Staying at home with children has its benefits
Dear Dave,
My wife makes $40,000 a year, and has been working at the same company for the last 20 years. She can take retirement in nine years with full benefits, but we?re thinking it might be a good idea for her to quit now and stay home with our pre-school kids. We?re also debt-free and can pay the bills and save some money on my income. Is this a crazy idea?
? Sam
Dear Sam,
Is mom staying at home with the kids a crazy idea? Absolutely not. All you have to do is look in the face of those children and ask them which they?d like – benefits or having mom around a lot more. I think you already know the answer.
But why do we work, anyway? We don?t work for benefits and retirement, we work for what benefits and retirement DO for us. We need benefits to help take care of our families, and one of those benefits is money that we can save for later in life in order to retire with dignity and change our family tree.
These are great things to do, Sam. But if you really want to see some benefits, pour your life into your kids.
– Dave
Dear Dave,
I?m looking at a $92,000 home I really love. I have a car payment, but my boyfriend and I have a combined income of about $53,000. Should we wait until the car is paid off to buy the home?
? Carrie via e-mail
Dear Carrie,
Don?t do it! You should never buy a home with a boyfriend or girlfriend, or even right after you get married. If you go through with this, it could end up being the worst mistake of your life.
Have you ever heard of Murphy?s Law, and how everything that CAN go wrong WILL go wrong? You might as well give Murphy his own bedroom if you do this, Carrie, because you?ll be creating a huge nightmare for yourselves morally, legally, physically, financially and spiritually.
Slow down and take your time. Make sure you two love each other and want to spend the rest of your lives with each other. Then, after you?ve gotten married, live in a cheap apartment for a few years while you get the car paid off and save up for a solid 20 percent down payment on a house. When you?ve done all this, THEN you can start looking for that first home together.
? Dave
Dear Dave,
I wrecked my car, and have spent all the insurance money. I owe $10,000 on the car, and it?s now worth $5,000 but still drivable. I bring home about $1,000 a month, and I?m single. I feel like I?m stuck and I?m afraid my car might fall apart at any second.
? Tina via e-mail
Dear Tina,
You?re not stuck. If you sit around and don?t take action to fix this situation you?ll be stuck, because you decided to be stuck. That?s called laziness. It?s time to step up to the plate, take some personal responsibility for your actions and fix this thing.
You made one mistake already by blowing the insurance money, so you?re going to have to pay some stupid tax to make things right. Find a part-time job at night or on weekends to make some extra money. No one wants to work 60 to 70 hours a week all the time, but if you?re willing to endure the pain for a little while you can make enough to have that busted car fixed or even pay it off and buy yourself a decent used car.
Sometimes life just happens, Tina. But most of the time what happens to us is the fault of the person we look at in the mirror every day. There?s no magic wand or microwave for this situation. I can HELP you change your life, but it?s going to take a little time, some hard work and most of all YOU have to come along for the ride and make it happen.
– Dave