With our particular fields, we're pretty much limited to major metro areas just to be able to work, and I don't think there's a single one that pays just one of us enough for me to stay home. P's job pays just barely above the self-sufficiency threshold for a family in the area. With no emergencies, we could have scraped by until June, and as it was, we had to raid the 401k to make it that far.
(While it might have been slightly different were we not homeowners, rents are high enough that when I was contemplating a sell-and-rent strategy last year at the height of my money panic, I realized and took comfort from the fact that, really, that wouldn't save our rears. We did look at living outside the city way back when, but as we're a single-car family, and the surrounding communities aren't hugely cheap, commuting costs would have eaten up any mortgage savings.)
I can't remember: did you read The Two Income Trap?
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2006-02-07 08:33 pm (UTC)(While it might have been slightly different were we not homeowners, rents are high enough that when I was contemplating a sell-and-rent strategy last year at the height of my money panic, I realized and took comfort from the fact that, really, that wouldn't save our rears. We did look at living outside the city way back when, but as we're a single-car family, and the surrounding communities aren't hugely cheap, commuting costs would have eaten up any mortgage savings.)
I can't remember: did you read The Two Income Trap?