Reply to Dual 400k incomes vs single 400k income

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]One curved argue that two 200 K incomes has some advantages over a single $400k.

There is implicit stability and having two earners, so that if one gets laid off, sick or disabled there’s still some money coming in.

It can also breed a more equitable relationship, but it’s not a requirement many breadwinner families are equitable

But in general most$400k Jobs are very demanding with long hours of stress and travel versus you could have two almost lifestyle jobs if they are split, like two Fed workers. I don’t really buy the claim that some people work 80 hours, but it is possible that the aggregate labor of our worked and both cases is very similar.

In general though, I feel feel like a single breadwinner is the better arrangement. [/b]But we are dual income, so maybe it’s just grass greener.[b][/quote]

I’m part of a dual income household and have wondered about this too.

I think there are benefits to having 1 person freed up to manage all the house/kid stuff so the other can focus on work. Also, with 1 income you’re paying lower payroll taxes, not having to shell out for childcare, and the single earner gets a lower tax rate than they would were they unmarried. So there’s definite perks to this.

But on the other hand, I also like that my DH and I are fairly equal earners (me a fed making ~150k and him in private sector making 175k + bonuses). Both jobs are decent paying, but not so high income as to be stressful. It’s rare that we ever work more than a 40 hour week. No work travel. Both fully remote. We can manage our hours to not need aftercare and DH can be off in time to coach the kids’ sports practices at 5:30 pm.

Also, there are 2 of us saving for retirement, and if one of us gets sick/cannot work otherwise we still have 1 income to fall back on. It also makes it easier to fall into a good division of labor around the house because once the workday is over we are both on second shift duty whereas some breadwinners seem to think the SAHP is supposed to be “working their duties” 24/7 while the working person is done once their job ends. I would not be very happy if all the cooking, doctors’ appointments, camp signups, etc. fell to me (conversely there are some working moms who are expected to take on all the household duties as well so that also sucks and may be more of a marriage issue than employment status issue).

If you can find 1 high earning, but very secure job that offers lots of flexibility/minimum stress and travel; AND the working person is an equal household contributor/you can afford to outsource things, that is a pretty good setup I imagine. But that is a unicorn scenario and you better hope that the marriage works out long term.[/quote]

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