Work.....

[user1485342913]

HI. bit of a long one. My DH runs his own business and I work for him p/t. but I am getting concerned re money. ALthough we are currently in profit and paying our bills, the industry we are in is quite tough and we are always only a month or so away from financial disaster. I have recently taken a pt job to support our income. I am a worrier but I am concerned over our finances. We have no savings, no pension (apart from 10 yearsin one for me for a previous job and a small one i get for my part time job). We have 3 children to support and a mortgage etc. In an ideal world I would prefer my DH to have a more "secure" job being an employee with paid holidays, pension and salary. He will not discuss things though and any time i approach the subject he gets very defensive and takes it all as a personal insult - which I can appreciate. He is very anti me getting a full time job (he hates me working part time as it is) and wants me to stay in the business. But i m really quite worried. I really feel either I need to go full time (I dont want to as have 3 year old still at home and dont want to leave her), or he needs to get a full time job (but there would be fall out as it would mean leaving his business etc).....Am I worrying too much?? Any advice.....?

I think if he is determined to continue with his business then all you can do is try to protect yourself as much as possible with things like mortgage protection insurance and critical illness cover so that you would be protected if anything happens with the business. Also he needs to make sure all his NI contributions paid up so that if the business fails he would be entitled to some benefits. Everyone should be paying into a pension if possible so he should look into this even a small amount monthly will build up.
As for you working full time then I guess you need to weigh up how much extra it will cost in childcare costs to do this and whether it is worthwhile. I think there is talk of the government increasing free childcare for 3 and 4 year olds soon so that may help you. Do you claim any help you may be entitled to like tax credits etc?

Babyroobs, many thanks for your reply. We dont currently claim any kind of benefits due to our incomes. I do currently use the 15 free hours of childcare and my part time job is in the evenings when DH is home so dont need childcare then. I believe the government are planning to increase the 15 hours to 30 hours in our area from Sept which would be great but until then childcare costs would cripple us if I went full time. Had been thinking of asking for a mortgage payment break to help but not sure this would get approved. I just keep going over and over things in my head and seem to be getting nowhere fast!

It's horrible when you have money worries going round in your head ( I've been there !). Hope you manage to find a solution.

If you have no pension, maybe you could - in the longer perspective - arrange to live in a house with a well-placed shop downstairs. You then let the shop to someone, against a rent. That will give you an additional ongoing income in old age, at least compared having a slim pension and just a lot of costs.