Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are currently at the 300k HHI and doubling that would honestly he amazing. We are "young", no kids yet as recently married, and bought our place when rates were high (and nothing fancy, TH quite a bit under $1m). Feels like we are living paycheck to paycheck and can't even imagine having kids yet due to the massive cost. Doubling that would very much make it possible for us not to worry about the cost of having kids (daycare, 529 savings, etc)

Kids are expensive! Especially those early daycare years - it’s like paying college tuition for a 6 month old.

Yeah exactly its crazy how expensive childcare in the DMV area is. Kids is the natural next step for us but like I said (and reason why we bought a place), but frankly not sure how we would be able to afford everything with our current income (its doable I am sure since people with less manage) but if it feels like living paycheck to paycheck now, I shudder to think what it will be like once have to spend 2500 a month on daycare alone (granted other costs will go down significantly, like date nights lol). Neither of us is from the US so our parents don't live here, so we can't rely on that for helping out with childcare. Thankfully both of us get fairly decent (by US standards) maternity and paternity leave (theoretically six months each but not 100% sure) so will very much have to rely on that, and of course hopefully our incomes going up a bit before kid is born, and mortgage rates falling a bit to help reduce our current cost of housing. But I should not be complaining tbh given everything (there are far more people in worse positions here in the US, not to mention where we are from originally), but tough not to stress about it sometimes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We bought a second home
We send our kids to private school and don't worry about the price tag

Those are the two major differences. That, and we just have the freedom to not worry that much about your every day purchases. We also are now closer to 1.3-1.4, but most of the above occurred when we were right at $1M.

Totally agree with this. At $1.8M we did the fabulous vacations and stopped worrying completely about spending.

The best vacations I've ever taken were among the least expensive. What do you define as fabulous?

DP: My favorite vacation is a beach vacation, at a luxury/higher end resort with an adult only pool. So think Four Seasons Ko Olina, Four Seasons Big Island, Koa Kea in Poipu. You can get away from the families and just relax by the pool with amazing ocean views (well Koa kea has only one pool, but it's not a hotel many will go to with kids). So wonderful food, drinks, and just relaxation. But not cheap

Anonymous wrote:We are currently at the 300k HHI and doubling that would honestly he amazing. We are "young", no kids yet as recently married, and bought our place when rates were high (and nothing fancy, TH quite a bit under $1m). Feels like we are living paycheck to paycheck and can't even imagine having kids yet due to the massive cost. Doubling that would very much make it possible for us not to worry about the cost of having kids (daycare, 529 savings, etc)

Kids are expensive! Especially those early daycare years - it’s like paying college tuition for a 6 month old.

We are currently at the 300k HHI and doubling that would honestly he amazing. We are "young", no kids yet as recently married, and bought our place when rates were high (and nothing fancy, TH quite a bit under $1m). Feels like we are living paycheck to paycheck and can't even imagine having kids yet due to the massive cost. Doubling that would very much make it possible for us not to worry about the cost of having kids (daycare, 529 savings, etc)

Lifestyle did not change. Investments and taxes both increased.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We bought a second home
We send our kids to private school and don't worry about the price tag

Those are the two major differences. That, and we just have the freedom to not worry that much about your every day purchases. We also are now closer to 1.3-1.4, but most of the above occurred when we were right at $1M.

Totally agree with this. At $1.8M we did the fabulous vacations and stopped worrying completely about spending.

The best vacations I've ever taken were among the least expensive. What do you define as fabulous?