One Family, One Income

The debate rages on, as to what effect two income families have on the children. One thing seems obvious, for most families, if one parent can stay home with the children, overall stress in the family is reduced.

I have taken some liberties with the exact truth in the following senerio. I did this only to better illustrate my philosophy on matters of money. I must also add, that this philosophy is one that I do not always follow myself, usually to my detriment, whether it be from contention with my spouse, or my own feelings of guilt. Anyway, striving for perfection is my own hang-up, and I don't recommend it.

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When I was growing up in suburban Maryland, I had a friend who was different from the rest of the kids. We made fun of him for being different...kids can be cruel. As teenagers, we would go out to the malls, fast food restaurants, record stores and concerts, and spend our money, just about as fast as we made it. But Alex would always opt out when spending a lot of money was on the docket. We would try to coax him to go along with us, but he always-remained firm.

Fast-forward about 15 years, and Alex at 30 was retired, at least from a 9 to 5 job. Now, people don't make fun of him about how he saved his money and lived within his means. If anything, people admire, and some envy him for it.

I on the other hand, had to learn the hard way about living within my means. I had a negative net worth by the time I was 30 and had to scramble to correct the problem. Since then, I have not only been living within my means, but have been able to save, thanks in part to my wife. And when we made the decision for me to become a full-time father, my wife and I were faced with figuring out a way to continue to live within our means and save for the future. In short, we had to do something that most of the rest of the country was not doing, and indeed, our capitalist system seemed to actively discourage.

During my 6 years of being an at-home dad within a one income family, and being business minded and educated in management, I have had the chance to reflect and learn how to make one income work.

The following tips are some of what I have learned:

The word procrastination has gotten a bad rap. I am going to tell you how you can make procrastination work for you. When you feel the urge to buy something, procrastinate until the need to buy it is screaming at you, and it becomes very apparent that you really need this particular

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