Quote:
Originally Posted by AmbitiousSaver
But I'm not sure how you weigh that with the whole picture yet I just wanted to bring it up cause I think people can forget that even as the kids get older... they still need attention, just a different type and a second job may still need to be somewhat lax as if the kids were younger.
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Oh I agree 100% - we wouldn't have done this if we felt it had a huge impact on our daughter. But neither my wife or I are workaholics by any stretch of the imagination. I am an Architect and my wife works in a government position. We are always home by 5 everyday and make our daughter our priority. In fact today we are both working from home because our daughter graduates from elementary school today!
I think it is important to be at milestones such as this, then we are taking her and a friend out to dinner and the baseball game. Balance is very important.
I strongly believe that moderation in all things is important, even with money. We live a good life now, spend money and enjoy life with our daughter--but we also save for our retirement. Now perhaps our situation is unique (hard to tell when you are living it right!), I recognize that we have a lot of flexibility that others might not have.
But my initial stance doesn't change even if it is a part time job where you pull in 5K--that is still money that can be put away that is not coming in. I see no value to working a job that kills your family life, but it seems surely a balance between that extreme and not working at all can be found.
I have friends who have children 16 years and older and the wife is still at home, and they are struggling on one income and have very little set aside for retirement. Seems at some point when circumstances change you need to re-evaluate the situation and make adjustments.