post divorce, if you were married for >10 years and don't remarry, you are entitled to a percentage of your spouse's Social Security benefit (assuming it's greater than your own - eg you were a SAH spouse).

Anonymous wrote:Keep in shape, join 3 churches and remarry well.

Love this post !

I am a SAHM. I worked full-time for 12 years before I went very part-time for 5 years and then became a full-time SAHM. During my working years, I maxed out my 401k. I have $200K in there at age 46. I also contributed to an IRA and still do (can do $5500 per year even if you don't work). My balance there is $125K.
It sucks to see my retirement savings slow down, but I feel good that I at least thought ahead and have a somewhat decent nest egg.

My husband who started saving for retirement way after I did, but doesn't have a break in work has surpassed
me in savings for retirement and will continue to do so.

I do somewhat regret stopping working because now that my kids are a bit older it's hard to find work. My kids are still in school, so I just want part-time and that seems even more difficult.

I don't worry about getting divorced or my husband screwing me over if we did. I actually take care of the finances, so he'd be hard- pressed to even know what we have, even though I try to get him interested; he is not.

We both have life insurance.

Note: If you are a SAHM with a small part-time business working from home, you can contribute to a SEP-IRA.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm pregnant with our second, and I'm thinking of SAH, but I am really nervous about reality of being a one income family. What if DH is injured or gets sick or worse? How do you plan for divorce (don't think its at all likely, but I don't live under a rock)? I can't imagine not contributing to a retirement plan and just hoping DH is there for me. Does everyone who SAH just have it so good that these aren't real worries? How did you plan?

Insurance on both of us for the dying and disabled bit.

I contribute the max allowed annually to an IRA, DH does 401k and IRA- both of us have been contributing for decades, so we are in danger of overfunding at this point.

Don't plan for a divorce, but there are things in place to assure an equitable distribution. The biggest issue would be the emotional fallout, especially for the DCs- but will be so no matter what ones working status is. A great many things do not point to divorce for us (married older, intact families, college educated, active in a religious congregation, similar world views, married for 19 years, have children.....). The only thing that is a negative statistically is the SN child- but we seem to be able to work as a team in that regard.

If you are worried about "the future" and both of you are on board with one of you staying at home, draw up an agreement and take it to a lawyer, so both of you are protected.

Great post pp. The SAHMs who have bothered to cover themselves don't get so heated about this topic.

If you don't work, what funds are you using to contribute to an IRA? Joint funds? Do you have separate IRAs?

We have separate IRAs. SAHspouses are allowed to contribute to their own IRAs using household income. We use our household income to fund both our IRAs. It is not a ton, $5k max until next year when I am 50, the max goes up.

We consider our household income to be both of ours. In our 19 years marraige, we have both worked, I have worked and DH has worked. Whatever the income is both of ours so it contributes to both of our IRAs.