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[quote=Anonymous]200k is basically our family income goal. Right now we are at around 130k, but I'm working part time (though that comes with a big savings in childcare at the moment, so it's worth it). Hoping to get there in the next 5 years though, as I transition to full time work and DH likely moves up a level at work.

The trick is that we already own our home and only have one child. Moving to 200k without moving from a house where we already have a ton of equity, and then not shifting our lifestyle at all, means that money will be a massive boost in terms of college and retirement savings. We are already very frugal.

It's totally possible to do this. But not if you are determined to have multiple kids, live in a 3k square foot home in the best neighborhood, send kids to private schools, always have new clothes and nice furnishings, eat out a lot, always have a car or cars that are less than 5 years old, and take multiple nice vacations every year. But not one of those things is a necessity. You can have fewer kids and be very happy, no one needs as much space as they think, there are plenty of good publics out there if you are smart about it, clothes and furniture and cars still work and can even look nice when they are 5, 10, even 15 years old. And you can still travel plenty, and to interesting locations, on a budget -- we do a foreign trip only every other year, one of our vacations each year is a big road trip, and we have learned that with a very young child, this is a good time to take low-key and less expensive vacations to accessible destinations.

People often aren't very good at discerning between "needs" and "wants". You can have everything you need on 200k a year in this area (heck, I'm proof you can do that on 130k a year, though I'd like to be saving more). You will never, ever have everything you want. There are too many things to want! You just have to learn to live with that, no matter your income.[/quote]

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