Lauren Williams takes home about $3,800 a month from teaching, but with three kids and nearly $6,000 in expenses, she knew she had to find another way
NEED TO KNOW
- Lauren Williams, a public school art teacher in Louisville, Ky., takes home about $3,800 a month from teaching while her monthly expenses total roughly $5,950
- The single mom of three turned to cleaning houses, summer programs and eventually content creation to help close the gap
- After years of financial struggle, Williams says she now plans her budget months ahead and is slowly building greater financial stability
Lauren Williams knows before her art teacher paycheck ever hits her bank account that it won’t be enough to cover the month. The Louisville, Ky., public school teacher and single mom of three takes home about $3,800 a month from teaching, while the life she has carefully budgeted for herself and her children costs roughly $5,950.
“I realized many years ago that my only option for financial stability, success and, dare I say, abundance, would be to make more money,” Williams tells PEOPLE exclusively. “For me, this meant working more than one job.”
Williams, whose children are 13, 10 and 6, has been an art teacher since 2011, though she briefly left the profession twice because of life circumstances and burnout. Today, she says she is “extremely happy” in art education, where she feels supported at work and appreciates the stability of receiving a paycheck every two weeks with family health insurance…