DH wants to retrain need tips on losing his income!

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DH has been thinking about retraining as a teacher for a while but it means him being a student for a year with a nominal bursary which doesn't cover the fees let alone living expenses. He's the main breadwinner and even when qualified it would be a huge drop in our family income. I earn a good salary but it would only just cover our essentials as in mortgage, childcare (huge), energy, food, petrol, car, council tax. I really want to support him in this as I want him to be happy but I'm really worried about how we will cope financially and having to potentially sell our house and downsize, which I would do to trade off the worry. Has anyone done this and have any tips? We don't live a luxury lifestyle (camping holidays, no weekends away etc) but then equally, we're very fortunate in not having to worry about money. Am I being too anxious? I'm worried about being the main breadwinner too and the pressure it puts me under. I worry too that he might regret it five years down the line. What is teaching really like? Looks really stressful to me and badly paid!

sounds like a lot more homework is needed, not just for the training year but also for the future IF he decides to continue in teaching. Has he done some observations and trial runs?

you need to get your house valued and discuss the plan.

Has he considered schools direct or teach first? You don't have to be a student for a year. What subject could he teach? They need maths and physics teachers.

This is training on the job but in history, but he would still have to pay uni fees although £4K bursary offset against the £9k. Yes, we need to do more research and produce a budget. DH has to do a minimum 5 days in school so he will take leave for this. I've said this might convince him one way or another!

Schools direct and teach first pay you a salary so you don't have to pay uni fees

Can he delay it until your children are in school to save on childcare costs? That would also mean that you have got some time to save as much as possible to be a safety net for unexpected outgoings while he is studying.

If it's something he really wants to do then that's fine but he needs to consider the implications to his family of taking a massive pay cut too

My DH did this (different industry) but he had made financial provisions to cover 3 yrs of training and initial bad earnings. Had your DH put anything in place to enable this? Savings, investments etc? Why us he wanting to do this and what are the positives of making this switch? Ie. Less stress, following a lifelong dream etc? It sounds a bit ill thought out to be honest. Who takes a paycut and moves to a stressful job type when they have financial responsibilities unless there is a very serious and we'll thought out reason to.

If he really and truly wants to go into teaching, and depending on whether your finances are joint or not, save up for a year or more if necessary. See how you can live on a shoestring (or not).

If he's not willing to do this first then I would think it a bit selfish tbh.

Sometimes though we have to realise that although we may want our time again to retrain to follow our dreams, it's just not possible when you have responsibilities such as children and mortgages. You just have to get on with what you're doing until life presents a way out. Best way to ensure that is to pay off all debt and create savings.