Money Matters
Carolinabuckeye
member
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Need some life advice....would you take the job?
Im gonna lay it all out because I need advice from the world outside of my home. I need a real opinion from people so I can think about this position from more than one side.
My husband and I have 2 kids, and found out we are expecting #3. We are VERY excited!!
Back-story, my husband managed a bar and I was a stay at home student while my two daughters were born. One is in grade school and the other is still at home with me. I am a stay at home mom but I did graduate with my college degree but have had one heck of a time finding a decent job.
Since the bar (where he used to make good money) was struggling we found ourselves on food stamps and medicaid...which was a godsend. My husband eventually left the bar and works for a major manufacturing company making decent money. We lost food stamps immediatley and were put on 1 year medicaid tranition but will ultimatley lose that too. We understand and are very thankful for the help. Hubby's job has a policy is that everyone has to be on a 2-year temp contract, then after 2 years they are permanent. My husband is at the 1 year mark. THey do not offer health insurance unless it is to permanent employees.
I was trying to find a job that I made enough to work while paying a babysitter, and all I was getting calls was for minimum wage jobs that I average $2 after taxes and a sitter and gas. I continued to look and finally got an offer for $13 an hour (starting) as a rep with contract to be promoted to a supervisor $14 within 6 months to 1 year. The schedule is 8-5 mon-fri, no weekends ever! Plus quarterly bonus checks.
The ONLY daycare around here costs $2.90 an hour ($2.30 after the childcare credit we can claim on taxes) $2.30 is very reasonable, esepcially since a babysitter costs about the same. But that means that I would be paying $520 a month for daycare. When the baby comes it will be about $1000 a month total for both kids. I dont know what I will do when my older daughter is home for the summer!?
So if im making $13 an hour, i figured im making before taxes $2080, $1664 after taxes. This year before baby im bringning home about $1000 total for the whole month after daycare and gas. Next year itll be $600 after daycare for the baby.
This total does not include the health insurance taken out, which I don't know the cost yet. Plus we called our account and with both incomes we lose our child tax credit next year
SO im sure my bring home will be less than that.
Here's the kicker....our social worker called since our medicaid transition is up at the end of December. She's a lovely lady and we chatted as I shared the good news with her that im prego. She called me back and told me our whole family qualified for medicaid, and up to $350 worth of food stamps without an additional income. (aka me not working).
I want experience and want to take this job, but in your opinions, would you stay at home with your children and take the medicaid and food stamps while you can, or would you take the job even though most of your paycheck is going towards daycare? I have this put in my stomach about paying someone else to spend time with my children when I might have the chance to stay at home. At the same time, I feel bad being on government assistance possibly even longer, not that I have anything against it, I just feel like we had our help and I dont want people to think im taking advantage of being pregnant and the state. Plus starting a brand new job while prego is kind of intimidating. We could really use the extra money...
Need some points of view...
My husband and I have 2 kids, and found out we are expecting #3. We are VERY excited!!
Back-story, my husband managed a bar and I was a stay at home student while my two daughters were born. One is in grade school and the other is still at home with me. I am a stay at home mom but I did graduate with my college degree but have had one heck of a time finding a decent job.
Since the bar (where he used to make good money) was struggling we found ourselves on food stamps and medicaid...which was a godsend. My husband eventually left the bar and works for a major manufacturing company making decent money. We lost food stamps immediatley and were put on 1 year medicaid tranition but will ultimatley lose that too. We understand and are very thankful for the help. Hubby's job has a policy is that everyone has to be on a 2-year temp contract, then after 2 years they are permanent. My husband is at the 1 year mark. THey do not offer health insurance unless it is to permanent employees.
I was trying to find a job that I made enough to work while paying a babysitter, and all I was getting calls was for minimum wage jobs that I average $2 after taxes and a sitter and gas. I continued to look and finally got an offer for $13 an hour (starting) as a rep with contract to be promoted to a supervisor $14 within 6 months to 1 year. The schedule is 8-5 mon-fri, no weekends ever! Plus quarterly bonus checks.
The ONLY daycare around here costs $2.90 an hour ($2.30 after the childcare credit we can claim on taxes) $2.30 is very reasonable, esepcially since a babysitter costs about the same. But that means that I would be paying $520 a month for daycare. When the baby comes it will be about $1000 a month total for both kids. I dont know what I will do when my older daughter is home for the summer!?
So if im making $13 an hour, i figured im making before taxes $2080, $1664 after taxes. This year before baby im bringning home about $1000 total for the whole month after daycare and gas. Next year itll be $600 after daycare for the baby.
This total does not include the health insurance taken out, which I don't know the cost yet. Plus we called our account and with both incomes we lose our child tax credit next year
SO im sure my bring home will be less than that.Here's the kicker....our social worker called since our medicaid transition is up at the end of December. She's a lovely lady and we chatted as I shared the good news with her that im prego. She called me back and told me our whole family qualified for medicaid, and up to $350 worth of food stamps without an additional income. (aka me not working).
I want experience and want to take this job, but in your opinions, would you stay at home with your children and take the medicaid and food stamps while you can, or would you take the job even though most of your paycheck is going towards daycare? I have this put in my stomach about paying someone else to spend time with my children when I might have the chance to stay at home. At the same time, I feel bad being on government assistance possibly even longer, not that I have anything against it, I just feel like we had our help and I dont want people to think im taking advantage of being pregnant and the state. Plus starting a brand new job while prego is kind of intimidating. We could really use the extra money...
Need some points of view...
Re: Need some life advice....would you take the job?
That said, I don't have kids yet but I've never planned to be a SAH mom. I think quality daycare is a great learning experience for kids, and research says that high-quality daycare is just as good for kids as a high-quality home environment. I am sympathetic that if you feel called to SAH, it must be hard to give up. Best of luck with your decision!
I have been in manufacturing for most of my adult life in one form or another and it was very rare not to get annual raises.
I think one way to look at it is to compare the two options. Based on what you said with you working you would have an extra $600-1000 plus your bonuses with you working. without you working you would qualify for $350 in food stamps once the new baby is born (or whenever). You working is an extra $250+ every month, and part of that plus is probably better health care than medicaid.
Good luck deciding. I know leaving your kids can be hard- I stay at home with a 15 month old right now, but I also know that a day care can be a good experience for them too. Either way you will still be the best mom you can be for your kiddos!
Edit: I should add, in this situation I would be going back to work. I would want to make sure that I would be doing the most I could to ensure the financial secure future for my family. And having a steady schedule without weekends means that you would be able to spend a lot of quality time in the evenings and weekends.
1. Does the new employer know you are pregnant? Are they willing to work with you and provide 3 months unpaid maternity leave? I'm pretty sure that FMLA is only available for those who have been working with the company for 12 months. If you weren't able to get 3 months maternity leave, do you have a plan for someone to keep the baby during those first few months? I think most day cares around here will not keep a baby younger than 3 months, but maybe that is a regional thing? Just throwing all this out there, because it may take a lot of planning. You may need a nanny for the first few months, so even more money. This isn't necessarily a reason to not take the job, but it is something you gotta think about ASAP.
2. Is this job in a field that you are interested in pursuing long term? If so, I think you should move mountains to take it and get that experience. If it is in a field that you aren't really that interested in pursuing long term, it may be worth passing up if you would much rather stay home with your kids.
3. In terms of income, is there some job that you might be able to do while also staying home with the kids? Maybe nanny for someone else's kids too?
These are just some things to consider, but honestly, I think you should probably take the job. Even if you made $0 after day care and taxes, you are still getting insurance, work experience, paying into SS, and possibly even getting a 401k match (if they offer it; take it!!). The job also offers hope of moving up and getting raises, whereas more unemployment for you would make it even harder to find a job when you really need one. This is why many people (including myself) have taken unpaid internships, and I can tell you from first hand experience that chasing experience over money leads to more money in the long run.
Best of luck!
Medicaid would pay for the entire pregnancy with no cost to us, in my opinion, Medicaid is just as good as private. My employer does know about the pregnancy but I am only offered unpaid leave unless I get a promotion, which I am supposed to get before my year mark but im not 100% sure.
I have decided to take the job because as you all have said, job experience in so valuable. I knew that, but at the same time reading so many others repeating that tells me it's worth way more than what I realized. I am super nervous yet excited to take this next step. I also realized that if this job absolutely doesn't work out, its not like I cannot leave it in search for another.