Comments on: How We Prepared Ourselves For A 50% Pay Cut

By: Bear

Bear — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 20:25:59 +0000

Melanie,

US schools are finded very differently than Canadian schools – reverse, you might say. The the US, the state and Fed gov’t gives each school a set dollar amt. per pupil, and property taxes make up the rest. High property taxes, high dollar-per-pupil spending, better schools.

In Canada, the provincial and Fed /decide/ how much it costs to educate a pupil, then look at each region’s property taxes, and then make up the cost to the total for each.

The result is that US schools vary hugely in terms of services and quality of teaching and equipment, while in Canada there is substantially less variation.

By: Georgia Stath

Georgia Stath — Fri, 01 May 2009 11:58:55 +0000

Agree with you on this. Especially this part “By cutting back on all of our expenses across the board, we were able to shave off nearly 30% of our monthly expenditures. Meanwhile, our online business started taking off as well.” My husband and I had to reach some real decisions to be able to afford to have a child (why is it so difficult these days!) and we started our own online business too.

Well written. I enjoyed your article.

By: phil

phil — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 15:41:53 +0000

I have a simple haircut that cannot be messed up and I do it myself. I bought some clippers (good ones) and after 8 months they had paid for themselves. Now it costs me a few cents for the electricity! Great site!

By: Melanie

Melanie — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 03:53:21 +0000

I live in a rural part of Canada where school districts are large and everyone goes to the same school. I didn’t anyone who’d gone to a private school until I got to university and in his case I think it was a waste of his parents’ money (though I’m sure there are plenty of good ones out there).

Education is very important to me too. I just find it sad that people have to pick where they live based on that, effectively making the bad schools even worse by depriving them of strong students.

By: TStrump

TStrump — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 03:48:46 +0000

Being self-employed, I’m always on the verge of having my income cut drastically.
The only way to survive is to make sure I track my expenses and live within my means.
It’s a drag sometimes but I don’t think I’d have it any other way.

By: Travis @ CMM

Travis @ CMM — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 20:41:41 +0000

We made the mistake of living on two incomes when we got married. We didn’t think about the consequences at the time, but now we’re wanting to have a baby, and we both want my wife to be able to stay at home. Unfortunately it looks like we won’t be able to do that. The best we can do right now is have her work part-time at her current job. I’m doing everything I can at the moment to pay off as many debts as possible, but looking back I wish we’d planned better.

By: Steve C @ MyWifeQuitHerJob.com

Steve C @ MyWifeQuitHerJob.com — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 15:16:02 +0000

Thanks for the comments everyone!

@Nate
I think we should all be concerned with any sort of pay cut in general because it has a tremendous impact on retirement savings due to compounding. But you’re right, there’s less risk of survival when you have to take care of less people in your household.

@Trevor
THanks buddy! Good to see you here as well

@ObliviousInvestor
Good to see you here. Hope you stop on by real soon!

@CDRates
Haha. Didn’t catch that pun until you mentioned it. Sounds like you were able to plan ahead as well. We considered a day care as well but decided against it since handling several kids can be really tough. Kudos to you both!

@Tesla @Curt
Agree with you both 100%

@MoneyMonk
Agreed. Most people want nice cars and pride of owning their own home. Sometimes the numbers just don’t make sense.

@Veronica
Yep, it’s definitely doable to have a parent stay at home with the kids. Just takes some amount of upfront work and planning. I’m glad you’ve reached that point!

@Herbert
Never too late to start:)

@DebtGoal
I didn’t go into too much detail in this post, but yeah, the numbers didn’t add up to own a home. If you factor in deteriorating housing prices, it became a no brainer.

@Melanie
I wouldn’t call the bad school districts horrible. Many kids go there and turn out great! But education is a major priority in our household and we are willing to make sacrifices to provide our kids with the best education possible. We are firm believers that a child’s environment is key to the learning process.

@A Bisht
Thanks for the kind words!

By: Veronica

Veronica — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 14:28:19 +0000

Having to pick a house based on a school district or decide that you will pay for private school is a very real thing where I live and I think this is very common in and around our cities. I’m wondering where you live Melanie? I know I picked my home based on the school district long before I even had kids.

By: A Bisht

A Bisht — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 12:28:20 +0000

I’m a regular reader of Steve’s blog and moneyning. It felt great to find Steve’s brilliant write-up here too.

By: Melanie

Melanie — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 03:50:47 +0000

It’s not the point of the article (which I found generally interesting and helpful) but I can’t get over the comment early on about the school districts. How bad are these schools that going to a “bad school” isn’t even an option? What about the people who do go there? Have they no rights because their parents couldn’t afford the “necessity” that is private school in this case? I just can’t wrap my mind around this.