When netting zero dollars, would you put 20k towards college or a better infant care provider?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Little children require:

1. Stability
2. Competence
3. Love

Please do not rob them of these basic requirements.

...This is critical. This is THE primary job of parents. Good thing children start out with two parents. One to do the actual work of "hands-on" parenting, while the other earns the money. Of course everything can be equally split, but does that make hard work harder? I don't know. The devil is in the details and is different for every family.

In a thread about outsourced day care, why would you post this?

We both have responsibility to parent, hands on. And we extend our village with trusted child care partners.

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05/30/2016 22:49

Subject: When netting zero dollars, would you put 20k towards college or a better infant care provider?

quote

Anonymous

Anonymous wrote:With limited funds, would you put the $ in infant care or towards college funds? HHI about 200k, bought a house last year with a big DP, two rentals, but we still net zero after mortgage and childcare costs. One person's earning potential is limited, the other's salary may go up but who knows. Currently job searching.

We can put our infant son at Daycare A that is ok but not that great or with provider B whom we like much better and the adult child ratio there half than the daycare A. But option B is pricier and it means we need to use $600 each month from our savings. If we go with B for the next 3 years before preschool starts, that's a something like 21k difference.

If I invest the $600 instead, 20k might turn into something much bigger and help the child better. Currently we end up net zero if we fund retirement and put $300 in his 529 (I know his college fund is underfunded but we are not aiming to fund 100% of costs).

Ideally I would like to go with B but want to fully understand the ramifications of doing that. As long as the infant is kept alive and gets ok care, maybe $$ is better spent for later?

I'm confused by this. Are you saying you already have 20 grand (or more) in savings and you'd have to borrow $600 from it a month in order to afford the daycare?

Or are you saying you have $600 leftover after you pay bills each month that you would normally put into savings but you are now considering putting toward childcare?

I think there's a big difference between depleting your savings to pay for childcare and putting your savings on hold for awhile while you pay for childcare. If you're talking about actually pulling from your current savings to pay daycare, then I'd vote you find a cheaper daycare that you like as much as your current preferred daycare. If you're talking about just putting your savings on hold for awhile and using that money for daycare, then I could see doing that for awhile especially if you're also trying to find other ways to cut your budget that might help make that more doable.