What is your income to allow one parent to stay at home?
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Anonymous
| $400K |
Anonymous
| $300k now and kids are 4 & 6. When our first was born my husband made $150k so things were tighter and we lived in a less expensive smaller home. |
Anonymous
Rockville area |
Anonymous
I totally agree that under 200K it's hard to live in DC. We make 250K and we are definitely not rolling in it by any means. |
FFS. Spare me.
Anonymous
I like Rockville but that's a pretty long commute if work downtown |
Anonymous
| We make 325k combined with DH making 200 of that and don't have a parent at home. Feels risky. Would have to be 500k probably for me to consider it and then I think the balance in our marriage and my life would be off but who knows maybe I'd do it. |
Anonymous
| Bethesda, $130K, two kids. But we got a great deal on the house, so mortgage is not a problem and no other debt. |
Anonymous
| Anyone living in Mclean comfortable sharing their number? |
Anonymous
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We were willing to sacrifice just about everything but necessities to keep me at home. The first few years were rough. We lived in Raleigh, North Carolina on less $50,000. My DH's income is about $160,000 now so while we are not rich, we are comfortable. We moved away from DC and $160,000 feels like a ton of money here. I went back to work part-time when our youngest started middle school and that helped as well.
We only had one car but my DH had a work vehicle. That really helped. Almost all of our vacations were trips to visit family in different parts of the country. We lived overseas for a few years so we were able to travel some then as well. I budgeted very carefully. We limited activities to one per child. We were just really careful with our money back then. It's much easier to save with one parent at home. Our kids are grown now. Zero regrets. It was worth it for our family. |
Anonymous
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66-79k in Alexandria and NW DC for almost 3 years. At 66k, often nothing was left after bills were paid. At 77k, tight but doable.
Do you live in the city or suburbs? This makes a huge difference, IME. DC is easily fun on a very low budget. It's colorful and lively with people and animals everywhere, so adventure and interesting things for a little kid are all around. Here are free parks, woods, plays, concerts, museums, library events, adventures on the street and neighborhood. Being poor in the suburbs may be fine if you like your neighborhood and have friends, or know how to keep it interesting at home. I didn't and felt stuck isolated in the middle of nowhere during the day when my neighbors were at work and there was nothing to do close to home. Cut out: No car. Travel by metro and bus. Clothes: consignment and thrift. Rarely go to paid events. Cook at home. For food on the go, stop by a store instead of restaurant. Home-cooked, simple food. Mostly organic cheapest bulk foods and the cheaper organic fresh foods. Pack a lunch, a metro card and a little bit of cash just in case, and out you go. Isolating and embarrassing when you can't afford to eat out with folks you meet or want to meet. Your baby and young toddler would be fine without expensive activities because she still lives in a great big world of new sights and experiences, surprises, games friends and family, nature and more. After my DD turned 2.5 and it's winter, I see that she would really enjoy more activities that cost money, like music or dance classes just for fun. But in the first 2-2.5 years, you can give your kid the world for very little money if you think off the beaten path a little. I can't speak for older kids, but seems true then too. I'd say definitely get a part time job for nights and weekends, or find ways to earn at least some money from home. When you are poor, a little cash goes a long way. Keep learning and volunteering, especially in ways that will help you find work later. The library and volunteering are can make your world plenty interesting for free and make it easier to find work when the time comes. |
Anonymous
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105000 approx. 72.5 base and bonuses. It doesn't feel like we cut much because it's better than we had been doing for a period of 8 years working together. (DH got a series of raises).
We have to watch our budget. And if there was one area I wish we could enhance, it would be home maintenance and furnishing. |
Anonymous
375k but we're in a house that is under 1 mil. |
Anonymous
| Fairfax, 110k is when I started staying home. DH is up to about 150k now. We have two children and when the youngest was found eligible for preschool through early intervention and we refinanced the house, that gave us a lot more flexibility. |
Anonymous
What is your mortgage? Ours is 4400 in Mclean for a house worth about 1 million and our childcare cost is higher than that with nanny and preschool. I wonder what we'd need to not feel too tight with a mortgage of 4400. |
Anonymous
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We started out living on one income and banking the rest plus 401k for the salary we were not saving. Our spending did not have to be cut. We did this from the start with no intention of having one of us stay at home. When I started staying home our income was just over $100k and we had a large emergency fund. It is now twice that most years (baseline is around $170k without bonus).
If you are thinking about one of you staying at home, live off the other salary for at least 6 months to see if you can do it. Then you will know and you will have a nice nest egg for emergencies. |