# Can I afford to stay at home with baby?



## hokey32 (1 Apr 2009)

Age: 36
   Spouse’s/Partner's age: 33

   Annual gross income from employment or profession: 30,000
   Annual gross income of spouse:42,000

   Type of employment: e.g. Civil Servant,  self-employed: Receptionist & Barman

In general are you:
(a) spending more than you earn, or

(b) saving? Currently on unpaid extended maternity leave - have taken 3 month break on mortgage to make things easier financially during this time. Not saving but living within our means.

   Rough estimate of value of home: Not quite sure the way things are at the moment! Approx. €300,000

   Amount outstanding on your mortgage: €250,000
*What interest rate    are you paying? *2% approx. will know for sure when we start paying again next month.

   Other borrowings – car loans/personal loans etc: Credit card €2,000

   Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month? No, pay approx. €150 each month.
   If not, what is the balance on your credit card? €2,000

   Savings and investments: €45,000 in CU.

   Do you have a pension scheme? Yes, contributory with work. Ditto with husband.

   Do you own any investment or other property? Inherited a house in the country.

   Ages of children: 7.5 months

   Life insurance: Yes I think with mortgage?


*What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you? 

*I am due back to work at the beginning of May but would really rather stay at home with my baby instead of putting her in a creche as I'm gone from 7:30am until 7pm 5 days a week.  My question is can I afford to stay at home?

The cost of creche would be €200 per week.

Our current mortgage repayments are approx. €1,000 (I'm aware that interest rates won't stay this low for ever).

I've looked up Revenue.ie but with a small baby find it hard to spend time trawling through their site.  I'd like to know - if I stop working does my husband get all my tax credits and what sort of difference would this make to his take home pay?  Would he get extra also for having a dependent child?

Our house down the country is currently being renovated but within a couple of months we plan to rent it out which should bring in approx. €650 a month.

Also, there is the other thought that keeps entering my head that while I have a job maybe I should be holding onto it while things are so grim economically.

Thanks for reading and any thoughts/info/advice/opinions would be appreciated.


----------



## heretohelp (1 Apr 2009)

Can i just ask why you have credit card debt of 2k, and pay only 150 a month when you have 45k in savings ?? Why not take 2k out of your savings and clear your credit card?


----------



## Complainer (1 Apr 2009)

Can you take a career break for a few years? Your employer might be only too happy to reduce payroll costs, given the current environment.


----------



## hokey32 (1 Apr 2009)

Sorry, meant to say that when I'm back to work in 5 weeks I'm due €2,000 from holiday days last year so will clear the credit card in full when I get that.


----------



## heretohelp (1 Apr 2009)

hokey32 said:


> Sorry, meant to say that when I'm back to work in 5 weeks I'm due €2,000 from holiday days last year so will clear the credit card in full when I get that.


 okay, just that the interest on the card may be costing alot, and in the mean time you could switch to interest free for 6 months then if you receive the holiday money in 5 weeks you could clear it without paying interest!!


----------



## Setanta12 (1 Apr 2009)

I know I'm not explicitly answering your question but could you consider babysitting one or perhaps two other children in addition to your own child - currently, I believe, the amount that can be earned tax-free is circa 10,000 * which when grossed up is quite an amount.

*very much subject to change in the Budget next week and there may be local registration with the council issues but it can be done without training in your own home without impacting upon CGT-PPR relief AFAIK.


----------



## moneygrower (1 Apr 2009)

Do you have the option of going back part-time?  If not are you happy to use your savings to fill any financial gaps? How secure is your husbands job? If he lost his job could you return to yours? Is it possible to find work nearer home?

 I'm just finishing a year unpaid leave and emotionally, it's well worth it. I really feel my little guy is ready now for childcare, though it's never easy to leave them. I used my parental leave, i.e about six weeks unpaid leave before I committed to the full year off so we got a taster of life on one salary. I think that's a civil service thing though, you may not have that option. It's also different for me in that I knew I had a job to go back to so it wasn't so scary or so much pressure on my husband. 
We found it okayish financially. We could do day to day okay but when car insurance etc. came up we needed to dip into our savings. Having said that we are not great with cash so we're not the best example.
I would recommend the experience though, they are just more and more fun as they get older and it's hard to face handing them over at such a tender age.


----------



## Suziewon (1 Apr 2009)

well, it seems to me like it is something that you really want to do. 7 to 7 is a long time to be away from your baby, they probably go to bed at 8? If you have no other debts other than the cc it would seem that you are in a prime situation to do it now. that is if your spouse has job security(rare these days). anyway you have the savings to keep paying your mortgage if the worst happened(and equity in the inherited house). what about a job sharing or part-time option? 
I think your spouse can claim an extra 5k tax credit, but only if your married. Plus you should have some extra cash with child benefit and early chilcare supp. 

I sent my 2 to creche for 3 years while i was working, no choice too many bills, im pregnant with third and will have to give up as id be paying 400e a week childcare. 
it does make a difference when your at home full time with them, but it can be very lonely (you don't even get a lunch hour) lol.. but they grow up too fast, and you will get by no matter what, just a few sacrifices in lifestyle but it's worth it. All the best i know what a hard and scary desicion it is.


----------



## hokey32 (2 Apr 2009)

Thanks folks for your replies.

When I was pregnant I had put a request into our HR department that I come back on a 4 day week but I was told a couple of months ago that this has been turned down so I have to return on a full time basis.

Not sure about a career break as such, would have to wait until I start back and make a few enquiries about it.  I had thought about Parental Leave (taking it one or two days a week) but seeing as they won't allow me work a 4 day week I don't think they'll allow me take the Parental Leave in this way either.

Setanta12, about the babysitting - as I only have the one young baby I wouldn't consider myself experienced enough to take on the enormous responsibility of looking after someone elses child, although later on down the line it might be an option.

Suziewon, 5k isn't really that much is it spread out over a year?   Would make things very tight financially if I gave up a full time job for my husband to only bring home approx. €90 extra a week to support a wife and child.  I've learned to be very frugal lately but I know interest rates can't stay this low forever and would have to budget for the mortgage repayments increasing significantly.

As for the €45,000 in the CU.  It's great to have it there but I'd be wary of using it as an income and having nothing in a couple of years for emergencies etc.

I'm not asking for much am I?! I just feel it's hard to do any sort of planning ahead at the moment when things are so uncertain.


----------



## michaelm (3 Apr 2009)

Crunch your numbers after the budget.  Your husband's income would get a boost from the transfer of tax credits and part of your standard rate cut-off allowance, also there's the home carers tax credit (unless they scrap it).  Maybe you can take parental leave when your extended maternity leave ends.  I think that leaving a baby or young child in a crèche for almost 12 hours, five days a week, when not financially necessary, would be regrettable.


----------

