A former stay-at-home parent has 3 tips for unpaid parents who want to invest

• Financial educator Soledad Fernández Paulino joined Insider's Re/Thinking Re/Tirement Instagram Live event.
• They responded to an attendee's question about how to invest as a stay-at-home mom.
• Fernández Paulino said a spousal IRA is an option if you're married, and single parents can open a taxable brokerage account.
• Read more articles from Insider's Re/Thinking Re/Tirement series.

Investing for early retirement is a hot topic right now, but it can be hard to imagine when you aren't earning an income.

On Monday, Insider hosted an Instagram Live event focused on early retirement with Soledad Fernández Paulino, a financial educator and founder of the blog Wealth Para Todos. During the Re/Thinking Re/Tirement event, one attendee asked, "What steps can I take to secure my financial future as a stay-at-home mom, as I'm not bringing in money?"

Fernández Paulino used to be a stay-at-home parent, and they had some straightforward, practical advice for the viewer. 

Here are their tips for investing for retirement as an unpaid parent.

1. Find out which type of account you're eligible to open

You can still save for retirement, even if you don't bring in an income. The right investment account for you may depend on whether or not you're married. Fernández Paulino was married when they decided to become a stay-at-home parent.

"At that point, I didn't have an employer retirement account," they said. "However, because I was legally married, I was able to invest still in a Roth IRA under what's called spousal IRA regulations."

Normally, you have to earn income, such as a salary or commission, to legally be able to contribute to an IRA. But the spousal IRA is the exception. As long as your spouse has earned income and you file taxes jointly, you can open a separate spousal IRA and contribute money from your partner's paycheck. When you set it up, you'll choose either a Roth or traditional IRA.

This is especially useful if your spouse is already contributing the maximum to their IRA, which is $6,000 annually (or $7,000 if you're age 50 or older). This way, you can continue to invest and potentially even max out your own IRA.

If you're a single parent, unmarried, or filing your taxes separately from your spouse, you can't open a spousal IRA. But Fernández Paulino said it could still be a good idea to open a taxable brokerage account, if you have cash available to invest.

With a taxable brokerage account, you don't have to have earned income to contribute. And although these accounts don't have the same tax advantages as traditional or Roth IRAs, they're still useful investment tools.

2. Communicate with your partner

If you have a partner, it's crucial to communicate about your investment and retirement strategy to make sure you're on the same page. This is particularly important if you're married and opening a spousal IRA, because even though the account is in your name, you will be contributing your spouse's earned income.

Fernández Paulino suggested talking to your spouse about how much you can contribute to the spousal IRA, and deciding together whether you want to make the maximum contributions for the year.

3. Remember that stay-at-home parents still contribute financially

Depending on the relationship you and your spouse have with money, opening a spousal IRA may be a point of contention — after all, you are taking their income and putting it into an account in your name.

However, it's crucial to remember that you do contribute financially to your family as a stay-at-home parent.

According to Salary.com, stay-at-home moms' workloads jumped from 96.5 hours per week in 2019 to 117 hours per week since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. If the US paid SAHMs, their median salary would have been $178,201 in 2019 — the latest data shows that the new median salary would be $184,820.

"That's covering the cost of cooking, cleaning, childcare, driving around," said Fernández Paulino. "You're saving your family so much money."

Rather than feeling torn about using your spouse's money to get ahead, consider thinking of it this way: Investing for your family's future is just one more way for a stay-at-home parent to contribute financially.