In the past, a lot of people worked for themselves. Here I’m not referring to running a business, I’m talking about doing things for yourself and your family directly. Growing food in a garden. Changing the starter in a car. Painting the front hallway. Or even cooking dinners and making homemade preserves.

While working for others and then using the money you make to trade for the things you need is effective, there are a lot of advantages to working for yourself. Today we’ll talk about when it does and does not make sense to work for yourself.

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Advantages of working for yourself

When you work for yourself and your family directly, it means that you receive everything that you make. If you make a roast for dinner, your family gets that roast. If you homeschool your kids, your kids get that education. If you mow your yard, your family gets to enjoy that freshly mown lawn. No one will give you money for any of these things, but your family gets to enjoy the results of your labor.

It does not make sense to work for yourself all of the time, but there are definitely advantages. These include:

1. You get just what you want: By doing it yourself, you can create exactly what you want. When you buy things from a store, you need to settle for what someone else decided to make. Even if you hire someone personally else to do or make something for you, you will find it hard to get things just as you want them.
2. You learn a skill: When you cook a meal or change out your hot water heater, you learn how to do these things and often learn skills you can use elsewhere as well. When you pay someone else, they get the experience.
3. You save on taxes: If you work a job and then buy something or pay for a service, you’ll pay income taxes on your earnings and then often pay sales taxes on the service or product. If you do it yourself, you’ll only pay sales taxes on supplies. If you’re a married couple this can be a huge advantages since you’ll have the same tax rates as two people working for a salary but at least half of the work done will be for untaxed things. (More on this later.)
4. It becomes personal: The home Dad built will always be special to your family. Mom’s pumpkin bread is a lot more special than pumpkin bread bought at the grocery store. And, of course, a parent raising her/his own child creates a special bond and lets the parent be there for all of the “firsts.”

Of course, there are other advantages, such as not having strange people in your home, not needing to go commute to a job, and getting exercise and mental activity while doing physical or mental tasks. You also don’t need to spend the time to go out and buy/transport the thing – you make it and it’s right there where you need it. There are really many reasons to do things yourself.

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You can save a lot of money

A big reason for doing things yourself is to save money. Everyone has a certain amount of time. Not everyone has the ability to turn that time into large amounts of money, especially when you are young. When you have the time, it often makes sense to do things for yourself. Some of the big money savers:

Home repairs. Because it often requires special skills and many people feel intimidated, home repairs often come at a big premium. Someone may change $100, $300, even $500/hour to do a repair. If you can learn how to do it yourself, you can save this money.

Car repairs. Car repairs are like home repairs, where you can save if you know what you’re doing, especially for doing simple things. Knowing how to fix cars has the added advantage of sometimes being able to get yourself back on the road when you break down away from home.

Cooking. You can normally make a meal for 1/4 of the cost of buying it at a restaurant. If you include driving there, parking, waiting to be seated, and driving home the time required can also be about equivalent to cooking. Cooking your own meals also lets you control what is in them and use better ingredients.

Childcare. Childcare is something that you can do while you’re doing other things, especially as the children go from being infants to toddlers and older. It is something that requires a lot of flexibility, because children will need things at random times, but a lot of the time they just need someone to be there for safety and in case they need something. Because professional childcare requires someone devote their full time to it, the costs can be high. Note that you may be able to watch someone else’s child in your home along with your own and make some extra income since it really is not a lot more work to do so. (It can actually be easier since then your child can have a playmate.)

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Reasons to not do things yourself

While it is often better to do things yourself to save money, there are times when it is better to hire things out. The main reason is when someone else can do the task faster and better than you can because they have special tools and experience that you lack. For example, doing a major car repair is a lot easier if you have a lift, pneumatic tools, and so on. It is also easier if you’re doing a few of them a month instead of doing it for the first time in your life. A good shop might be able to get a transmission replaced in a couple of days, where it would take you a month of weekends at home.

Another reason is that you make enough at work that you would make more working those hours than it will cost you to have someone else do it. If you’re a doctor, paying someone else to provide childcare will allow you to work during the day. Because you can make hundreds of dollars per hour, the $10/hour you’re paying for childcare can easily be covered even after taxes and expenses.

Hiring someone and then working your job has another advantage: Extra time you put into your career can allow you to become better at it and do more. This can result in you moving up in your company and industry or growing your business bigger. The boss will notice if you’re there until 6, getting things done. He’ll notice you getting reports done faster and adding extra things. If you’re heading home at 4 to mow your lawn, that won’t get you ahead. Your lawn mowing expertise also won’t help you do better at programming or customer service.

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Doing things yourself and taxes

The biggest tax advantage comes for a married couple where one person works a 9-5 job and the other works directly for the family. Most of the tax brackets (in the US) are set up where the limits for married filing jointly are double those for married filed separately. For example, for 2026, here are the brackets:

Rate Single/Married filing separately Married filing jointly

10%	Up to $12,400	Up to $24,800
12%	$12,401 – $50,400	$24,801 – $100,800
22%	$50,401 – $105,700	$100,801 – $211,400
24%	$105,701 – $201,775	$211,401 – $403,550
32%	$201,776 – $256,225	$403,551 – $512,450
35%	$256,226 – $640,600	$512,451 – $768,700
37%	$640,601 or more	$768,701 or more

Note that if two people are working in jobs and they are each making $100,000 per year, they will be in the 22% tax bracket and paying 22% on the last $99,199 of their income. The first earner would only be paying around 12% on their income. Basically one person’s salary is taxed at 22%. If instead only one person worked a job and the other worked for the family directly, they could create at least $100,000 in value, but that money would not be taxed. The single earner household would be saving $22,000 in taxes each year.

The person in the job could also move up in career and stay at a lower tax rate. As a single earner in a dual household, your income will only be taxed at 22% all the way up to $211,400 per year, more than most people will make at their peak income level. You can go up to $430,550 before you even start paying more than 24%. All of the tax deductions and limits like the standard deduction and IRA contributions are normally double as well, so the limits where you hit the higher tax rates are even higher than this.

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Working for your family directly has many advantages. It is not the right choice for every family. In some cases, both spouses will want to work a job even though they would be financially better off with one working for the family directly. In this case, you just end up with less money and things. This may be worth the cost. In other cases, both spouses can make enough at a job to cover the extra costs and do better when they both work a job.

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Disclaimer: This blog is not meant to give financial planning or tax advice.  It gives general information on investment strategy, picking stocks, and generally managing money to build wealth. It is not a solicitation to buy or sell stocks or any security. Financial planning advice should be sought from a certified financial planner, which the author is not. Tax advice should be sought from a CPA.  All investments involve risk and the reader as urged to consider risks carefully and seek the advice of experts if needed before investing.