Jobs - wouldn't it be great?

It's no secret I want to work less and stay home more. DH likes this idea too, except for the reality that we haven't yet figured out a realistic way to afford it.

I'm wondering more and more if we could possibly pull off something clever with contract work long-term, so that I spend 6 months at home and DH spends 3 months at home each year, with 3 months where we both work and the children are in care - sort of a reverse-summer-break.

This would actually work as a two-year cycle to maximize the time DH and I can spend at each job. In other words, DH would work for 18 months straight and I would work for 1 year straight, with three months of overlap at each end.

A plan like this has a number of hang-ups, and I've already thought of probably 90% of them and come up with decent solutions for most that I've thought of, with ease. However, there is one thing that absolutely must be in place before we deliberately attempt this, something that I am less sure how to handle:

Debt-free with three to six months expenses in the bank.

This is where this plan gets tough. A plan like the one I described has significant financial risk every three to six months, and we MUST have some buffer space! To get this, DH and I will need to work simultaneously for roughly two years netting $20K per year above our non-debt expenses before we can even start (obviously, we're not including mortgage debt here!). There are other ideas, but none that we can count on (e.g., start a business netting $20 to 30 K a year; have one of us work nights consistently; and so on). Even having us both work has a number of variables we can't control, like that DH has been looking for work for 8 months with no luck already and that childcare could eat through his income if hours don't work out.

Could we handle it? Is it worth it to put our kids in childcare for two years? Is there another way to get these $$?

Credit unions are neat

I finally started to take advantage of one of the benefits of our credit union: Free financial advising. I am very impressed by how much support we are getting right off of the bat!

I expected a quick, 15-minute conversation that would point us in the right direction and leave us to do the footwork. Instead, they are really taking a look with us at our budget (I had to fill out a long workbook with all the gory details) and then having us track our spending for the next month to make sure these numbers seem accurate - and they provided me with a handy Excel spreadsheet, which saves me the effort of having to make my own. The conversation is mostly over email, which is very convenient for everyone.

This is a big help for me, since it brings out my desire to "show off" in a good way - I want these people to be impressed by how quickly we get out of debt! It's not really all that different from setting up a financial partnership with friends to share finances and keep each other on track, but this way I know we're not inconveniencing anyone. This is these fellows' jobs!