Are you open to living in other states as well? Or are you set on staying in CA? I know the State of CA’s budget isn’t so good, and I believe they are cutting even more education based funding. The duplex thing might not be so bad in other areas of the country. Not all duplexes are small, nasty, and in yucky parts of town. I’ve seen some really nice ones in the Chicago burbs, Austin area, Raleigh/Durham area…I’m sure there’s a lot more.
I’m just a run of the mill MA level therapist, so I’m not totaly familiar with what a school psychologist does in terms of your own business. Perhaps some of the more knowledgable people on this site can talk about the tax benefits one gets for using their residence for business purposes. A friend of mine who’s a licensed psychologist sees clients in her own home and has major tax breaks for doing so. I personally would never see clients in my home, but it has worked well for her.
I have some friends back in Seattle who own a franchise that does very well on paper, but they hate it! It’s so much more work than they ever imagined, and in the end, the husband only takes home about 30,000 a year. Good thing his wife works for Microsoft.
