While there were many small decisions my husband and I made along the way that contributed to our financial success, one of the best decisions we made early on in our marriage was to live off of one income. We knew we wanted the flexibility for one of us to stay home, or to work part-time, while our children were young. This was our main reason for basing our monthly budget on one income, but in hindsight it was a great decision for a number of reasons.
For example, when we were approved for a mortgage using only one income that kept our mortgage payments manageable and provided us margin for funding our children’s 529 plans and our retirement accounts. Basing our budget on one income kept us from overspending on non-essentials like eating out, vacations, and entertainment. We found we enjoyed family game nights at home and walking or biking around our neighborhood as much as (or maybe more than) an expensive night out. Also, if one of us became unemployed it would have been easier to make smaller mortgage payments and fund other necessities from our emergency savings.
Thanks to the financial margin we enjoyed when both of us were working, not only were we able to put extra money aside for our future plans, but we were also able to occasionally splurge on non-essentials (like the one month trip to Europe we enjoyed as a family in 2017).
While I realize this decision may not be feasible for some due to income and cost of living, I believe it’s an option for many more people than we may have been led to believe. We were able to make living on one income work while making under six figures. It all came down to pretending that we only had one income and making financial decisions accordingly. It ended up being one of the best decisions we ever made.
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