Reply to Family of 5, appx $300K HHI - would you do anything different?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Here are kids activity expenses which I guess you can tell me is crazy and you all don’t spend this much for kids activities.

Kid 1: $275/mo. swim, plus appx. $200 each fall and spring for rec sport. (May not continue swimming next year for interest reasons)
Kid 2: $275/mo. swim, plus appx. $1000 each fall & spring for travel sport (but seriously considering switching back to rec only next season for not being worth it for talent reasons)
Kid 3: $300/mo. dance; $160 mo. gymnastics

There is also an $50/mo. instrument rental for a kid. [/quote]

So this is $16,320/year for kids' activities, *not* including camps.  That is a lot.  If you've got plenty of money then have fun, but if you're feeling the pinch like you say, then this is an easy place to cut back.  If you take Kid 1 out of swim, Kid 2 out of travel, and Kid 3 picks a sport, that's a decent chunk of change that could be directed to 529s.

Once you get all of your numbers lined up, I would pause the mortgage pre-payment and use that $1600/month to pay off one or both cars and possibly your student loan.  Then DH can go back to prepaying if he must (you shouldn't be doing this, but people who like to prepay their mortgages don't listen to reason) and you will have freed up ~$1k/month to use for other purposes.  [/quote]

Don't take the kids out of their activities but those activities seem very high, especially for swim except if they are on a high level swim team.[/quote]

NP. We’re in a similar situations as OP.  3 kids, similar income, similar mortgage.  If you live in the DC a area (we’re in McLean), activities are really really expensive.  Like little league is $250 per season per kid.  That’s just a couple practices and games with volunteer parent coaches.  The local swim programs are very expensive.  We have a middle schooler who uses to do dance weekly at a studio for $100 a month and that’s jumped to $250 for our youngest for the same level and same class. Plus you have to pay for the recital and outfit now and didn’t used to.  Also there’s the fact that on certain geographic areas there  are different qualifications for things like music.  A kid plays in the school orchestra, and at some point we realized almost everyone else had their kids ina private lesson.  We’re not trying to send her to julliard, but she wants to play in the orchestra with friends and feel like she’s keeping up.  Private music is expensive.  My overall point is I’m not sure this is an area to cut back unless your kids are young, like young elementary or preschool. For older kids, part of their development is trying skills and interests, being part of a team, doing fun things with friends.  Also as they get to middle school age and play less outdoors, expertise is harder to come by and a sport like swimming starts to feel invaluable.[/quote]

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