Business4Moms

Another Economic Casualty

I have a confession to make.  I am no longer a work at home mom.  Well, not exactly, at least not full time anymore.  I love working from home, and would do it again in a heartbeat – but. . .

I made a H U G E mistake.

What was that mistake?  Thinking too small.

Let me explain.  I was a work at home mom, full time.  I loved it, and I made enough money that I didn’t have to work outside the home. For eight wonderful years while my husband worked full time, I was at home full time.  Then it happened, the fall of 2008.  My husband lost his job, that also provided us our housing at no charge, and we were left living on my income.  And while my income was a great second income, it just didn’t cut it as a sole provider income.

It’s my own fault really.  I’m sure that I had chances over the last 8 years to increase my work load so that I could provide in case of an economic crisis, but I didn’t ever think I would need to.  So we both went out to look for work, and unfortuneately I won!  (I happen to have a specialized advanced degree, so I kind of knew I would) And now my husband gets to be the one that gets to stay at home with the kids and work on building up his home based business and I get to work full time outside the home, until his home income and my home income is enough for me to quit.

The Solution?

Even if you work at home, don’t get lazy.  Pick up the pace now, things happen.  Not just bad economic things, but illness, and unfortuenately, even death.  Start working your business now and grow it not just to where you can quit your job and stay at home, but keep after it and push it to the limit so that it can be the sole provider for your family.  And the best way to achieve this is through residual income. 

More on residual income later.

But what about you – do you make enough to be the sole provider for your family if you had to?