Salary Replacement Calculator

How much does your partner need to earn to replace your salary?

How often should you use a salary replacement calculator as a stay-at-home parent?

As often as needed! While families may have weekly, monthly, or quarterly meetings about their finances, annual discussions about your compensation may be helpful. Many employers offer annual raises, which means you may also want to recalculate your at-home pay.

How to figure out the split?

Every family is different. Some spouses choose to equally split their earnings with the stay-at-home parent, while others may go for a lower or higher percentage. The split can also depend on who pays the bills. The higher earner isn't always the best at money management, so the stay-at-home parent may be given a higher percentage so that they can take care of the family's bills.

How to automate splitting earnings with a spouse?

Many direct deposit programs allow employees to split their earnings between multiple accounts. The options are typically a flat rate or a percentage of the earnings. This means your pay will increase when your spouse/partner's pay increases and decrease when your spouse/partner's pay decreases.

Another option is to set up automated transfers between accounts. Direct deposit may be a better option if it's required to avoid monthly banking fees.

What's the biggest lesson you learned as a stay-at-home parent?

It's not what you make -- it's how you manage what you make. Consider using tax-advantaged accounts, digital real estate, multiple income streams, other assets and strategies to support your family's journey.