Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Has anyone gievn up a career to homeschool?

I am really interested in homeschooling (and I am certain my DS would love it) but I make more than my husband and it would be really, really hard to live on just his income. We have no friends or family nearby. I've heard of people homeschooling while working full time but that means you have to depend on babysitters, etc. to help the kids with their school during they day, which sort of defeats the whole purpose of homeschooling, right? (in terms of spending more time with your kids and instructing them yourselves)

Anyway, I guess this is more of a whine but I am curious if anyone has made that kind of change?

I work part-time and homeschool. I work about 15 hours per week, but I am self-employed and have flexible hours. My husband makes a lot more than I do, so what I bring in feels like welcome extra. I work in the evenings after my husband gets home, and my kids go to an all day program with other homeschooled kids two days per week. If your husband earns less, any chance he would be willing to cut back his hours and be the homeschool parent? I know other dads who do. Also, in our case, there is significant economic value to my homeschooling because we would be sending them to $$$ private schools otherwise.

I've never asked him but it would mean giving up his benefits (the health insurance for family is WAY cheaper than at my job. Like $700 a month cheaper). I'm not sure he is totally convinced HS is a good option although we have never really discussed it seriously - I've only been thinking about it seriously in my head

I would love to be able to work PT from home - I don't think it's possible with my current job though (I work in the public sector). What kind of work do you do? I'm trying to get a couple web sites up and running to make some money but it's hard to spend time on that with everything else going on in my life.

The crazy thing is that while we can afford private school (the kids go there now) we can't afford for me to stay home. My "extra" income goes toward tuition.

Here's one way to think about it:

Your net income after taxes
- private school tuition
- annual cost of professional wardrobe
- gas and car upkeep for commuting
- lunches and coffee grabbed on the go
- quick expensive dinners because you're tired
__________________________________________________
= your actual income that benefits the family

A lot of two-income families over-estimate how much that second income is really buying them.

I quit working to be a SAHM. When we were married with no kids, we saved all of my income and lived as if we were a one-income family. Since having kids, we've lived well below our means even with the one income- we have cheap, older cars and a small house. We made a move halfway across the country for higher pay (for DH) and a lower cost of living.

Now we're thinking about the possibility of me not returning to work so I can homeschool the kids, and pondering what that will mean for us financially. We could end up doing a 1 or 2-day a week homeschool program which would leave me free to pursue a part-time career I've been putting off thinking about since my kids were born.

I found this book very interesting and helpful: http://www.amazon.com/All-Money-World-Happiest-Spending/dp/1591844576/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_2

It may be helpful for you to evaluate what you really need in terms of those big expenses people tend to take for granted- mainly housing & transportation.

Yes, I did this.

My DH and I were both tenure-track faculty at a small research and teaching uni.

Then our DD developed life-threatening medical problems.

He went to industry (better income) and I came home for two years. I worked PT doing research for about 8 years until soft $ dried up, and at that point, just stayed home because the economy was horrendous.


While the trade-offs are, as MegMeg notes, not always as obviously in favor of two incomes... what is also true is that you'll never recover those years of lost SAVINGS for college/retirement.

The other thing which is also true is that you can easily find yourself left behind and unable (even if you're highly educated) to enter your field again after a ten year hiatus.

And this is why I hate career tracks, in general.

Can you cut your expenses to nearly nothing and pay off your debt?

With debt service eliminated, you will have more cash available.

Before we had kids, I had a very busy real estate career, working 70+hrs a week. Then the market came to a halt and I went from very good income to no income and ton of expenses. My husband's income has been fairly stable over the years (over the road trucker) and that's what we have been living on the last 5 years. We went from a cheap house to more expensive house while shortly after from good income (not full 6 figures but close) to about 40-50% of it. First we thought I'd only stay home with the boys for the first 3 years or so and then go out and get a "real job" ... to use my 2 business degrees for the first time in my life, but then the boys health issues started popping up and we realized we'd be spending pretty much all my income on just childcare since they would need special care. Plus, I just could not imagine someone else being with my kids while I was at work. So I officially became a stay at home mom ... we don't eat out, we cut our expenses to a minimum, I shop sales, we drive old cars, did a mortgage modification on our home ... did all we could to make it on one income and couple years later I can't even believe how much money of what we used to make went to "waste"

Now, with the boys getting older (DS4.5 and DS2.11), I am really hoping to find ways where I could start making some money while at home and hopefully homeschool as it would make my life a lot easier. My husband still wants me to join the corporate world, but I can't even imagine working a 9-5 job. I never thought I would be the type to stay home with the kids and be perfectly happy with it but at the moment I want nothing more

Thanks for the replies. We actually have no debt at all except for the mortgage and I don't spend much money on things like fancy clothes, coffee (don't drink it!), fast food, etc. Our cars are paid for but we do pay a lot for gas (our house is on the market as we want to move closer to where we work). I roughly estimate that about half of our money goes to taxes, tuition, and savings.

We save A LOT towards retirement and college. That is the part we would probably give up the most. We have a decent amount in our portfolio but if we stopped contributing who knows what that would do long term.

I probably need to run the numbers and see just for fun. I feel like we are fairly frugal for our income level but probably not compared to others who have to watch every penny.