Hello! I’m back this week with a new Home Economics. Before I dive in, I want to remind everyone that paid subscribers get an extra edition of Home Ec each month. The September paid edition features a family of five in the Bay Area living on $205,000 a year.
Lindsey Stanberry
The monthly giveaway is back! Paid subscribers are automatically entered to win a copy of Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe and the newly released paperback edition of A Healthy State of Panic by Farnoosh Torabi, along with some fun supplies to keep those back-to-school vibes going into October. And I’m choosing TWO winners this month!1
Anyone who’s a regular reader of Home Economics knows that I try hard to share a range of women with different backgrounds, incomes, and experiences. And increasingly, I look for submissions that fit with bigger economic stories that I see circulating, like when I featured the college professor last month who doesn’t have kids. I read her entry and immediately thought, “Here’s a childless cat lady!” But in sharing her story, it was easy to see she’s so much more than that.
Today’s Home Ec writer is 35 and single and lives with her parents. Of course, there are so many stigmas that come along with being single and living at home after a certain age. Insert rude stereotype [spinster, failure to launch, freeloader] here. But as I was editing this story, I came across a social media post from Ellevest about a study that found single women are happier than married women with children. The study is a bit dated (2019), but at the same time, the findings feel timeless. It’s not that surprising to me that research suggests that marriage is a better deal for men than it is for women.
I love my life, but I definitely felt a slight twinge of jealousy when interviewing the writer of today’s Home Ec. I mean, I want to spend three weeks touring Europe by myself! Yes, please! And as she pointed out on our phone call, if people weren’t spending five figures to send their kids to daycare, they too could be going on very nice vacations2. Too true, too true, as my kid would say.
More and more people are also living at home in multigenerational households. Chris Farrell did a series of stories for Marketplace this spring about the trend, and he reported that the number of people living in multigenerational households has quadrupled to nearly 60 million people between 1971 to 2021.
I know a lot of people cringe at the idea of living at home with their parents, but I’m all for this trend, at least from an economical standpoint. Considering the housing crisis we’re facing in the U.S. and the number of aging boomers living in huge homes all alone, it makes sense for more kids to return home rather than spend huge chunks of their paychecks to live alone. And if boomer parents have the means to support their millennial children so they can prioritize saving for the future (and having a little fun), why not?
I know a lot of people are going to disagree with me on this! I could be wrong! But it’s something I think a lot about. Let me know what you think in the comments!
And without further ado, here is today’s Home Ec! Enjoy!
Age: 35
Location: Phoenix, Arizona
Relationship status: Single
About me: I’m child-free by choice, and I love to travel. After a decade of living on my own in different cities across the U.S., I moved back in with my parents in 2016. It was supposed to be a short stay, but eight years later, I’m still there. I’m very lucky to be able to live with them, as it allows my salary to go a lot further, and I can prioritize travel and saving for retirement.
Income:
- Your job title/salary: Marketing director; $93,000
- Your monthly take-home pay (paycheck amount after taxes and other deductions): $4,301.16
- Other income: ~$1,000 a month. I have one steady consulting client, and I will occasionally take on one-off projects, but the rates and frequency of those vary. I don’t count this in my total monthly income.
- Total monthly income: $4,301.16
