Archive for April 17th, 2007

Is a dual income worth it in a marriage?

Tuesday, April 17th, 2007

TheGoldenParachute.com: Think Dual Incomes is a Great Thing? Not Always

We’ve had discussions periodically in my house about my wife going back to work part-time. There are a variety of reasons why I’d prefer she didn’t, and none of them are financial. Financially, I’d always assumed that having some other income would help a bit, but wasn’t sure it would outweigh the other factors (the “soft” factors, as the linked post refers to them). That post puts some structure around that decision, though, that I thought was interesting. Depending on the numbers in question, the additional salary won’t add up to nearly as much as it sounds like it should on the surface.

To run your own numbers, the post points to SmartMoney’s Should You Go Back To Work calculator. Plug in some figures, then look at the “Cash Flow from New Job” result. Is the extra stress on the family worth that figure?

Technorati Tags: , , ,

Related posts