Become Financially Independent as a Stay-at-Home Mom

Become Financially Independent as a Stay-at-Home Mom Become Financially Independent as a Stay-at-Home Mom When you become a stay-at-home parent, you ultimately give up a wide variety of things, and one of the things that you may no longer have is financial independence. Many parents who choose to stay home have a spouse or partner who is financially stable and willing to make the necessary financial sacrifices for a single-income family. Sooner or later, though, there will come a time when you begin to miss and even crave that independence you lost when you became a stay-at-home parent. Address the Issue of Why You Need to Be Financially Independent When you decide that you need to be financially independent, it is important to address the issues that are causing you to feel that way. If one parent is staying at home, it will only work if everything becomes ours and you work as a team. A yours and mine attitude will not work in a relationship where one partner is dependent on the other for daily expenses and expenditures. Some stay-at-home parents find themselves in a situation where the other partner becomes controlling and closely monitors the spending, which makes it difficult to find money to buy things for themselves or others in the family without the approval of the other spouse. If this is the case, you may want to set up a category where you each get money that you can spend without being accountable to the other partner each month. If its proving difficult to come to an agreement on this matter, it also may be a signal that it is time to get some outside counseling help for the relationship. Another reason is that the stay-at-home parent or their partner may feel that they are no longer contributing to the well-being of the family. Often, stay-at-home parents can save a significant amount of money in childcare costs and other ways through using coupons  and cooking at home. Though youre not specifically earning an income, this is still ultimately contributing to the financial well-being of the family since it saves the family money overall. If this feeling exists, it is important to sit down and talk it through. Create a budget for both scenarios and determine which option is best for your family as a whole. Look for Work at Home Options If you want to become financially independent, you will need to find a way to generate income. There are many options that allow you to be at home with your children, but still bring in income to support your family. These options are not always easy and you will often need the support of your spouse or partner to make them work, but they can help you become financially independent. Start an At-Home Business One option is to start a business that you can work on from your home. This may be watching other children or it could be a service that you can provide others from your home. For example, some hairdressers will convert a garage or basement to a salon and offer services from their home around their children’s schedules.  You could also restore furniture for people or offer catering or cooking services for families that do not have time to cook. Make Money With the Internet Another option is to find a business or job that you can do online. For example, you can open an Etsy store and sell items that you make online. You could also use eBay to sell items that you find. Another option is to build a specialty website where you sell items that you purchase at a discount. There is also the possibility of blogging or vlogging and monetizing it to make money. Many of these projects can be done during your children’s downtime and work into a decent revenue stream over time. Find a Work-at-Home Job There are a number of jobs that you can do online from freelance writing to answering phone calls to data entry. The key is to look for legitimate opportunities and companies that you can trust. Some call center jobs will train you locally at a center and then allow you to work from home. Depending on your line of work, you may be able to transition your office job into one that you do primarily from home. There are online only teachers and professors as well as accountants and other jobs. You can work evenings or nights and still focus on your children during the day.