Can I risk it and work 3 days rather than 5?

[Happjness]

I’m so fed up of working. I’m 40 and have a 4 year old. I have a good relationship with ex but he works a lot so I do everything for DD and she lives with me.

Ex pays me around 1,200 a month and will pay extra if needed for something significant (for example he bought DD a new bed last month). This 1,200 covers my mortgage and car running costs.

I have some savings of 45k. I owe 195k on my mortgage.

My parents are wealthy ish. They own 2 homes outright (worth around 1mil together) and also own 3 small rentals with small mortgages.

My parents often indicate that me and DSIS will be ok down the line as our mortgages will be paid off with inheritance and there will be extra to spend in retirement. I know things can happen and you can’t rely on inheritance…but would you risk it?

I hate working and being a mum on my own. It’s so hard. I am miserable. I have never been reckless and DD has stability because of it. But I am so tired. What would you do?

do it !

i can hear your exhaustion. So long as you are not running up debt (ie you can cover your day to day costs), do it now. Give yourself a breather so that you don’t burn out down the line.

all the best

Whether you reduce hours or not, you need to establish if there's something else contributing to your exhaustion.

I would use some savings to overpay the mortgage, but keep some just in case, between £5k and £10k. You would still be entitled to UC if you did that.

If I were you I'd go down to 4 full days or 3.5 days (either 7 days a fortnight or 3 full days and 1 shorter day each week, so you can do school pick up twice a week).