How do people afford kids?
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Anonymous
| Plan ages of kids too - one at a time in daycare! |
Anonymous
| OP here -- it's actually a bit less than 1/3 of our take home pay. And that is from what goes in our bank accounts after putting away 5% (me) and 8% (DH) into retirement + paying health insurance. And we do live in the suburbs, not the city. |
Anonymous
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Hah... I was literally just texting the wife about this cause I paid our credit card bill for this month.
Thanks for scheduling a payment on Oct 27, 2014, with Online Banking. Here are your payment details: Payment amount: $11356.09 Payment date: Oct 31, 2014 If you see an error with this scheduled payment, just sign in to Online Banking—we’re here to help you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. .... WHERE DOES IT ALL GO !?! |
Anonymous
Where do you people live that this is even realistic? Or do you all have HHI over $200k and live very modestly in this area? |
Anonymous
Some of us bought a while ago, before the insanity began. You can solace yourself that we will die before you. |
Anonymous
yes to both. |
Anonymous
| This is why the average age of first time moms in DC is 38. Lots of women spend a decade working on their careers, paying off all debts, building lots of equity in homes, and THEN having children. |
Anonymous
there are some serious misers who always post on threads in the Money and Finance. the rest of us don't get it, either. |
Anonymous
You need to quit with the credit card until you figure out where it all goes. The credit card (really, plastic of any sort, even a debit card) makes it sooooooooooo easy for it to sneak up on you. This is extreme, and if you're doing fine without it, then keep on keeping on, but for those who are feeling the squeeze and don't know how they're going to make it work - go to cash for a little while. The envelope system. Yes, it feels old-fashioned and for some people, uncomfortable carrying that much cash. But it will be a real eye opener when you budget $800 for groceries and you take $200 a week - you'll be watching what goes in your basket realllll closely. Even for people who are well off and out of debt, I really think Dave Ramsey's lessons around budgeting (on paper, on purpose, before the month begins) and using cash for at least a little while as you start to get your spending under control (that doesn't necessarily mean cutting back, just that you know where it's going before it goes) is a life changer. We're not religious, and were never in super massive debt (DH had about $25k in student loans, I had about $5k, he also had a $20k car loan when we met), but the Dave Ramsey philosophy has been amazing for us. FWIW, DH and I are 29/30; make about $180k combined, have lived on his smaller income only ($85k) since we got married a year and a half ago, and we'll have our house paid off in about 16 months. $500k combined net worth. I started out at $36k out of school and bought a home on my own when I was making $60k, so it isn't like we've always had a comfortable HHI. No family money. We have a GREAT life, we don't feel frugal or like we're being denied anything. But we started early and we make a plan for our money before the month begins. Yes, we've made some choices (smaller house, nice used cars) that help us along, but the NUMBER ONE thing is knowing where the money is going BEFORE it goes. Not after. Don't tally it up, like Mint.com does. Plan it ahead of time. On a yellow pad if you need to. It is a life changer, it really is. |
Anonymous
| Ha! 1/4 to 1/5 of take home?? So seriously, in our case that's 800 per month for us after retirement and insurance premiums. Not happening. Where do these misers live? |
Anonymous
Yes - we are closer to 20% net with a 15 year mortgage. But - another thing is I was not 30 trying to buy a house in DC and have a kid. We waited a few years until we could afford it. |
Anonymous
We paid 1600/month for a 2 bedroom condo in Alexandria and had a HHI of 150k. We felt like there was enough space. We were paying 1300/month for infant care in Arlington. If we had wanted the same amount of space in DC, would have been at least 2200 and childcare would have also been around 2k/month. |
Anonymous
| Everyone is right, you just "make" it work. If we all waited until we could afford kids, we'd die out as a population pretty fast LOL |
Anonymous
| It is shocking how much kids cost (on top of everything else), even with two good salaries, but we got over the hump once they got to pre-K (fingers crossed). Before that there were some tough months and juggling bills. |
Anonymous
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Well, you don't need $2k per month on care. You can find that for less.
We bought a really small TH so we could stay at 1/4 gross, now with salary increases it is 1/4 take home. I regret often that we don't have a SF and a yard, or even a bit bigger TH but can't leave and really, I have a roof over my head so, I try to focus on that. We don't eat anywhere fancy, cook most nights and bring lunch. We still struggle with giving up delivery and do spend to have Friday Night pizza or Chinese or Italian. I try to push for pizza since it's cheaper. Haircuts at $50 every three months are a splurge. Stagger kids so only have one in care at a time. Savings are meager, sad, but enough to cover larger house needs/ emergencies (havoc, water heater, random ER other visits post copay, etc). I feel really bad reading here, so I try not to. 401k is decent, though, a bright light. I'd like to go on a vacation. Once the second is in elem that will happen. We are cutting cable tv to bring the bill down $50 a month. Library not bookstores. I buy clothes and shoes only if necessary. Same with DH. |