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Is a Side Hustle Worth the Family Sacrifice?

June 20, 2022 By MelissaB Leave a Comment

Side Hustle Worth the Family Sacrifice

When our kids were young, my husband and I struggled financially. My husband was getting his Ph.D. and worked as a graduate assistant. I had just quit my full-time job because the cost of daycare in Chicago for two kids under two plus after-school care for our oldest would cost me as much as I was taking home each week. We survived for three years like this until my husband graduated and started working a regular job and a side hustle. I also worked a part-time job from home. Now that we’re 10 years removed from that situation, we recently discussed if a side hustle is worth the family sacrifice.

Some Times You Have No Choice

I want to acknowledge that sometimes, you have no choice. Sometimes you have to work as much as you can to cover rent, buy groceries, and care for your family. For my husband and I, the first few years after he graduated were like this. We were in debt because we had lived off his graduate assistantship and student loans those last three years, and we needed side hustles to try to get out of the hole we were in. However, we should have set a limit for how long we would work our side hustles.

Dave Ramsey’s Influence

Fifteen years ago, I loved listening to Dave Ramsey, and I bought into the idea that we should “live like no one else so later we can live like no one else.” I accepted the sacrifice that side hustles required because I was sure that if we worked hard, we’d end up on the other side, able to check off the baby steps.

Is A Side Hustle Worth the Family Sacrifice?

We are now at the point where we’ve completed baby steps 1, 2, and are on baby step 3. However, we’re also at the point where our kids are now 18, 13.5, and 12. We lost a lot of our kids’ lives to side hustles.

Is a side hustle worth the family sacrifice? As a parent with older children, I can answer for us, it was not worth it.

What We Sacrificed for the Side Hustle

Side hustles have a dark side that most people don’t talk about. For us, these were the major drawbacks:

We Were Exhausted

Is a Side Hustle Worth the Family Sacrifice?

After my husband got home from his regular job and side hustle, I would start my work after being with the kids all day. I would often work until midnight and get up at 5 or 6 a.m. That was not enough sleep.

My husband and I were both exhausted all the time.

We Were Grouchy

Because we were working so hard and exhausted, we were also grouchy. Raising young children can be challenging under the best circumstances, but when you’re exhausted and grouchy, it’s not good for anyone.

Final Thoughts

Is a side hustle worth the family sacrifice? For us, the answer was no. Rather than following Dave Ramsey’s advice to hustle until you’re completely out of debt, we should have set a limited time frame for our side hustle. We hustled for far too long, and I’m sorry we missed out on some opportunities to spend enjoyable time with our kids when they were little because of that.

Read More

How to Combat Frugal Fatigue When Being Gazelle Intense

How to Get Out of Debt and Stay Out of Debt

4 Side Hustles for Teachers

MelissaB
MelissaB

Melissa is a writer and virtual assistant. She earned her Master’s from Southern Illinois University, and her Bachelor’s in English from the University of Michigan. When she’s not working, you can find her homeschooling her kids, reading a good book, or cooking. She resides in Arizona where she dislikes the summer heat but loves the natural beauty of the area.

www.momsplans.com/

Filed Under: budget, Children, Debt Reduction, Emergency Fund, Frugality, General Finance, Guru Advice, Married Money, pf books, Saving Tagged With: family, getting out of debt, marriage, side hustle

Should You Only Get Your Teens Braces If They Want Them?

April 18, 2022 By MelissaB Leave a Comment

Only Get Your Kids Braces If They Want Them

Do your kids have braces? If so, they join the nearly 70% of teenagers between the ages of 12 and 17 who have or have had braces (Kennell Orthodontics). Most orthodontic treatments cost between $3,000 and $7,000, representing a serious investment for parents. Unfortunately, many teens don’t appreciate this financial investment, which begs the question, should you only get your teens braces if they want them?

My Braces Story

When I was a teen, I didn’t need braces, but I did need a retainer. I found the retainer uncomfortable, and I had a lisp when I talked with it. I had to tell my teacher I was missing page 66 in a textbook, and with the retainer, what I sounded like was, “I’m mithin’ page thixty thix.” He couldn’t understand me and had to ask another student to translate.

I took the retainer out every day to eat lunch and wrapped it in a napkin. However, one day I accidentally threw it away. To this day, my mom thinks I did it on purpose, but I didn’t. She didn’t buy me a replacement retainer, and my brief stint in the orthodontics world was over.

My Children’s Braces Stories

I have three kids. The older two needed braces; the younger one did not.

Only Get Your Teen Braces If They Want Them

My son disliked his braces. When the treatment was over, he never wore his retainer. My husband and I spent over $3,500 for his orthodontic treatment. We feel that we wasted money because, without a retainer, his teeth continue to shift. I wouldn’t be surprised if someday they’re back where they were before we started treatment.

Our daughter doesn’t like braces, but she fastidiously maintains them. Even though she’s in treatment, I do not doubt that she will religiously wear her retainer and maintain her new smile.

Should You Only Get Your Teen Braces If They Want Them?

That’s a tough question because I feel that I wasted my money on one child but not the other. Ultimately, I would say the decision comes down to how much will the child be impacted in the future if he does not get braces?

If the child has overcrowding or an under or overbite that may cause damage to her teeth in adulthood, then you should get them braces. However, if the teeth are simply overlapping or have gaps in them, perhaps you could gauge whether or not you should get him braces based on his interest.

Final Thoughts

I’m not a doctor, so I am only giving my opinion as a parent with two kids who had braces and had vastly different behavior towards those braces. As a parent, I’m frustrated by paying thousands of dollars for a child who won’t maintain that dental work.  I’m sure my mom was just as frustrated by me.

Unfortunately, the optimal time for orthodontic work is during the teen years, when most kids aren’t particularly responsible. As for me, I sought orthodontic treatment in adulthood to fix my teeth, and I was much more responsible than I was as a teen, especially since I was the one paying for it.

Read More

The Best Spacing of Children for Your Finances

The Importance of Fixing Things Sooner Rather Than Later

Why You Should Get Braces for Your Child When Needed

MelissaB
MelissaB

Melissa is a writer and virtual assistant. She earned her Master’s from Southern Illinois University, and her Bachelor’s in English from the University of Michigan. When she’s not working, you can find her homeschooling her kids, reading a good book, or cooking. She resides in Arizona where she dislikes the summer heat but loves the natural beauty of the area.

www.momsplans.com/

Filed Under: Children, Financial Mistakes, General Finance, Married Money Tagged With: braces, orthodontics, teenagers

How to Simplify Your Financial Life

March 31, 2022 By Justin Weinger Leave a Comment

Most likely, no one ever says they wish they could make their finances more complicated. People talk about organizing their finances or paying off debt, but at the bottom of all of that, most really want one thing: a simple financial life. The tips below can help you do that, allowing you to worry less and save more.

Know What You’re Working With

What is going out? What is coming in? These are the first two questions you have to answer, looking at the money that you’re getting and the money that you’re spending. You might not even know if you are living within your means or not. To start with, you just have to answer one simple question, which is whether you’re spending more than you are making. If you keep running out of money before the next paycheck or charging up your credit cards, the answer is yes. Whatever the case, your next step should be to make a budget. You can start out by keeping a record of all of your spending for a few months or getting an app that will do it for you. This will help you understand exactly where your money is going.

Reduce Your Spending

Unless you are already extremely frugal, if you are like most people, the budget experiment will probably reveal ways that you can spend less. This doesn’t mean cutting out every pleasure in your life. Budgeting is not about finding new ways to deprive yourself but means that you can look at where you might be wasting money without realizing it and where you can save.

Ultimately, it should give you freedom since you’ll know exactly how much you can spend in various categories that you designate. Some of those places where you can cut back may be obvious. You may see that you could indulge in a little less retail therapy or start bringing your lunch instead of eating out every day. There may be other, less obvious steps you can take as well to free up extra savings. You could refinance any existing student loans into a new loan with lower monthly payments and interest rate. Once you have freed up some cash, the next step is figuring out what to do with it.

Set and Achieve Financial Goals

There are a few financial goals that are important for everyone: getting out of debt, building emergency savings, and saving for retirement. These should all be prioritized, with an eye to making things as easy as possible. If you have a retirement plan at work, your deductions can be automatic. You can also have savings diverted into a separate account by the bank when your money is deposited.

Organize your debts either lowest to highest amount, or highest to lowest interest rate, and pay the same amount each month, focusing on the first debt and paying the minimum on others. As each debt is eventually paid off, roll your payments to the next one on the list. This is an easy, consistent system to follow. You can pay your credit card down faster with this approach. Once these basics are taken care of, look to other goals, such as saving to buy a home.

Filed Under: General Finance

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