Hi all,
My DH and I are DINKs (dual income, no kids) both at age 30. I would say I am the frugal person in the relationship, and my DH, who happens to be a financial advisor, is definitely mindful of expenses, but is more lax on spending than I am. Next year, we plan on trying to conceive. We've always made the plan to start trying after I turn 30. And In preparation for that life-changing decision, I've proposed the idea of pretending to live on one income but continue to have two.
Here's why: 1) I haven't decided whether or not I want to take a break from work when I have a child, and I want to see what it's like to live on one income; 2) even if we don't decide to a single income family and I continue working, we have lots of financial goals that would benefit from aggressively saving with an extra paycheck, including ultimately FI, but in the short-term, moving from the suburbs and closer to the city to be closer to work and family, pay down car payment, etc.
I truly believe it's possible for us to move from a dual-income family to a single-income family because we're in pretty good financial shape. My husband, however, is hesitant to move to this model because he likes the comfort of splurging every now and then. Any tips on how convince your significant other to move to live off one income?
Below is some highlights to show why I think it's possible:
My takehome monthly income: $6,000
DH's takehome monthly income: $2,700
Our rental income: $875
My goal is to be extreme and start saving my income ($6000/month), and live off my DH's income as well as our rental income at a total of $3,575. This idea all started because I just got a 25% raise which gave me an extra $1,200 a month.
The thing is, with all of our bills and debt, it's totally possible to spend only $3,575 a month. I think because we have such little debt and so much income, we sometimes get lax on months and way overspend on dining out, entertainment, traveling. Although my original budget has always been around $3,600 a month, I actively manage our Mint.com and we sometimes spend up to $5,500 a month! It's easy to do with big events like friends' weddings, stress eating (all those pick-me-up coffees and too-lazy-to-cook-so-I'll-dine-out dinners), very occasional vacations to the beach, etc.
We realistically, without totally sacrificing our lifestyle, save $3,575, but my DH doesn't feel like we need to be "this extreme." How do I get him to agree that we really need to get our sh*t together and take the plunge to live off his income + our rental income? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!