How do people in their 30s afford 3 kids?

[Anonymous]

Nice autocorrect: we lived frugally! Loved generously!

[Anonymous]

I have three kids, in DC, and our HHI is “only” $200k. I think we live pretty well, but we are certainly not living it up.

Neither me or DH came from money. He went to a state school for college and got grants/scholarships to cover- did not graduate with any loans. I went to a private school and graduated with significant loans. We both worked full time jobs plus had side hustles for years. I waitressed nights/weekends and used this to pay off my loans by my 30th birthday, plus put money aside for our down payment. We got an FHA loan so only needed to put down 5%. We bought in an appreciating neighborhood and were able to refinance to a conventional loan a few years back.

We have one old, used car that we barely use. Both DH and I bike to work (pre Covid anyway) and bike the kids to school/daycare.

Our only debt is our mortgage. We don’t have millions of dollars in retirement or 529s but we do contribute as much as possible to each. Two of our kids share a room. They attend public school- private will never be an option. My master bathroom is sorely in need of an upgrade so we are saving for that, but probably won’t be able to get it done for another few years. We take vacations 2x a year (pre Covid) but domestic and usually driving.

This was a priority for us, and we make it happen. I think we have a pretty great life but I’m sure that other people would be horrified that we have never taken our kids to Europe, or whatever.