A majority of American wage earners live paycheck to paycheck. We start dividing our take home pay between mortgage or rent, water, phone, electric, internet, XYZ bills, and those little cravings such as Starbucks, the movies or that new outfit at the mall as soon as we receive our pay. Before you know it, our salary is gone and we wait anxiously for the next pay day. While we know our current earnings are not guaranteed to keep coming in forever, neither in the frequency or amount, we fail to make provisions for that ‘rainy day.’ American’s on average save only 2.7 cents from every dollar we earn!
Household employees, including nannies, follow this familiar pattern all the time. Scary, right? Nanny and other caregiving jobs are temporary in most situations. The child will grow up and the nanny is no longer needed. This is the nature of the nanny’s business, with some exceptions, of course.