Look out for healthcare costs if your partner is not employed.
We don't really want my wife to work when we have kids; however, as a self-employed person, the cost of purchasing you r own health insurance is outrageous. For a family of two adults and two small children, it'll run me over $12,000/yr and that's with a high deductible plan so there will still be out of pocket costs.
Unfortunately, this sole fact is pushing me away from self-employment. That people say the USA is friendly for entrepreneurs is absurd: perhaps if you're well capitalized with other people's money, but not if you're doing traditional self-employment / small business.
Couldn't agree with you more on the healthcare costs. The difference between being W2 employed with company provided healthcare for a family and being self employed with self purchased healthcare for a family is absurdly huge.
America punishes those who don't work W2 through the healthcare costs and it's just plain horrible.
This is something that as a Canadian, I often take for granted, but I completely agree that if I didn't have universal healthcare, I may well have never left the 9-5.
