA, allowing him to work specific small jobs too. That scares me too much though because as quickly as you can build up your group, they can just as easily all leave!

[Josiegirl]

I support myself and don't have a whole lot of savings. I keep my bills paid and don't take vacations. I've indulged myself with 2 dogs though and they can get expensive from time to time. I have 2 dds still in college who I do try to help when I can. But they already know the bulk of tuition is on them.
There are definitely areas I could trim spending but don't. The ups and downs of enrollment makes me extremely nervous. I do great during the summer with extra SA kids but have to be more careful during the school year because I wasn't full last year and doubt I will be this year either and that's also when all the big bills hit, heating expenses, house/car/daycare insurance. Family daycare seems to be on the down slide in my area.

[daycarediva]

We don't take vacations.

We budget well and bought a house within MY means with 5 FT kids (excluding dh's income, who is also self employed).

We only have 1 car payment at a time, which means one of us takes a turn driving an older car.

We have a savings equal to 3 months bills/expenses at the moment.

We have private health insurance.

We have retirement.

I'd say we are doing well.

[midaycare]

Sadly, no. I could not support myself on my income alone. I can only have 6 kids, right now I have 4, and they are all some version of part time.

[Second Home]

I could not support my family on daycare income alone , even if I were full with ft kids .

[Meyou]

We support ourselves on my income. DH's income is for extras, savings, sports (this is our biggest extra expense) for the kids and vacations.

[Play Care]

I've said the only way I can do this job is because my husband has a reliable job with health bennies (he's a teacher in a strong teacher union state) The last couple of years I've *grossed* between 45-50 grand - that's being completely full, getting Tier 1 food program reimbursement, etc.

In my state, in homes can only have 5 or 6 FT kids and 2 SA spots (you can fill the FT spots with SA kids, but SA spots are strictly for SA) so it would be incredibly difficult to really live on day home income alone (then add to that not having health ins, retirement, etc.) And frankly, I wouldn't want to work my 60+ hours weeks and then not be able to take a vacation ever, or take a day here and there off, etc.

[Naptime yet?]

I could not support my family on daycare income alone , even if I were full with ft kids .

Me neither. My dh pays the bulk of the bills & I pay the few that I can. I basically live paycheck-to-paycheck.

[permanentvacation]

I literally laughed out loud when I read the topic title! Um... No. I can not support myself on my income! Thank God for child support... it pays my rent!! I keep worrying and trying to figure out what to do so I might be able to support myself in less than 2 years when my daughter turns 18 and the ex no longer has to pay child support. I am actually afraid that I won't be able to support myself and am really worried about my financial future. I am also really concerned about my long-term financial stability which is why I started the thread about how to save for retirement. Which is sort of a dumb thought on my point since I have a hard time paying my monthly bills, but retirement is something that I need to think about.

Now, If I had stayed living in the home that I originally lived in when my ex and I first got separated and still had the income I made there, then, yes, I would have been able to support myself off of that income. But since I have moved to a lower income area where parents can't afford what I consider to be decent rates for daycare, no, now I can't support myself. I keep thinking of ways that I might be able to move back to the higher income area after my daughter gets out of high school. If I can get back to a higher income area, I think I would be able to support myself.

[permanentvacation]

Enjoy the fruits of my labor :: I haven't enjoyed fruits of my labor in YEARS!!

[MotherNature]

I make enough to pay for groceries that week. That's it. I only take one or two kids at a time, so no... I'm in kind of a holding pattern at the moment. My husband is disabled, but still goes in to work & it's breaking his body even more. He was in a very bad car accident 2 yrs ago when a kid ran a red light and flipped our Soul, totalling it and breaking his back, and causing severe damage & we'll finally be getting a settlement in August, which will pay out in October most likely. Depending on how much it is and if there's a further trial against others involved in the case, we'll see where to go from there. Ultimately, we'd like to have enough to put a down payment for a house, get a decent used vehicle or two, and pay off some money we both owe college. I've got one year left for my degree in medial assisting, so I'd finish that, go to work, and he'd quit, go on disability and return to school full time, possibly to be a doctor. Barring that, we'd also like to own a couple duplexes to be able to not have him killing himself just to pay bills.

[CraftyMom]

No, I couldn't live off my income currently. Not unless we downsized. We have a big mortgage that I could not afford alone. Other than that, IF I remained full constantly I could make it work.

[Annalee]

My daycare business is the primary income in my family! The first 10 years, my husband's income was primary but the place closed, and where he works now has great insurance, but not the income like before....

[Unregistered]

We could but I wouldn't want to. All my income is just extra,however it goes directly into savings,retirement,vacation fund and back into the daycare. I'm just not sure how anyone lives on one income any more? We live way below our means and have no car payment,no cell phone payments(my husbands is paid through work)no debt except our mortgage and my husband makes good money.Everything is just so expensive!
Plus I would like to retire early so I just keep saving and counting down the days,eh,years until I can retire