Primary household earner?

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I am curious. How many nurses are the full time primary household earner? In other words, if you quit your job for a lessor paying job, would your currnet housing/health insurance/food on the table situation fold?

Specializes in Health Information Management.

Right now I'm in school (HIM, not nursing), so my husband is the breadwinner. He's a print journalist, so we run our household on luck, second-hand clothes, and coupons. Once I'm done with my bachelor's degree, I'll make at least what he does now and within a few years I should make around double his income. So we'll both have time being the family breadwinner, and our son will be brought up to see that it doesn't matter who brings home the most money - everyone in the family contributes time and effort to make things run smoothly.

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For now, I'm the primary household earner. My hubby is going back to school. He'll be done in two years. So it would be awful if I lost my job.

I have an opportunity to do the type of nursing I enjoy (Psych) that would be 3 - 12 hour shifts, but I'm meeting resistance from my hubby. The drive will be 1 1/2 hour drive to and then also from work (we live in the midwest so snow can make the drive longer) it's third shift and they offered me the lowest pay on their scale. Right now, I work on a med/surg unit (I don't want to do this type of nursing for any longer than necessary) on second shift and is only 1/2 drive. It depresses me when I think about it. Ughhhhh! I don't know what to do, I know what I want, but I have to think about everyone, hubby and family.

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For now, I'm the primary household earner. My hubby is going back to school. He'll be done in two years. So it would be awful if I lost my job.

I have an opportunity to do the type of nursing I enjoy (Psych) that would be 3 - 12 hour shifts, but I'm meeting resistance from my hubby. The drive will be 1 1/2 hour drive to and then also from work (we live in the midwest so snow can make the drive longer) it's third shift and they offered me the lowest pay on their scale. Right now, I work on a med/surg unit (I don't want to do this type of nursing for any longer than necessary) on second shift and is only 1/2 drive. It depresses me when I think about it. Ughhhhh! I don't know what to do, I know what I want, but I have to think about everyone, hubby and family.

Turn the tables. If you were in your husband's shoes, would you want him on the road 3 hours PLUS a 12 hour shift? Maybe this could happen when your husband has completed school.

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I make more than he does and we could survive on just my income (not a lot of extras though). Before I started working as a nurse I made not quite half of my current income and if I went back to that we'd be ok but I have to work. We aren't married so we each carry our own insurance.

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Otessa, you make a good point! But I have schoolage kids, too. I see them max two evenings a week and two days on the weekend I'm off....so every other weekend but they're at the ages where they like to do things with their friends, too. This would enable me to see them more often and to be able to go to their activities.

On a side note, I've supported my husband through lots of things and never being a naysayer. If it was the wrong decision, I never said "I told you so". I allowed him the opportunity to give it a go because you just don't know how things will turn out. I also didn't want him to resent me for not allowing him to try.

He's talked to others for their opinion, but he hears only what he wants to hear. LOL We could both be listening to the same person and both have different synopsis of what was said!

My husband made the decision to go to a school that is an hours drive away and back to get his degree. He could have chosen to go to a great school in our town and it would have cost less, but he did what he wanted.

Am I wrong for feeling unsupported?

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Specializes in acute care med/surg, LTC, orthopedics.

Hubby has the cushy job with perks and benefits I could never get in a million years of nursing. But that's okay because it gives me the ability to work part-time/casual at multiple hospitals so I can pick and choose my shifts thus spending more time with the kids and toy poodle. Hubby is whipped in all the right ways so I don't really mind being second banana.

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Specializes in Correctional Nursing, Orthopediacs.

I am currently the major breadwinner. This is a relatively new occurance. My hubby works but the bad economy has really hurt his employment chances. I hold all insurance. He is going to go to school starting next fall and work part time. If I lost my job, it would be horrible for our finances.

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Specializes in School Nursing.

DH is the main breadwinner, but due to the economy we now need both checks to survive. He is in sales, and before everything tanked he made all by himself what we now make together! My checks were just bonus "play money", or for paying down debt. He still makes about 1 1/2 times what I make, though. I am hoping things turn around soon so we can get back to paying down debt again and not just paying the monthly bills. We each have insurance through our respective companies, as it was cheaper that way (we have no kids).

I try very hard to be thankful about how blessed we are, even with his drop in income. We have everything we need and basically everything we want. The bills are paid and we have some left over for fun. We are very, very blessed.

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My wife is the primary breadwinner. I am going back to school for my RN next year. We both work at the same place, I as a mental health worker, she as the RN. I make $18.50 an hour, she makes $35.00 an hour. We live in Canada so health insurence is a non issue. We will survive on her income when I go back to school and only work part-time. We have two children.

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Specializes in Psych, Med/Surg, LTC.

DH is our breadwinner. He makes about double (a little more than double, but not quite triple) what I do on an hourly basis as an RN. Nursing pay is pretty poor here. The local hospital starts RN's out at $17/hr, even if you have 5 years experience. I am working elsewhere now, but only per-diem around his schedule. We end up with the same amount of money in the end whether I work full-time or per-diem/weekends, since this way we don't have to pay for child care. :D So, it doesn't really make sense for me to work full-time right now, when I can be with the kids this way and have the same amount of $.

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Specializes in LTC, Med/Surg, Home Health.

I am the primary breadwinner. I carry the family's insurance and hope and pray I won't crack. Been under a great deal of pressure with everything! My husband is hoping to break into new career of sales this year. And I'm on my knees praying he will! I have one child and want another but not until we can get more money coming into the home!

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My husband supported our family while I was in school.... now I am working as a RN and he is staying home with our young kids. He plans to go back to school ASAP.

So yes, my income is our only income... without it we would have zero!

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