Page 41 - Book3E

CHAPTER 6
Downsizing from Two Incomes to One
Of all the benefits that come to you as a result of creating, adjusting, and living by a budget week to week and month to month, perhaps the greatest advantage is how such a tool can help you succeed in downsizing from two incomes to one. Doing so is no small under- taking. Like most people, you’ve probably grown accustomed and comfortable living on the paychecks of two breadwinners.
Some parents may be foregoing the dream of staying home because of the pressure of mortgages, car payments, school tuition, or other expenses. If this is also the case with you, don’t give up. Take a realistic look at your current financial situation. Maybe you’ve never really stopped to take stock of the expense of working—income taxes, childcare, clothing for work, dry cleaning, lunches, gas and wear and tear on the second car, and so on.
Plus, if you think you’re alone in your quest to live on a single income, you’re not. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the United States has approximately 5.5 million “stay-at-home” parents—5.4 million moms and 98,000 dads. Among these stay-at-home parents, 42 percent of mothers and 29 percent of fathers had their own children under age three living with them. Thirty-nine percent of mothers and 30 percent of fathers were under age 35.
In the book The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers & Fathers Are Going Broke, authors Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi state:
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