I saw an article on the front page of our local newspaper about how SAHMs are starting back to work because of tough economic times. This reminds me of a concept I read in a fianancial book about how the goal in a home should be to have one spouse not working just in case there is a problem in the working spouse's job. The non-working spouse can suddenly go to work to fill the gap. If that spouse is already working, then there is no safety net because the family is already dependent on that income.

Are you an untapped economic resource in your home? I know our own Mels has been. Anyone else?

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What kind of ridiculous advice is that?

Example: My friend Gina and her DH Eric both worked at EDS. Eric, with his masters in engineering, has been unemployed for the last 15 months, with the exception of a 3 month break when AT&T picked him up, then laid him off. Gina has been supporting the family because she has a good paying job with benefits from EDS, earning over 60K a year.

My brother in law lost his job last month. He has not been able to find a new job. My sister, with her various medical problems, has been a SAHM for most of her life. She got a job at Party City for $8/hr. No benefits.

Her going to work is HARDLY "filling the gap". She is so tired, she has no energy to shop or cook, and their diets are going to h3ll, which is bad due to their diabetes. Gina working all along is a much stronger "safety net."

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I guess I feel like there wouldn't be a need to "fill the gap" if there weren't a gap to begin with. Which is why both DH and I work. I make almost 3 times the money he makes, but his income is still a huge asset to our combined income. We make good money. If I worked, and he didn't, and something happened to me, he COULD find a job to fill that "gap" and I could do the same if the roles were reversed, but we feel like we have that POTENTIAL gap filled already with savings that is produced by our combined incomes.
I hope that makes some sort of sense.

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Chopey

I think the point is that many SAHMs are like me. I have a college degree and I choose to stay home and take care of my family and home. Now, if something happened to dh's income I could pretty easily find a job working full time getting paid a decent amount.

We actually talk about it. (ok most of the time it is me that talks about it) Sometimes like Southernmommy, I wish I was bringing in more money etc. However, I do work part time and I am valued at home for doing what I do. However, if our circumstances changed I'd find a full time job.

Well, here in the Detroit area you can have several degrees and years of recent job experience and you won't find a decent paying job. And, if you haven't been working in several years - you might as well forget about it. I know people with education degrees who can't find a job teaching. Engineers are a dime a dozen. Graphic designers waiting tables. Even hospitals are closing. I'd much rather have 2 incomes all along, so money can be put away to be the safety net, like Chopey said.

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I do feel that I am an untapped resource, because we have no debt except our house and we live comfortably on just dh's income. We also have an emergency savings. (It may sound as if we make a lot of money, but believe me, we really don't - we are just very frugal!) If something happened to his job, my going back to work along with our savings would temporarily take care of us. I think this reasoning doesn't work when it already takes two incomes to make the ends meet in a household.

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Proverbs 31 wannabe

This is our home as well.

I do not feel like I am an untapped resource. If my dh lost his job I would not be able to find anything that would cover all of our expenses, my dh has a pretty high salary. I do not have a college degree, any job that I would be able to find would not really pay enough.

Yes. I have an accounting degree but have been home now for almost 8 years with the kids. I could go back to work and with my degree I can work anywhere from an accounting firm, tax office, gov office, school etc. so I think it works out well for us. We also have enough saved up that if dh lost his job, with unemployment/food stamps/etc. we could last over a year with neither of us working at all. I do know many people with both opinions, that they would rather both work now and save in case someone loses a job and others like me that are SAHM's with degrees that left good jobs to be home.
I think everyone just has to do what works best for them and makes them feel safe for their family.

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Standard of Living and Quality of life are NOT the same thing.

the point of it is that it would be better to go from a one income family back to a one income family if the spouse was able to go back into the work force. versus going from a 2 income family down to a one income family. when in these days and times most (not all) households are living beyond there means with a two income household. so that is the theory behind the concept.

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