There is no way to guarantee that you will financially thrive, ever. But there is a way to plan and prioritize what matters to you and give yourself a better chance to thrive financially as a one income household. For my family, being able to have kids and for my wife to be able to stay home if she wanted was always a consideration, if not a probability. So, being able to live on one income is important. The thought has always been, if we were able to make it possible for us to be able to do more with our money, to stretch it further, we wanted to give ourselves every possibility for that to be the case.
Money may not make you happy, but lack of money can make you miserable. For most, personal finances and work seem to be the least satisfying or at least the most stressful part of many people’s lives. Most of those very same people – the miserable ones – are those who are making over $80,000 a year. In other words, people who shouldn’t be complaining about their lack of money do. In most cases, there is plenty of income coming in, it is only a matter of considering a full strategy for what you want and then creating a plan for it.
The best way I know to financially thrive in a one income household is to have no expenses. My wife and I pursued this goal from the moment we were married. We paid off our college debt in our first year of marriage and then began saving for our first home. We bought less than a year later and made it a goal to have our house paid off early. We paid off our mortgage in less than 8 years. So, at the end of it, 9 years into our marriage, we had all of our debt paid off.
How did we do it? When we were first married we had no kids and we both worked. Between the two of us, double income no kids, that’s the most you will make during your early marriage years. It takes time to build your career and see growth at work. Sometimes, like in my case, it took many years. Ha. If you determine your priorities, you can prioritize living on one income even when you have two incomes. Make a budget and a plan that you follow. Plan to live on one income. But even more than making a plan, we talked about what we wanted our future to look like. We wanted her to have the option to stay home once we had kids. I wanted to be able to pursue entrepreneurial business ideas at some point. I wanted to be able to work hard early and then move into investing more and having the option to not work extra jobs or be strapped for money once my kids got into their school years and beyond. I also hoped to have rental homes at some point. But I wanted to be able to do all of this with cash. These are all hopes. No one knows what will actually happen.
In order to be able to do these things later, we knew we had to be diligent with money in the early years. We knew though it might be hard for the first while it would pay off later. We did not renovate our house. We did not buy a bunch of rental properties and try to do tricks with money and find creative financing. We simply paid for what we could afford and we knew what we wanted.
After my wife chose to stay home with kids, there were years where my work was very rocky. For years I personally made less than the average household income in Texas. Sometimes, a lot less. And yet every month we paid extra on the house with my income. For several years in a row, when we had little money and our kids were little, I taught adjunct at a local college one night a week and put all of it directly on the house. We continued to live off of one income, and whatever else came in, we paid directly on the house. We were able to scrounge up money in order to pay it down.
To me, there is a few simple steps to financially thrive in a one income household.
- What do you want out of life? What matters most to you and your family? What would you like be able to do in the future?
- Make a plan for what you will spend. I.E. set a budget to be in control of how you spend your money. Set up systems to stick with the plan.
- It’s better to own than rent (when you are putting down roots). The first area to apply this to is your primary residence. Set down roots and seek to own if you plan to be somewhere longer than 5 years.
- Pay off your expenses one at a time. This will allow you to focus your energy on one at a time. Do whatever you need to in order to make this happen while not sacrificing what is most important to you.
- Have more kids.
Yes, number 5 is have more kids. This all comes back to the initial idea, knowing what your priorities are will force you to focus. If you are focused on what matters and a good steward with your money, you can financially thrive no matter how many kids you have. That is, if you are married, love Jesus and are pursuing a relationship with Him, and want to financially thrive, I can’t think of a better way to keep you grounded and focused than having more kids. I can’t think of a better way to engage in discipleship than in your own home, with your own kids. Having kids is spiritually formative and encourages your own maturity as an adult. Kids also keep you grounded and not out spending lavishly. Your time is invested in your family, kids basketball games, their school events, church, etc. Lastly, there is evidence that having more kids increases happiness.
If you make a plan and pursue it with your finances, you will thrive. Make a plan, set down roots, and have kids. Focus on what matters in your home, in your community, and do good at work. And follow the steps I outlined above. If you do, you will be able to financially thrive even as a one income household.