Yesterday, I had to let our nanny go. It was really hard, since she’s been with us for three years. However, in a nice twist of events, our family is going to get to spend more time together.
When I mentioned that Scott was considering switching to a new career, but ultimately passed on the opportunity, I casually mentioned that we were tossing around some other ideas…
We finally decided our plan for the upcoming year. After the baby is born this summer, Scott is going use FMLA to cut back his work schedule for the next year. He’s going to take off a month, then work 4 days a week until next summer.
He’ll still be entitled to full benefits. His leave will be unpaid, but since we’ll both be home, we’re going to let our nanny go, which will free up about $7,000 per year. (Even after I quit my job, we kept our nanny on two mornings per week so that I could write.)
Once you consider taxes, retirement contributions, and the cost of our nanny, our monthly cash flow won’t actually be reduced by much!
However, the part that is the most exciting right now is that he’ll be able to enjoy life even more, by working less!
By the way, we gave our nanny 3 months notice so that she’ll have plenty of time to find another family. We didn’t want to cause her any money troubles by being out of work.
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I think you did it the best way possible. You also made the right decision for your family. Good luck with the baby!
April 29th, 2009 at 8:55 am
Thanks for the link.
Best of luck with the new change. If it creates more family time, it’ll be worth it for sure.
April 29th, 2009 at 11:04 am
not really firing, but letting go.
The current potential savings I see, but most companies would not likely promote you after that and would like to fire you, but cant.
So long term you will could lose a lot. A better option would be to work at night on the website, let the nanny go, and have him work full time.
April 29th, 2009 at 11:25 am
That’s sounds great, “more life, less work.” It’s exactly what I have going on right now, and done in much the same way – by deliberate planning and calculated decision-making.
You also did very well by your nanny. What a great way to do it. Everybody wins and no one is caught off guard. She’ll be glad to help out when you need to because of your considerate manner.
Clair
April 29th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
Thanks for the mention
. Best wishes ahead.
Cheers,
FIRE
April 29th, 2009 at 3:13 pm