Recently a coworker and I were discussing how his wife would not be returning to work simply based on the fact that child care was too expensive. At the rate it would cost her to place the child in daycare and go to work, she’d actually be “losing” money. Simply put: If you compare dollar to dollar, it may not make any sense to go to work if you’re going to pay out more than you take in. As a parent, I can definitely tell you - kids are expensive! They eat a lot of food, wear a lot of clothes, need a lot of entertainment, and require a lot of stuff. It wasn’t that long ago that my wife and I had to make the same kind of decision ourselves. At the time, my wife was making around $1,000 net per paycheck. The cost of our daycare: … [Read more...] about Can You Afford to Work?