I would seriously cut all else from your budget first. Like, no cable, no smartphones, no memberships, no eating out, get movies from the library, etc before cutting retirement. Literally cut everything to the bone. If you're paying $1600 for two kids for daycare, you are paying very very little for this area and for a combined salary of $140K -- unless your mortgage is incredibly high, you should be able to save money on top of your daycare payments and bills with that salary.

We cut the costs above in addition to cutting retirement contributions when saving up for our DP on our house a couple years ago. It was a boost to our savings and we've kept up most of those cost-cutting measures now that we're fully funding our 401Ks again. At 31, we have about $200K more than you guys have in total, so in your late 30s at the retirement funding level you have, I would SERIOUSLY consider not cutting into your retirement savings if at all possible.

Our fee-based financial planner was about $2000 -- and was very helpful (finally motivated us to diversify properly, write our wills, set up the right sort of accounts for our family). It's probably not a great use of your money now, but when you have the ability to contribute again, look into it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It happens. But know that it is not forever. And next year, when you get your annual COLA, just contribute that amount to the 401K.

What's a COLA?

Cost of leaving adjustment, I guess. However, not all employers do that

Cost of Living, not Leaving Adjustment.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It happens. But know that it is not forever. And next year, when you get your annual COLA, just contribute that amount to the 401K.

What's a COLA?

Cost of leaving adjustment, I guess. However, not all employers do that

OP here, oh, I've never heard of that! I definitely don't get that...lol, I don't even get paid maternity leave at all and no Christmas bonus either. My yearly raise is pretty much a joke too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It happens. But know that it is not forever. And next year, when you get your annual COLA, just contribute that amount to the 401K.

What's a COLA?

Cost of leaving adjustment, I guess. However, not all employers do that

Anonymous wrote:It happens. But know that it is not forever. And next year, when you get your annual COLA, just contribute that amount to the 401K.

What's a COLA?

Anonymous wrote:What kind of childcare did you choose? Have you considered a licensed in-home provider? That can be half the cost of a center downtown.

I'd go that route before ceasing my retirement contributions.

We are in a center, but in Hyattsville. The tuition there will be $900/mo for the infant, and DS's tuition is $720/mo.

It happens. But know that it is not forever. And next year, when you get your annual COLA, just contribute that amount to the 401K.

I scaled back 401k contributions with my first and stopped them altogether for awhile with my second. Besides day care for two, we also had bought a home that we needed to furnish and make repairs to. So we took on some credit card debt and I made paying that off a priority over the 401k. Recently paid off all the debt and wrote my last tuition check for older child's day care (going to public school in the fall) so I am back to contributing the max to the 401k. I feel like this will probably end up being the tightest financial time of our life and now that we're emerging from it we're getting back to building our savings.

What kind of childcare did you choose? Have you considered a licensed in-home provider? That can be half the cost of a center downtown.

I'd go that route before ceasing my retirement contributions.

Thanks all! A financial planner seems like a good idea. Does anyone know about how much they charge?

I'm not sure what is a good amount for us to have in our accounts at our age, so I don't really know if we are doing pretty well, or not, or if we are ridiculously behind.

We both have about $100K in our accounts. I make $60K salary per year. I think I was making about $22K back in 2001, when I started the 401K. DH was making about $110K, but last year was only about $80K.

We did this. It was almost three years before we got back to our pre-baby retirement savings level.

I would try not to stress about this too much. Track your spending carefully for a few months after you start daycare. Babies are expensive, but you'll eventually figure out the new normal and where you can cut.

We met with a financial planner after a couple of years who was able to take an objective look at our retirement and college savings as well as our insurance needs and that was really helpful for us. Good luck.

we thought about stopping, but we didn't, just limited $$ to the max matched by employer. Without match - I would've stopped it, no questions there.
Hang in there, you'll be OK

Have no experience, but we are going through the same thing. Right now, we are maxing out retirement each year, but DH and I decided to contribute less in order to account for daycare for DC#2. It sucks, but hopefully we can come back strong after DC#1 is out of daycare.

I know a lot of people who did this, but they haven't retired yet, so I'm not sure if it has affected them. Hopefully, we can get some positive stories here

Well, it all depends on your overall retirement savings. If those are ok, no need to panic. If there's any way to tighten your spending, even $20 a month is better than nothing to save.

Did anyone else go through a period where you had to stop contributing to your retirement?

I've always contributed at least something monthly to my 401K as soon as I was given access to one. I'm DH and I are both in late 30's. He is not going to contribute to his SEP anymore either unless we end up with extra money, which is not looking likely currently.

His business was doing well, but had really fallen off since I got pregnant. We've come to the decision that we will have to stop contributing to our retirements funds, in the hopes that his business will pick back up eventually and we will be able to start again.

It's making me feel bad...not sure if it's guilt, shame, or maybe just fear about our finances.

I don't really know what I'm looking for hear...advice? Knowledge that others have gone through this and still come out good?