Can confirm it's possible. Iowa/Illinois/Wisconsin tri-state area for me. My wife stays at home with our two sons. I bring home the bacon. Bought a modest house out of college for $100K (with only 5% down) in 2010 and will have it paid off before 2020. I paid my own way through public university - $12k/yr for 4 years - left with $22k debt which is long gone.
A lifestyle business is the next goal. I've been doing part-time contract work for almost 5 years now in addition to a 9-5, and I'm really just dying to be my own boss and not have to commute (a whopping 10 minutes) to the office 5 days a week, as well as not have to deal with startup bureaucracy and artificial feel-goodery.
Yes, but you have to compromise sometimes and you need to be willing to live somewhere with a lower cost of living (ie: probably not in a big city). Get your family out of debt as much as possible first then reduce your monthly costs as much as you can. Be sure you have a reasonable amount of savings in the bank to cover some unexpecteds and be sure you and your partner/family/kids are all on board for making this kind of life change.
You probably don't really need the fastest Internet connection at home, cable/satellite TV, an unlimited cell phone plan, a new(er) car, to eat out more than once a month, to buy local/organic all the time, the newer technology things, or pretty much any monthly subscription services.
Go play outside and run around with your kids. Go to the library (they probably have lots of books, movies, music, and even video games to borrow for free!). Cook all your own food. Fix your own car/bike. Borrow things from friends/neighbors when you need a special tool. You can do it!
> Yes, but you have to compromise sometimes and you need to be willing to live somewhere with a lower cost of living (ie: probably not in a big city).
I think this is trading off too much for cost of living vs income. As I said in a sibling thread, our family is on one (software engineer) income in central Austin. We walk to most things, we own a big home and a yard, but I don't optimize for cost of living, I guess. Austin pays well enough, and we live with all the amenities on a single income.
In reply to your comment, we also have a super fast internet connection, unlimited cell phone plans, and go out to eat often. None of these things add up to even close to the difference in salary we get in Austin vs being in the middle of nowhere. I am all for reducing the time you spend working so you can be around family, but if you are working ~40 hours for a low salary and making up for it by cutting corners -- I'd much rather work my 40 in Austin and have it all.
If you're working 15-20 hours in the middle of nowhere and cutting corners, then that's another thing altogether.
My family lives in Portland, OR, which isn't nearly as expensive as (say) SF or NYC but has seen significant housing cost increases in the last 5-10 years. My wife works as a transportation consultant, which is a solidly white-collar/"knowledge" gig but pays far below what most tech gigs do. We could probably afford our essential costs (mortgage, taxes, car, insurance, etc.) on her income but we wouldn't have been able to buy a house here without the down payment that my technical work allowed us to pay, or the cash gift her parents gave us for our first (USDA-backed, 3.5%-down) home purchase.
My strong feeling is that most places with a robust employment market price most single-income households out b/c the expectation is now that you at _least_ have two earners. Kids take another chunk out of your "competitiveness" because of childcare, cost-of-living, and increased demands on your time (making it harder to really "excel" at work).
I have to agree - I was reading Ha-Joon Chang who was saying this is why salaries have been flat since the 70s - basically household incomes have grown as one income became two. And of course the washing machine and other household goods have enabled so much time saving that women could go out to work
But it does not quite balance out - households rarely have two good incomes, and the time costs still hurt.
Yes, it still exists in the US. Suburbs of Texas, and middle America. If you have a decent education and are willing to forego urban amenities and public transportation, you can do it. You'll need to work at a large corporation to have good health insurance though.
This lifestyle isn't for everyone though, myself included, but definitely seen many European families move to suburbs of Houston for energy jobs and they seem to enjoy the different lifestyle (pool in backyard, heat, etc)
I live in (very) central Austin with my wife and kids on one income. I escaped the suburbs of my childhood, too, (and wouldn't recommend them to anyone) but I don't understand how a software engineer income doesn't support a family in an urban area between the coasts.
It's funny; I'm thinking of moving back to TX. I'be been living cheap in the SF Bay Area, saving a bunch, planning on starting a tech business of my own someday. But it's so expensive out here. My savings would go so much farther back in Austin.
I spent so much time and effort getting out of TX, and now I'm going right back. Ironic.
True that, as a person who grew up outside of Houston, I have only been to Austin a handful of times, and hated every time I went. Its too "weird" for me. I love the Texas History Museum, and Barton Springs, though, and made a point to visit both every time (if I could find parking).
Yikes. That marketing campaign is so overblown. If you really found Austin weird I'm curious what your day to day is like.
> if I could find parking
Urban vs suburban. I'm willing to walk and want my kids to feel the same way. I remember suburban life well, and don't miss the superficial need for parking within 30 seconds (or 2 minutes) of your destination.
None of these were in protest, just typical Austoninan's from around 2003-2011
A procession of people crossing the upper level I-35 in wheelchairs... is weird.
Non-homeless and non-drunk people just sitting/laying down in the middle of the sidewalk on 6th Street, S Congress... is weird. I get it, it is too hot to walk in the summer, go inside, or to the springs.
Semi-Jokingly: Republicans in Austin... is weird.
But more than these specific things, its a lot of little oddities that didn't occur in more traditional places like Houston.
That said, I moved to NYC in 2015, so I can't claim Austin was THAT weird compared to what I saw every day for a couple of years before moving upstate.
Just don't live in London. Here in Newcastle a friend of mine bought a brand new house 3 years ago for 120k and he's paying it off and raising two kids on a salary of about ~40k/year. That's not unthinkable.
