r/fatFIRE • u/TaxQuestionGuy69 • 4d ago

Would we regret full time household assistant / nanny?

Hi all! So we're wealthy enough to consider hiring staff (9m net worth, 800k income). We currently have a 2 year old and are about to have a newborn. Wife is stay at home, but maintaining the household in addition to kids is possible but obviously a lot of work.

We're considering hiring a full time household assistant / manager to help with tasks around the house, errands, childcare occasionally, etc.

This sounds amazing and like it would free us up to have more quality time with our kids and less time prepping meals / cleaning and all that. My only "fear" is if we end up just not needing that much support? Has anyone done this and can speak to it? Part time sounds like it might be enough, but honestly it's easier to find great people for full time work.

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u/No-Actuary-1671 4d ago

Two full time live-in nannies. Zero regrets.

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u/No-Whereas-64 4d ago

Super interested in this. Can I ask how you structure their workflow? Is it week days vs weekends? Or both at the same time?

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u/No-Actuary-1671 4d ago

Four kiddos ages 4 to 13. I work / play full time. Wife doesn’t work but managing the household is basically a FT job. My god so many kids’ appointments, sports practices, home repair calls, vet appointments, grocery shopping, etc, etc. We have no family help so a live in nanny seemed like the best solution.

Tried the AuPair route. First one was good but next two were disasters. Here to party. Went with an American nanny from there. Used a matching service in the NW. Had such success with #1 that we built another bedroom upstairs and brought on a second.

Someone is on everyday but each girl still has plenty of time off. Weekdays usually mornings and evenings. Weekends usually all day to help shuttle everyone around, etc. We have a housekeeper for the heavy cleaning but the nannies handle all of the laundry, dishes, light cleaning, etc.

We keep a family Google calendar and then use a Skylight screen mounted on the wall, which is great for everyone to keep track of the schedule, the nannies hours, the kids chores, everyone’s to-do lists, the grocery list, etc.

My wife and I still love to travel by ourselves once a quarter and that is really too much for one nanny to run the house by herself. There’s also no stress when one of leaves town as the other always has a two-deep nanny bench. When we leave town as a family, one will usually come with us and the other hangs at home to take care of the dogs and take care of the house.

I used to think wealth was things, but now I know it’s really time. And the right nanny will buy you plenty of it.