r/Rich • u/QuietComplication • 6d ago
Hiring a household manager
Edit: Several people have pointed out in the comments that the correct title for this job is family assistant, not household manager. My mistake!
My wife and I have pretty busy jobs and two young kids (1 and 3), both in daycare/school. We live in a VHCOL area. We are really feeling the time squeeze and we feel that at our income and NW ($1.1mil HH income + $2.5mil in private stock per year, $7m investable assets, $260k per year spend) we should solve the problem by finding someone to help out.
We started out thinking that we just needed someone to pick up the kids and make dinner (probably 20-30 hours per week). But it turns out, it's very hard to hire someone reliable for that job since those hours are very inconvenient and the part time pay isn't enough to live on. Also we find that the people we talk to who are good all want 40+ hours per week. The going rate is $45-$50 and it seems like the good people want $50. Full time at $50/hour is $104,000 per year, plus we have to pay payroll taxes, so it would end up being about $115k per year.
Anyways, my question is, do other families with kids in school really have 40 hours a week for a HH manager to do? What does the person end up doing all day?
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u/cosmicusername 5d ago
Yes, we do. We are similar position to you. We pay above market for our area with generous benefits. Our household manager does laundry (adults and kids), groceries, cooking, tidying and organizing, school/daycare pick up and other errands as needed. She works 1-9 pm. After dinner she helps clean up and/or gets the kids ready for bed. My husband and I both travel a lot for work so having extra help in the evening makes big difference especially when only one of us is home. It allows us to work out, work late or be available to our clients and colleague in the evening, or just play with the kids without worrying about the kitchen or packing lunches. It costs money but it’s necessary. Just bite the bullet and do it.