Finances and family size

[Anonymous]

If you're a couple that wants 4 kids, how much does your HHI have to be minimum in order to be able to raise them?

Did your income level affect how many kids you had? Why? Why not?

Lets discuss.

[Anonymous]

at least 500k

[Anonymous]

500k? Please. Maybe in 2010, now at least 750k. Don't you read all the threads about people making 300, 400k and feeling poor?

[Anonymous]

In this are? I'd probably say >$500k.

We're DINK at $210k and definitely feel the stretch in DC. 4 kids would mean a bigger house to fit them all in a good school zone, day care, vehicle big enough for the whole family, food, vacations. Yikes.

[Anonymous]

We are a family of four and are in the $175k- $200k range for HHI. It is more than enough, but would require some serious budgetary pruning if we had two more children.

[Anonymous]

4 kids are expensive. You need a big car and probably a pretty big house unless you like feeling cramped. If you want to do private school think really big. If you plan to fund college think bigger. Clothing is really expensive and forget about hand me downs for boys once they get older- I haven't passed a pair of jeans down in years as they wear through the knees. Airplane tickets for a family of 6 are expensed and you are pretty much always renting a house or huge suite on vacation. Groceries are at least 400 a week and dinners out get very expensive - every meal.

I wouldn't want to do it on less than 450k/year or so, maybe more without frequent flyer perks.

[Anonymous]

I can't believe I'm saying this but I wouldn't have 4 kids with under $400K or even $450K/year.
We have 3 and an income of $375K and this affords us a nice but by no means luxurious lifestyle in NW DC. This area is truly insane.

I find that families i know with 4 kids (both here in DC and elsewhere) either make a ton of money or said "screw it--we're having the kids and not worrying about college or international travel".

[Anonymous]

Unreal! I have 4 kids with HHI of 180K, and we are living just fine. People on this forum are unrealistic.

[Anonymous]

My best friend has 5 kids and makes about $350K. Things were very tight for a while but woth two kids in elementary, the budget has loosened up a lot.

My other friend has 5 kids and again makes about $350k. And again, they seem very comfortable (nice home, good school district, kids to plenty of activities/sports, they travel,etc).

I think tgry key in both cases is public school.

[Anonymous]

PP - that should say THE key....

Also want to add that I think both families could get by easily with less than they currently make - they both seem to live well, but not extravagantly.

[Anonymous]

A friend has four. My guess is that she and her husband are somewhere in the 275 K range. They live in a decent suburb with schools that are considered decent but not great.They bought years ago. They take driving vacations. The kids are all in sports. They spaced the kids out a lot, so the older ones do babysit the younger, and they generally only had two in daycare at any one time, and most of that time, they only had one in daycare.

[Anonymous]

2 here, make $300K. It's probably $50K shy of where I'd want to be to really not have any concerns. 4 kids would fit in our house - welcome to bunk beds ! - but I'd want at least $400 - probably $450. That extra $100k would quickly become $60k after tax and that's enough for private OR food, clothing, trips, college saving, etc.

Crazy, but yea. $450.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unreal! I have 4 kids with HHI of 180K, and we are living just fine. People on this forum are unrealistic.

What are your plans for paying for college? Do you live in DC or close in suburbs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unreal! I have 4 kids with HHI of 180K, and we are living just fine. People on this forum are unrealistic.

Seriously. I have 2 and stopped there because I didn't think I could handle more than 2. But not because of my income. Typical DCUM responses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unreal! I have 4 kids with HHI of 180K, and we are living just fine. People on this forum are unrealistic.

What are your plans for paying for college? Do you live in DC or close in suburbs?

Not to derail completely, but why does everyone on DCUM think that their snowflakes are entitled to a completely parent financed college education? This was the exception and not the rule when I was in school and most of us worked part-time or had odd jobs around campus to help pay for expenses. Not knocking it, but not every kid is college material either so just curious why everybody seems to think that it's mandatory to be able to pay for a full 4-5 years of private school living on campus.