How Do We Know if We Can Afford a Kid in the DMV?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Having a kid before $250k HHI is very tight. And bordering on irresponsible. Focus on improving your incomes.

Gee, I don’t know how my kids lived to adulthood on our measly $160k income. It was such a grim existence; we couldn’t travel to Europe twice a year! I’m sure they will suffer the effects for the rest of their lives. I’ll have to call them and say that I was irresponsible for having them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Having a kid before $250k HHI is very tight. And bordering on irresponsible. Focus on improving your incomes.

😂😂😂

So this means 99 percent of the world is irresponsible and should not reproduce. Clearly PP is a wealthy snob who doesn’t understand how the rest of us poors afford our kids or our lives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The problem with having a baby before you own a house or condo here is that it's super hard to save for the down payment while you're paying for daycare. And as soon as you finish daycare, you need to start saving for college and retirement. And once you have a kid you need to buy life insurance.

Actually DH and I found it easier to save once DD was two and both our student loans were paid off so we weren’t spending upwards of 700 a month towards that. It’s amazing how much we can save now that our car is paid off and our student loans. And we’ve been saving for retirement since we started working and DD’s college since she was born. Also, owning a home is not a requirement to be a good parent or to be a parent at all. Plenty of good things about renting with a young kid. No yard work, no lawn maintenance, no home repairs, no unexpected broken water heater, etc.

[Anonymous]

Just want to point out how dumb this is: "I don't trust people to do their own repairs and wish there would be a big sign on all houses as to whether the seller had a husband who thought they were Mr. Fix It (it'll come back to haunt you 5-10 years later)."

Let's say you don't want to spend your time doing repairs and prefer to pay someone else. How would you know if they're doing it right if you don't bother to learn anything about it? I know several people who do residential construction, plumbing, electric, landscaping, and carpentry and charge people a lot of money for their services. Most of them are actually very good at what they do and operate their businesses with a high degree of integrity. But they will be the first to tell you that few of their peers do high quality work. My dad is not a licensed electrician, but his job in the military for 20+ years involved working with electricity. He was visiting when we were having our kitchen remodeled and saw that the subcontractor's guys were not doing part of the project correctly. We had to make the GC get the master electrician out there the next day to correct things. Me and my high income would have just paid for the shoddy work.

Not all projects require the high skill level of a master electrician though. Installing crown molding, repainting, changing the faucet in a bath vanity, and all sorts of other projects can be done by anyone with the ability to learn and follow directions. If you can make a pavlova, odds are that you can patch a hole in your plaster wall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How long have you been married, what are your ages?
How badly do you want to be parents? I would not leave it too late. Life happens and is unpredictable. I had my first at 28, it was the right age for us. You need to grow old with your kids. Have them when you still have the energy to take them to the park, play ball with them.

You will never have enough money, kids are not the road to riches. But if you feel your life without them will be empty, then don't wait too long

Agree 100%. We were married for 10 years before I decided to have a child. I was 39. Now I'm 44 years old and feel like I should have had a child at the age of 30. I'm still feeling young and look very young, but my husband ( who is 10 years older than me) doesn't and a lot of people think he is a grandpa. It's a little embarrassing.
If you want a child, just do it- stop overthinking it, like I did.

[Anonymous]

I think if you do the opposite of this guy, you'll be fine.

"I had a kid on 240k income. Wife was SAH but we still used an expensive daycare (her insistence). Bought a house in the poor part of Chevy Chase. Didn't learn to fix anything like a PP suggested - I don't trust people to do their own repairs and wish there would be a big sign on all houses as to whether the seller had a husband who thought they were Mr. Fix It (it'll come back to haunt you 5-10 years later). Had two cars with 2% interest car payments for 5 years - $85k in cars total. Traveled internationally 1-2 time per year. It was fine. A little tight, not a lot of eating out. But doable. Just realized though that this was 10 years ago so with inflation it might be a bit tougher today."

1. Don't buy in an overpriced neighborhood where you'll be pressured to keep up with others.
2. Don't buy someplace where you need two cars. Find a place to live where you can take public transportation to work. Driving in DC is awful.
3. Don't have a stay at home partner who insists on putting the kids into daycare instead of caring for the kids at home.
4. Don't lug your kids around on international flights. Your kids don't give a toss about traveling internationally when they're little unless you're going to see family. (I say this as someone whose in-laws live in the South Pacific, so I know what it's like to take a baby on a 12-hour trip every year.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Having a kid before $250k HHI is very tight. And bordering on irresponsible. Focus on improving your incomes.

Gee, I don’t know how my kids lived to adulthood on our measly $160k income. It was such a grim existence; we couldn’t travel to Europe twice a year! I’m sure they will suffer the effects for the rest of their lives. I’ll have to call them and say that I was irresponsible for having them.

I'm an immigrant. We didn't have a telephone till I was 17 years old. We didn't own a car till I was again about 15 years old. And my mom had 5 of us. How did I manage to be a responsible, successful person who makes over six figure income in this country is beyond me!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think if you do the opposite of this guy, you'll be fine.

"I had a kid on 240k income. Wife was SAH but we still used an expensive daycare (her insistence). Bought a house in the poor part of Chevy Chase. Didn't learn to fix anything like a PP suggested - I don't trust people to do their own repairs and wish there would be a big sign on all houses as to whether the seller had a husband who thought they were Mr. Fix It (it'll come back to haunt you 5-10 years later). Had two cars with 2% interest car payments for 5 years - $85k in cars total. Traveled internationally 1-2 time per year. It was fine. A little tight, not a lot of eating out. But doable. Just realized though that this was 10 years ago so with inflation it might be a bit tougher today."


If things are tight, look at the bolded and you'll know why.