re: Looking for Financial/Life Advice

Do some horse trading with the cars to get a lower or no note.

Also, can she go on cobra after leaving the job ? If so that’s 6 (I think) months free insurance. Then you’d only have to pay for half the year. Would need to figure something out for the following year…

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But it wasn't free. I had to pay the entire sum of the insurance. The benefit of COBRA was that I was able to temporarily retain my health insurance in-between jobs.

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We're losing state insurance next month. We currently pay $414. We'll be doing COBRA for 18 months at $1,432. Privately, that plan is $2254 a month.

Insanity.

The cars......that is crazy.

For some context, my wife quit working to stay at home when we had our first child. I was making about $60k/yr at that time. It was a bit rough but we had PLANNED for a few years for that situation. We had eliminated all car loans, student loans and the 2nd mortgage before having kids came along. I realize that doesn't apply to you but I just wanted to throw it out I can definitely relate to desire and I fully support anyone going to a single-income household with kids. It is just so much more beneficial to kids than you can ever fully grasp.

Now back to the cars. We have never had that much in car notes. Right now is the most we have ever paid in car notes and that is $400/mo. Before that, the highest we had was $270/mo. You are buying cars you can't afford. You need to eliminate the car notes immediately. It will also help with auto insurance rates.

And when going to a single income household setup, you NEED an emergency fund. It needs to be hefty like 6+months.

What are you spending on these:
- Cell phones?
- Internet?
- TV?

Appreciate your candor and honesty in this.

As has been mentioned you need some Dave Ramsey. He gets some grief for investing but your situation is where he shines. Get the free every dollar app for budgeting, its easy and works great. As Dave would say, you have to give every dollar for the month a name and know where it goes.

As already be said the cars have to go. You need two 8K cars, maybe you can get by on one. This would also decrease insurance by quite a bit.

Garage sale and/or work some nights doing whatever to get that credit card done and never look at it again.

I'd evaluate every expense; satellite/cable, meals, etc. Definitely no eating out or extras.

Make sure you and your wife are on the same page with whatever plan you decide.

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So much of this. Staying at home isn't just a "loss of income." When done right, staying at home is a very fruitful job that creates income by creating savings. If the person who stays at home takes the time to shop grocery ads every week, plan out meals and cook, you can save a lot of money just on food. They can also take time to research almost every purchase. If there is something you "need" to buy, the stay at home person should have time to research where the best deal is on that purchase

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Clearly you’ve never had a stay at home wife lol. This shite just doesn’t happen. Nice thought, no execution.

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Jjdoc

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Another example is a remote/online teacher. I did a quick search for you:

Benefits
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Teaching just 60 minutes part-time per day earns you between $420-650 a month
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The pay: Depends on your experience, but averages around $9.5 per 25-minute class, i.e
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Time of day: You choose your schedule from available class slots; peak student demand hours are listed below
•
Location: Conveniently teach remotely from your home - no commute!
•
Pay: $14.00 to $22.00 /hour

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Care to share a link for this?

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Clearly you’ve never had a stay at home wife lol. This shite just doesn’t happen. Nice thought, no execution.

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My wife has been at home for 11 years now. We have 3 kids that are home schooled on top of it.

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my wife is out there rolling organic bananas in organic chia seeds for my 8 month old. Ain't no coupon in this house.

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Sounds like my wife but stores like Aldi and Costco make it very easy and affordable to find that stuff these days.

Good luck! Hope everything works out for you! Awesome that you’re taking the time to ask for help and get a game plan together.

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Married with a 1-year-old and 2nd child due in August. Both my wife and I have full-time jobs. She is a teacher and I’m in Sales Together we make about $120,000 per year. I’m about 70k and she is about 50k. After taxes and withholdings, we bring home about $7,000/m We have about 9k in credit card debt and another 20k in student loans. I drive a truck that is $500 a month (worth 32k, owe 26k) She drives a car that is $550 a month (worth 30k, owe 23k) The mortgage is $1400/m Monthly bills range from $1800 – 2300/m Our situation is in August when my second son is born, my wife will be on unpaid maternity leave for about 12 -14 weeks. We will lose her income during that time. Which we will certainly be upside down without her income. What advice can anyone provide? The second issue is it really pains me to enroll both of my children in childcare for almost $2000 a month, but I feel like there isn’t another option. My wife talks about being a stay home mom, but I can’t fathom living on my income alone and losing her benefits like health care. We have a nice policy through the state that would be impossible to buy through the marketplace. Thoughts, comments, and advice would be appreciated. Edit: Thank you for all the feedback and advice. We are going to sell the vehicles and tighten up the budget. I'm going to track where every dollar goes and find every opportunity to cut.

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You need to find a new sales job with insurance.