Need Advice: Vollunteer Work vs. Part Time Job

[Mnemosyne]

Hello!

Recently I've been trying to think of ways I could contribute to the community and yesterday I finally came across something that really sparked my interest: Guardian ad Litem.

Below is a definition of what a Guardian ad Litem is, according to Wikipedia.

Guardians ad litem are often appointed in divorce cases to represent the interests of the minor children. The kinds of people appointed as a guardian ad litem vary by state, ranging from volunteers to social workers to regular attorneys. The two divorcing parents are usually responsible for paying the fees of the guardian ad litem, even though the guardian ad litem is not responsible to them at all. In some states, the County government pays the fee of that attorney. The guardian ad litem's only job is to represent the minor children's best interests.

Guardians ad litem are also appointed in cases where there has been an allegation of Child abuse, Child neglect, PINS, Juvenile delinquency, or dependency. In these situations, the guardian ad litem is charged to represent the best interests of the minor child which can differ from the position of the state or government agency as well as the interest of the parent or guardian. These guardians ad litem vary by jurisdiction and can be volunteer advocates or attorneys.

(Legal guardian - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Basically, a Guardian ad Litem is someone who stands for childeren's best instrests in court for divorce, abuse, and neglect cases. The work is interesting (see this FAQ from South Carolina: Guardian ad Litem - A South Carolina Governor's Office) and it only requires about 2 - 4 hours of dedication a week. Because I have a fairly flexible work schedule I am pretty sure it would work out perfectly for me. In addition, I would have the opportunity to positively impact a child's life. My parents are divorced so I know what it's like.

When I announced to my husband that this is something I'm seriously considering, he felt that I should instead volunteer for a part-time job and earn some money to help us reach our 'goals'.

And therein lies the crux of the situation.

I believe that my husband and I are pretty well off financially. We don't have children. We both have jobs that pay well and I'd say we're upper-middle class. We've got a considerable amount of money sitting in an account with an interest rate over 5%. It's enough money to pay off our house and then some. One of the ways we've been able to save so much money is because we live frugally.

Instead of paying off our house my husband has decided that he would rather invest it somehow to earn a greater return. Or he'd like to start his own company. It's something he's spent a lot of time researching and he hasn't quite come up with something that suits him just yet.

But my husband is only interested in making money for the sake of having more money. And I do _NOT_ follow that philosophy. I would rather make enough money to live comfortably, (we live very comfortable as it is now), and do something that has value.

So whereas I would rather volunteer and do something nice for disadvantaged children he would rather I get a part time job (in addition to my current, well paying, full time job). (BTY - He has a very good paying full time job _and_ and decent paying part time job).

I don't know how to handle this. Should I say that I'm going to do this volunteer work, end of disscussion? Or do I forget about doing any ad Litem volunteer work? There _are_ "private" Guardian ad Litems, who get paid for their work (I don't know how much), but they're not "regulated" and they don't require training. When you volunteer for the state they give you free training, something I'm interested in (I don't want to do this without any training). Moreover, I feel that this could be a door into some other types of work that I'd be interested in, such as helping/counseling other people. Right now I work in Information Technology. It's ok. It pays well, but there's not much value. I'd rather help/counsel someone.

It seems that more and more I've been moving toward wanting to do something that adds value and my husband is stuck wanting to earn lots of money for himself (for us).

Does anyone have advice? Maybe I should do a little bit of the volunteer work to get the training and experience and then do it privately for money?

[silicon toad2000]

perhaps it's time to open some more communication bandwidth between yourself and your husband.
I get the feeling from what you have written that your husband doesn't follow the driving force behind this, also that you don't seem to have a grasp of what's behind his drives.

just to play devils advocate, if he is worried about the financial implications, have a look at what the taxation benefits might be in regard to your expenditure while carry out this Guardian work

[RT Wolf]

Follow your heart. And drag him along, too, if you can. Perhaps seeing someone in a not so good position will soften his heart. Compassion is quite good. And altruistic acts cause people to feel more happier and for longer than pleasurable ones.

[Mnemosyne]

Originally Posted by silicon toad2000

perhaps it's time to open some more communication bandwidth between yourself and your husband.
I get the feeling from what you have written that your husband doesn't follow the driving force behind this, also that you don't seem to have a grasp of what's behind his drives.

just to play devils advocate, if he is worried about the financial implications, have a look at what the taxation benefits might be in regard to your expenditure while carry out this Guardian work

I think you're right. Communication could be better. I don't often express my feelings and since he's the "dominate" one in our relationship it usually works out a lot easier for me if I go with what he wants to do. I need to work on this.

But I think that finding a middle way, like tax benefits as you mentioned, would help.