Frankly, I don’t have the resources or skills to go completely “John Galt”, but my wife and I decided that after January we’ll do the next best thing. Only one of us will work.
So instead of paying taxes on a second income (and having the second income boost our first income into a higher tax bracket); paying for childcare; paying for other folks to do the stuff around the house that we are too busy to do when we are both working; and paying the related expenses for a second job (commuting, work clothes, lunch); we’ll live on one salary. One of us will have the fun (and annoyances) of staying home with a kid all day, and doing all the cooking, shopping, and cleaning.
The other will still do the rat race, but will at least come home to a clean house and a waiting dinner. No more of us both coming in the door at 6:30pm and do a desperate scramble to clean, cook, clean again, put the kids to bed, get ready for work, etc.
Our quality of life will most likely go up, and the amount of money we give to the government will go down by about 2/3. And since we’ll be putting out less cash for goods and services, there will even be a multiplier effect for both tax receipts and the overall economy.
And the funny thing is, the numbers already work for us under the current tax code. Just imagine how much more they will work out under an Obama/Pelosi/Reid tax code!
I suppose this is where buying a smaller house, buying a used car (and keeping it until it dies), and saving plenty of cash pays off with increased flexibility.
