Here at Affordable Living Today, we are big fans of having multiple streams of income. The more sources of income you have, the better your chances of avoiding financial ruin should one of those sources dry up. This is especially true for stay-at-home moms. Stay-at-home moms can make money without having to give up the reasons you chose to stop working.
If you are a stay-at-home mom, you are at particular risk. Not only are you at the mercy of your spouse’s income, but your own earning potential and retirement savings decreases substantially for every year you do not work. In many industries, any momentum in your career that you had before you left the workforce is completely wiped away. You basically have to start over if you decide to go back. The time you spend outside of the workforce can almost never be made up for financially. And what if something happens to your spouse?
Now, before I get inundated with comments saying that the rewards of being a stay-at-home mom are greater than any financial rewards you may get from work, let me say “I agree!”
I am NOT saying that being a stay-at-home mom is the wrong thing to do. If that’s what you want to do, if that’s the right choice for you and your family, then make it happen. I am fully supportive of that! But the statistics don’t lie.
What I’m trying to say is that being a SAHM doesn’t mean you have to give up all of your financial power. As stay-at-home moms, you CAN and SHOULD find a way to earn income while not in the workforce. You don’t have to get a job or put your kids in daycare. You don’t have to work 40 hours a week.
The beauty of working on your own online business is that you can set your own hours. You can work around your spouse’s schedule, your kid’s nap times, and so on. And even better? The sky is the limit when it comes to income.
Let me give you a couple of examples:
Rosemarie Groner was in the workforce when she had her first child. She knew then that she wanted more than anything to stay home. First, she started an in-home daycare. But, eventually, she made her way to the blogging world. Now she makes six figures a MONTH. Yes, per month, with her blogging business. You can find out more about her at The Busy Budgeter.
Ruth Soukup was a stay-at-home wife and mom with a bad spending habit. Her husband’s frustrations with her constant shopping led her to make some huge changes in her life. One of those changes was to start a blog called Living Well, Spending Less. Over time that has expanded and she now runs Elite Blog Academy, sells tons of products that she has created, and makes a seven-figure income with her company.
While these two women are very inspiring, you may be saying to yourself that you either don’t think you could ever do what they did, or that you don’t even want to do what they did. Maybe you’d be happy making an extra $500 a month. Well, I say “don’t sell yourself short.” What those women did was not easy, but it is not impossible. With the right tools and the right mindset, many of you could duplicate their results. However, if you don’t have those ambitions, that is fine as well! You certainly don’t have to build a big company or become internet famous in order to make money online. There are lots of people out there making a few hundred a month quietly from their own homes.
One way to do that is to become a virtual assistant. Virtual assistants work for other entrepreneurs doing a variety of administrative and technical tasks. You can specialize in just a few types of tasks if you’d prefer. Or, you can be a generalist and do a little of everything. One specialty VA that is becoming popular is a Pinterest VA.
Pinterest has become one of the best ways for bloggers and other online businesses to grow traffic to their sites. And traffic=money. So this is a hugely important task that can take hours each week. A Pinterest VA helps busy business owners use the power of Pinterest by doing the work for them. As a Pinterest VA, you will spend your time developing and implementing marketing plans using Pinterest. If you don’t really understand what that means, then I would recommend you take a look at the Pinterest VA course created by Gina Horkey. She only releases it a couple of times a year, so if it’s not for sale, get on her waiting list! This is a fun way to make money and can be done at any time of day. Whatever is convenient for you.
Of course this isn’t the only way to make money online. Blogging is another way to make money, but if you are looking to make money quickly, I would not recommend you spend your time on blogging yet. Blogging is a long-term game. You can make big money doing it. But, most likely, it will take many months of hard work before you start seeing any financial benefit. So, if you have the time, go for it. But if you want a faster return on your investment, consider something like virtual assisting or even freelance writing.
Stay-at-home moms, just remember that no matter what you are doing, you are rocking it in your own way. Don’t feel bad if you need to make money. And don’t feel bad if this is not the right time in your life for that. But, remember that there is an in-between that very few people talk about where you can be at home with your children and still have an income. Don’t ever feel like your only choices are to be at home not making any money or working full-time while putting your kids in daycare. There are plenty of women out there that have figured out this middle ground. Will you be one of them?
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