Bi-weekly paycheck

For the first few years of my marriage, I worked. I was paid to write and loved my job. I worked for television stations trying to promote their late night newscast. It was a great job and very rewarding.

But, I got pregnant and being a stay at home mom was a no-brainer for me.

I wanted to be there for all of the milestones my kids experienced. I wanted to see his first smile, see her first steps, change all the dirty diapers, take her to the park, push him down the slide, everything, I wanted to do it all. But my husband was still in school and we both wanted him to finish his degree, so we moved across the country for him to work in Real Estate with an established Realtor. 

 

He continued to go to school all day and show property during the evenings. We did not think that commission work would be the end-all, but we didn’t think it would be as hard as it was either. He would work and work all summer long, make really good money and be very busy. Then the cold dreary winter would set in and no one wanted to buy a house. He couldn’t even get people to look at a house. So we would have to be creative, we would buy Christmas and birthday presents in August and save up enough money to last us for 5-6 months until his next commission paycheck came. This was no way to live.

Now, my husband is done with school and has a full-time job. We get a paycheck every two weeks. It’s heaven on earth. It’s so comforting to know that every two weeks X amount of dollars will hit our checking account. I know that if money is tight because of an unexpected doctor bill, we’ll be getting more money on Thursday. I know that my babies will always have food to eat. I know we’ll have a roof over our head. I can budget. 

Don’t get me wrong, there are great things about commission work. You don’t work for “the man”.  The sky’s the limit when it comes to how much money you make. If you don’t want to work one day, you don’t have to. I get all of these reasons to be self-employed, but when you’re working Real Estate and the bottom drops out of the market, it’s no way for a family to live. 

It’s amazing what consistency can do for my self-proclaimed worrying.

Do you prefer commission work or a steady paycheck?