(MONEY Magazine) – Most days, Cincinnati science writer and biology teacher Chris Curran (left and above), 37, starts cooking dinner at seven-in the morning. With a full-time day job, a part-time night job and three daughters, ages seven, 11 and 13, she has given up sleep and made friends with her Crock-Pot. Husband Andy, 39, a language and grammar teacher by day and a radio disk jockey on weekend nights, is also on overdrive. "Some days," sighs Chris, "I just dream of sleeping till noon."

And you thought you were feeling stretched.

Just about every American knows that the one-earner Ozzie and Harriet family doesn't live here anymore. Today, however, a growing rank of the middle class is realizing that the two-career couple of the '70s and '80s is giving way to the four-income household of the '90s. Simply put, it can now take four--or more--jobs to provide the level of comfort and financial security that one income alone delivered only a few decades ago. As a result, many Americans are working 55 or more hours a week.

Since 1980, the number of workers who hold more than one job has grown by 54% to more than 7 million Americans, or almost 6% of the labor force, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Of those workers, 56% are married and nearly half are women. Perhaps most surprising: Multijob households can be found in the best neighborhoods in town. Today 39% of people holding more than one job are managers and professionals, according to the Families and Work Institute in New York City, a nonprofit research group. "In order to keep their living standards rising, Americans either have to work more hours or work more jobs," says Jared Bernstein, a labor economist with the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. "It's a simple fact."

Look at the math. Median annual family incomes have been practically flat since the mid-'70s, says the Bureau of the Census, and actually dropped $700 from 1992 to 1993, to $36,959. Men especially have watched their earnings fall-by a disheartening 11% since 1973. Salary bounces have primarily gone to the wealthiest: In 1993, nearly three-quarters of the growth in household income went to the country's top 20% of families. Then too, the tumultuous job market has deepened employee anxiety. Nine million workers lost their jobs between 1991 and 1993, and a stunning 42% of the full-time workers who found comparable positions are earning lower salaries than before, according to the BLS.

Even as the economy expands, Americans' worry about their paychecks persists--for good reason. Corporate downsizing continues to be a hallmark of the new workplace. Last December alone, Amtrak, Continental Airlines and Mattel laid off a total of 7,900 employees. "The vast majority of Americans aren't even sure if their company will exist in five years, not to mention their jobs," says Watts Wacker, a trend watcher at Yankelovich Partners in Norwalk, Conn.

Furthermore, the new jobs created by the revived economy don't look much like the old ones. Over the past 3è years, points out Stephen Roach, an economist with Morgan Stanley in New York City, 20% of the total U.S. job growth has come from temporary hiring. Temporary workers, who typically do not get any health or pension benefits, now make up about 2% of the work force, double the percentage in 1985.

Put all these economic trends together and it becomes clear why so many middle-income couples are taking on two, three or even four jobs. "Most families are stretched to the limit with just two jobs," says Ellen Galinsky, co-president of the Families and Work Institute. "Add another job or two and you have a lot of balls to keep in the air."

Yet as growing numbers of couples take on several jobs to earn extra money that will improve their lives, others are sure to follow. No question about it: The four-income-family lifestyle has definitely arrived.

To track this developing phenomenon, Money interviewed a dozen multijob families, including the three pictured on these pages. In addition, we spoke to labor economists, demographers and market researchers, as well as work and family consultants. Here's how Americans are pulling 24-hour shifts and how they're learning to enjoy lives that leave no exit from the fast lane:

Two nights a week at 5:30 p.m., Chris Curran moves her car from the south end of the University of Cincinnati campus--where she's a science writer for the public relations department--to the north end, where she teaches introductory biology at the UC Evening College. That second job brings in $6,300 on top of her $30,000-a-year salary. During the week, her husband Andy teaches at the Stenotype Institute of Cincinnati, grossing $15,000 a year. On Saturday and Sunday nights, he dons a headset to spin light-rock CDs and announce the weather on Cincinnati's WWNK radio station, earning about $50 per five-hour shift. "I used to work in radio full time. I decided to take a part-time job because I enjoy it and we needed the extra income," says Andy, who, in addition to those two jobs, is studying toward a master's degree in education at UC. (Chris already has a master's.) The couple's total annual income: $56,300. To ensure time with their three kids, Chris and Andy spend at least one day each weekend coaching the girls' soccer teams.

Like several families we interviewed, the Currans' four jobs began as a stopgap measure but soon evolved into routine. Eleven years ago, when Chris was pregnant with their second child, Monica, Andy lost his $14,000 job as a research director at a radio station. Within a month they had switched over to Chris' health insurance plan, but that policy didn't cover her pregnancy. To make up the lost income, Chris put in about five hours of overtime a week at the Mobile television station where she then worked as a reporter and producer. "I never want to have that experience again," she says. Now, as a four-job couple, Chris adds: "If we lose one, we won't lose our minds."

More and more, white-collar workers are hunting for additional paychecks just to maintain their living standard. For example, Richard Levin, chairman of Work/Life Enterprises, a Brookline, Mass. consulting firm, recently helped a telecommunications firm that had trimmed a customer service department from 30 employees to 15. Almost half of the remaining 15 were demoted to lower-paying positions. "These people were forced to take on extra work, like bartending or selling real estate, just to stay in place," says Levin. The BLS reports that nearly a third of workers with extra jobs get them to pay household expenses.

That's the case for Phil Phelps, 38, a married father of two teenage girls, and a machinist who works at Woods Equipment, an Oregon, Ill. industrial-mower plant. In 1993, Phelps' company was sold and, since 1990, his salary has been frozen at $28,000 a year. Men in Phil's 35-to-44 age bracket have been particularly hard hit lately. Their real wages plummeted 14% over the past two decades alone. Between 1989 and 1993, 1.6 million manufacturing jobs were eliminated altogether.

Three years ago, in order to provide a cushion for emergencies, Phil and his wife Dawn, 39, began a landscaping business that now literally rakes in about $1,500 annually. In addition, Phil, who has a high school diploma and a few years of vocational training, earns $500 a year by selling used cars on Saturdays. Dawn, a high school grad and licensed cosmetologist, meanwhile pieces together two or three part-time jobs such as catering or cleaning offices so she can be home when Melinda, 13, and Mindy, 16, return from school. The Phelps' total income: $34,000 a year. "We do all this just to have a little extra," says Phil.

Despite the rugged schedule, the Phelpses make sure the family sits down for dinner every night at 6 p.m. "That's our time together," says Dawn. In fact, last October, Phil was asked to apply for a night-shift job that would have paid $10,000 more a year. But he turned it down without hesitating so he could be home in the evenings.

Phil often works 60-hour weeks. According to the Families and Work Institute, that's not uncommon. Dual jobholders put in an average of 55 hours a week, 13 more hours than the average U.S. worker. Many double-duty employees log even more.

To devote all those hours to their jobs, these hard-charging workers must make some trade-offs. "They give up housework first and time for themselves second," says Galinsky. Fortunately, however, some businesses are helping. Wal-Mart, for instance, now offers round-the-clock hours at a handful of locations and is doing a bang-up business at midnight.

Sometimes, extra workloads are a way for couples to pay off crushing debt loads. Fully 9% of all workers who have a second job say the additional income is being used to pay down debt. As Secretary of Labor Robert Reich observes: "Americans have been using any means available to keep their standards of living rising."

For instance, Samsonite plant supervisor Timothy Abrams, 34, and his wife Jeanne, a 33-year-old Air National Guard engineer, of Aurora, Colo. (pictured on page 150) earn a hefty $76,000 a year from their two main jobs. But they owe a crippling $50,000 in car loans and joint credit-card accounts. So to stay afloat financially, the parents of Benjamin, 3, and Jennifer, 1, have each taken second jobs.

Tim recently began a 2:30 a.m. to 5 a.m. newspaper delivery route (pay: $550 a month) to rid himself of $25,000 in debts he racked up since 1984 from traveling and buying sprees. "He's not a very good money manager," judges Jeanne, who also works a second job to help pay off her debts. One weekend a month and two weeks a year, Jeanne freelances as a design engineer for her regular employer, the Air National Guard, adding $4,800 to the family's annual coffer. Besides the secondary jobs, the Abramses invest eight to 10 hours a week developing the home Amway distributorship they started in '92, which brings in another $5,000 or so a year. That puts their total annual income, including a military severance package, at a cushy-sounding $99,000. But most of their spare cash, about $1,153 a month, goes straight to paying down debt. Once their loans and credit cards are under control, says Jeanne, "we'll reconsider the extra jobs."

The dilemma for the Abramses, as for many families, is in trying to live their American dream while their ability to pay for it seems to be declining. In 1981, for instance, just 28% of Americans thought a second car was necessary for a comfortable lifestyle. By 1992, that figure had jumped to 41%. Likewise, a vacation home used to be considered important by only 25% of Americans; now it's up to 35%. "People want more material things than they did a decade or so ago," says Tom Miller, a senior vice president at Roper Starch Worldwide, the New York City-based marketing and opinion research firm.

Human-resources manager Phillip Burrows and his wife Joan, a reading specialist, already lead a lush life in Mitchellville, Md. on combined annual salaries of $99,500. The couple, who are both 40 and have master's degrees, own a $180,000 detached colonial home, a 1993 Isuzu Rodeo and a '92 Honda Accord. They also enjoy two vacations a year in the Caribbean. Yet Phil has just begun working five nights a week as a softball umpire for the Greater Washington Area Umpires Group to help defray $320-a-month bills for private school tuition for daughters Amber, 11, and Chelsea, 7. "College could be a small fortune by the time they are ready to go," says Phil. "But we'll do whatever it takes." Last year, Phil earned only $1,500 umping, but he expects to hit $3,000 in '95. He marvels at how his parents, a New York City police officer and homemaker, were able to save for retirement on just one income. "The cost of living is a lot different now," he says mournfully.

But don't think that every four- income couple is brooding. Actually, some professionals in their thirties and forties are choosing multijob lives to maintain freedom and flexibility.

For example, Carin Smith, 36, and Jay Bender, 41 (pictured on page 152), pursue do-it-themselves careers from a five-acre farm in Plain, Wash., where they live with their three cats and retriever Kania. "We approach our jobs like our investments," explains Jay. "We stay diversified." Carin, who has a doctorate in veterinary medicine, earns $20,000 of her $30,000 annual income from writing books and technical articles. The rest comes from working four to six days a month as a vet, filling in for local vets while they're away. Jay, who has a master's degree in art, earns $18,000 from his mail-order photo equipment company, Bender Photographic, and brings in another $2,000 a year taking photographs freelance for local businesses.

With no kids, the couple keep erratic schedules, sometimes working 10-hour days for weeks at a stretch. But they make time for what's important. Last spring, for instance, Carin put in double time so she could take two months off to build a barn for the two Tennessee walker trail horses she wants to buy this summer. "What we give up in normal routine," she says, "we gain in autonomy and self-reliance. That's priceless."

Free-spirited couples like Carin Smith and Jay Bender or parents who want to schedule their work around child care are finding job stacking ideal. Jeanne and Tim Abrams already share their fifth job--as Amway distributors--so Jeanne can eventually quit her day job and work from home. "What's the point of having kids if you can't spend time with them?" she asks.

Clearly, family and career as we once knew them--one wage earner, one job for life and a pension ever after--have now gone the way of the rotary phone. Still, the pay and results of a four-income workweek can be gratifying. Sums up Carin Smith: "If more people approached their work life the way we do--as a set of talents to exploit rather than a rigid job to pursue--there would be fewer people complaining about jobs being taken away and more people feeling fulfilled."