Childcare vs. staying home
Could Working Less Be More Affordable Than You Think?
Comparing a salary with childcare costs only tells part of the story. Explore different income and childcare scenarios together to see what they could mean for accessible cash, retirement, college funding, and other goals. Working less is not necessarily the better financial choice.
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Example: Staying home or working part-time
More time at home. What could it mean for your financial goals?
Income and childcare costs are adjusted in each scenario.
Scenario AStay home · five years
Scenario B$36,000/year · part-time
- Projected retirement age
- 6564
- College funding
- 50%54%
- Lowest accessible cash
- $0
Part-time work improves two projections, but accessible cash still reaches $0.
Compare income and childcare together. Find the balance that works for your family.
Illustrative projections for a sample household. Your results will depend on your circumstances and assumptions.
The decision
It's more than salary versus childcare.
If one parent stops working, household income goes down.
But childcare costs may go down too.
Taxes may change.
Everyday spending may change.
Retirement savings and other goals may be affected.
Simply comparing one parent's paycheck to the daycare bill doesn't tell you what the decision means for your family's financial future. Wealth Coach helps you see the bigger picture.
Run it on your numbers
Your choices. Their financial impact.
Explore how different assumptions could affect your goals.
How Wealth Coach helps
Compare two paths for your family.
Compare staying home with working part-time, considering income and childcare together. Explore projected effects on retirement, college funding and available cash. Your family decides how those tradeoffs fit its priorities.
Accessible Cash
Would your family continue to have enough money available?
Keep money free for unexpected expenses and life changes, even after moving to one income.
Retirement
Could moving to one income change when you can comfortably retire?
See whether the reduced savings moves the year you can stop working, and by how much.
College
Could the decision affect how much of your children's college you can fund?
Understand how one income changes your ability to provide the education you envision.
Other Goals
What would one income mean for everything else you're working toward?
See how the decision ripples through every goal on your timeline, not just the monthly budget.
Start by seeing where you stand. Free.
Your financial overview is free. Use Premium or an eligible trial to explore how this decision could affect your goals.
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3–5 minutes
Create your initial financial profile in as little as 3–5 minutes.
Your own numbers
Personalized insight into how you’re tracking.
Build it once. Use it for every “what if?” that comes next.
See where you standWe built the financial decision tool we couldn’t find.
Wealth Coach combines highly customizable financial scenarios with approximately 250,000 interconnected formulas to help you understand how one decision could affect your other financial goals.
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Run both paths on your numbers.
Set up your financial picture and goals once. Then compare continuing with two incomes against having one parent stop working and see how each choice could affect your family's financial future. Free to start.
Wealth Coach provides illustrative projections. Not financial advice.
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