Stay at Home vs Working Moms

Many working moms working regular jobs often wonder which is better being a stay at home vs working moms. Stay at home vs working moms often forego the stream of income that might be needed to support the family. While working moms with regular jobs bring home more income up front, being a stay at home mom does have its advantages over being a working mom. To compare stay at home vs working moms, we examine the followings.

Stay at home vs working moms comparison chart

Stay at home moms	Working moms
Not working regular 9-5 jobs	Working regular 9-5 jobs
Lots of time to spend with children	Little time to spend with children
No nanny cost, day care, or child care	Paying alot for nanny, day care, or day care
No transportation costs	Transportation costs
No work related clothing costs	Need to spend money to look professional
No eating out costs	Eating out costs
No unexpected work related costs	Always misc costs

Nanny / child care or day care cost can be hefty

While being a working mom, you earn some money to bring home, you will have to spend almost as much (or more) on child care or day care for your children. On top of that, you are not spending any time with your children. Child care cost is a very important factor when deciding between stay at home vs working moms.

What to consider when comparing between stay at home vs working moms

Not only the above expenses need to be considered when comparing stay at home vs working moms, there are other expenses to consider. When working moms spend alot of time outside of their homes, there are often unexpected expenses. When you add up all these expenses, you should wonder if it makes sense to stay at home instead of working a regular job. You can easily spend $1000 a month on child day care and other expenses alone. That means you need to be making more than $12,000 a year just to cover all the expenses that a stay at home mom does not have to worry about. Also, most of these expenses will be paid with after tax dollars. That means, you need to be making alot more or you cannot afford to pay the IRS.