We had a lot of money saved up and zero debt. That's more reflective of our general philosophy towards money than an intention to get things in order before having kids, though. We lived frugally all through our 20s and had our first at 30.

I was in law school when DS was born, racking up lots of student loan debt. We also had a mortgage. So, no, we were not debt free. We did have more than 6 months of savings though (mostly in investments).

Net worth 600k before ttc. One condo rented out with mortgage (rent covered payments), one TH with no mortgage. But we were both 35 and had worked and saved for 22 years combined as professionals. It took us two rounds of ivf.

We had a mortgage and my small (under $300 a month) student loan payment which I have no plans to pay off ahead of time do the ridiculously low interest rate. We had a 6 month + emergency fund and a brokerage account with around $150k. We were not fully funding our 2 401ks at the time. No other debt of any kind.

Anonymous wrote:I got pregnant at 21, had my first at 22 (and graduated from a very prestigious college 3 weeks later). Obviously not the best timing and I would never encourage anyone to do the same. However, it work out for us. I was lucky to be nearly done with school and lucky that I buckled down hard early in college so my final semester was a lighter load (still, taking exams at 2 weeks PP was really rough). That was a long time about and now we have a $950K home in a great neighborhood, 6 figure salaries, and both kids will be done with college when I am 46.

I am the PP, and we did live very frugally for a long time. We had lots of family support and were able to live with my parents for a year (that was the only semi-monetary support we received). We made some smart real estate decisions that also helped our financial situation tremendously.

I got pregnant at 21, had my first at 22 (and graduated from a very prestigious college 3 weeks later). Obviously not the best timing and I would never encourage anyone to do the same. However, it work out for us. I was lucky to be nearly done with school and lucky that I buckled down hard early in college so my final semester was a lighter load (still, taking exams at 2 weeks PP was really rough). That was a long time about and now we have a $950K home in a great neighborhood, 6 figure salaries, and both kids will be done with college when I am 46.

We were in our late 20s and just barely able to afford child care, mortgage, etc. It meant we have lived frugally (no expensive vacations, put off home renovations, etc.) at least until we are done with the child care years. No regrets though. You never know how long it will take to conceive and I can't imagine just starting a family now in my mid-thirties.

We both have minor student loan debt (probably total of $350 per month) and a mortgage, but no other debt. Student loans are at an absurdly low interest rate (mine are 1.85%, I think), so no real rush to pay them off.

We did make sure that we had a healthy emergency account, but I'm not sure if that would have stopped us. Age and timing/planning was the biggest driver, not finances, since you can always make those work.

OP, I'm like you. I want to save before kids but I married really young (22) so the latest I'm thinking of TTCing is at the age of 27. We hope to have bought a place and have savings by then. I've heard so many infertility stories so I'd just try before 30 if possible. Sometimes I even get nervous about waiting until 27! Some of my friends are having kids at 24/25/26. They married young like I did and they all are college educated, in the process of obtaining their advanced degrees and have high earning potential (future doctors, lawyers,ect). I have a feeling it will be hard in beginning but their incomes will rise so that it will get easier over time. Perhaps they are doing it the "right" way.