Surviving the crunch
Category : blog
How to face the biggest financial burdens—family costs and a mortgage—at the same time
Julie and Noel Bond seemed well on their way to realizing the Canadian dream when they moved east of Vancouver to the small community of Mission in 2014 so they could afford a three-bedroom house for their growing family. They now have two pre-school children and are expecting a baby in March.
While Julie plans to stay home to look after the kids for a year after the baby’s birth, the couple face a tricky financial dilemma over what to do after that. For Julie to return to her part-time $30,000-a-year teaching job would be pointless because her entire paycheque would be eaten up by child-care costs. But the $80,000 a year Noel earns as a railway worker isn’t enough by itself to cover the mortgage and other expenses if Julie stays home to look after the kids. Whether Julie, who is 36, returns to her old job or stays home, they expect ongoing expenses to exceed take-home pay by about $1,000 a month. That leaves Julie looking for solutions and wondering, “What will my family do?”
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