How can I make a comfortable income from home

[Sweetly1]

Hi Ladies I want to find out what ladies are doing to make a comfortable income around their primary school children and still have time for family? Kindly advise?

What is a “comfortable” income to you ?

How much time would you like for family, what would a day, a week, look like for you ideally? For me my job works, I work 4 days a week pretty flexibly, and go into the office 1-2 days a week. I can spread my hours around and as long as I get the work done and can attend meetings when needed I can work anytime really so am around for some drop offs and pick ups and can go to school events. I’m a consultant in a global company, £60k part time salary.

These sorts of threads are like a klaxon going off to the MLM huns.

Well, what’s your starting point? Current profession, qualifications, interests etc.

What’s a comfortable income for you and what experience/qualifications do you have?

Same as the this poster…but I work full time . I have flexi time and wfh 2-3 days a week do only use afterschool 2-3 days a week. It works for me, not a majorly stressful job and I earn 50k base.

You’ll need to be much clearer to get helpful responses. What do you mean by ‘around the kids’ and ‘time for family’, what hours are you considering, what have you done before, any qualifications?

Looking for a 9.30 to 2.30 wfh job is very specific and therefore harder to find. Local office job probably easier to find. How flexible are you?

My experience is working in administration my last job was working as a Business administrator for social services 15 years ago. I recently did a teaching assistant level 2 course and I'm currently doing a intensive Business Administration course

I work 4 days a week and am expected in the office minimum 1 day per week but beyond that I manage my own time and no one checks up on my whereabouts as long as I get the work done. £60k pro rata as lower management in a consultancy firm.

50k per year

My best advice is to find a job with a a company that offers flexibility and wfh and start from there

Yeah, I think you’re going to be unlucky with that one if you haven’t worked for 15 years.

This is what I would say too. I am hybrid though I pick when I go in - there's no stated requirement, so I go maybe 4-6 times a month depending on what's going on but even then it's planned around school runs. I am FT but nobody bats an eyelid that I do all the school runs etc.

Yes. I await an influx.

I think you will struggle with anywhere near that, especially WFH, after 15 years out of the jobforce.

Buisness Admin jobs are available fully remote but in my experience not well paid (25-28k). You would do better getting some specific skills, ie data or project management. There is then scope to earn more. Look on Charity Job or the work from home hub for ideas of roles

I think you need to be realistic, based on your updates you have admin experience and experience as A TA, and you want to earn £50k a year working from home around primary school children and with a good work/life balance.

• Would you be able to work full time hours?
• What has your last 5 yrs work experience looked like?
• Do you have any qualifications or specialist skills?

I earn very very well and work from home, but it’s in a specialist role, at a company I’ve worked for for 16 yrs so I’ve built up a huge amount of goodwill and as a result I can flex my hours however I like and everyone knows I’ll get shit done so they don’t bother me about it.

Part time, home based admin roles you’d be looking at close to NMW so no where near £50k and to get into that salary bracket you’d need to be offering a skill or experience set that is niche or highly valued.

Anyone on mn who doesn't earn more than 30k! Is everyone posting 50 - 60K wfh and revolve round primary age kids for real. Nobody seems to say struggling to make ends meet, relying on others to look after kids and also get uc. Or do these type of folk not use mn.
Just an observation really

If you've been out of work for 15 years I think it will be harder to hit that £50k per annum that you've mentioned. I'm nowhere near £50k and I HAVE been working for the last 15 years. What's the equivalent salary for the role you had 15 years ago? In my sector, in arts administration it would've been £17k 15 years ago and about £26k now for full time. Sounds like your version of comfortable is different. If you're not working at all now, surely anything will be worth your while.

Yes I am for real, no I don’t rely on anyone else except my dh. He does his share of drop off and collections. He also has flexi time but not as much wfh as he is in a supervisory role (not main management though) and he is on over 70k. We work for the same organisation.

I run a business and have several administrators, all of whom we need to work in our office for at least 60% of the time and we pay between £35-40K depending on experience. I wouldn't be employing anyone who has not been in work for 15 years at all.

I think you need to be realistic given how long it's been since you worked. You could look for an administration job that allows flexibility / WFH but unlikely to be anywhere near £50k. The job market is very competitive at the moment, you'll be up against people with far more experience, and more recent.

Remote working is becoming harder to find.

The job maket right now is absolutely dire so many people are looking for work
I’ve been searching and it’s not easy. Have to lower expectations etc I can’t see you getting 50k in this market.

I think your salary expectations are unrealistic (even if you mean 50k pro-rata adjusted down for part time hours).

I have a friend who worked as a "virtual PA" school hours 3 days a week until her daughter was at secondary. That was quite a good fit though I dont think she was on more than 30k pro rota and she had at least 15 years office admin experience.

You could possibly look into becoming a claims handler for an insurer. I know a lot of people who work in insurance and it's mainly WFH and going into the office once a fortnight for the team meeting. Quite flexible and not expected to work more than contracted hours. But again not well paid.

If you want to earn more you probably need a particular skill/qualification/experience.

Sorry but you sound wildly unrealistic and somewhat entitled. Who on earth do you imagine is going to pay you £50k for working flexibly around your children, from home, when you haven’t worked in years and have some basic admin qualifications. I don’t mean to be unkind but it sounds like you’re living in cloud cuckoo land.

You quite often see these posts from women who have decided the time is right to step back into paid work after a long time out but clearly aren’t willing to sacrifice any time with their kids or not be able to keep up with the housework so the idea of commuting to a workplace or using childcare is absurd. And of course it needs to make a massive difference to the family finances so needs to be at least triple NMW 🙄 I want to be supportive of people trying to get back into the workplace but honestly, it’s like they’ve been on another planet. The world doesn’t owe you a massively paid, flexible and convenient career which doesn’t have any impact on your family life and the people that have those unicorn jobs have usually obtained them by staying in the workplace and working their arses off while juggling nursery bills etc. If people could take years out and the just sashay back into a decently paid and flexible job that could
play second fiddle to their kids, then everyone bloody would!

Honestly, the entitlement is next level.