My husband and I make a combined income of $200k. After our mortgage, two kids in daycare, groceries, utilities, a few other bills…we are broke. Anyone else in the same boat? I feel more broke than I ever have since starting my career. I know it’s daycare…but we literally are at a point where we have no room in our budget for anything fun…

I know it’s very rough, but your kids won’t be in daycare forever. We weren’t able to save much when both of my kids were in full time daycare. Now they are in school and are 8 and 6 it’s like we received huge raises. We are able to save so much money now! So, I just wanted to point out there will be a light at the end of the tunnel!

If you have that kind of income and you are still “broke” than you are living above your means, maybe you bought too expensive of a home or bought brand new cars, something doesn’t add up here. None of that stuff that you bought will ever make you happy trust me.

Same here and me and husband make 400k combined but in NYC. 2 kids in daycare, one in school & aftercare (which they charge 1200 per month for not including Holidays). No advice…just venting with you 😁. Everything goes to kids and mortgage.

The cost of childcare in the country is outrageous. Apparently it doesn’t even get cheaper when they’re out of daycare because you have to pay for aftercare??

We make 450k combined in Boston, and we only have one child who is 12yo. We just did a financial analysis of whether we can afford another child, and we can’t.

I think I'm too broke for this thread 😂😂 no seriously, I make barely over $50K before taxes and am the only income for a family of 5. We have a mortgage but downsized to only one car and we decided to pay that off so we could qualify for the mortgage. We are making it by, but we don't live beyond our means and opted to move to a lower cost of living area. I would be thriving if I even touched 6 figures

Feel the same. Anything that needs to happen on the house is alway thousands, minimum. Our air conditioning unit became covered in mold and we had to replace some duct thing that couldn’t be cleaned, $2k right there. HOA says the house has to be painted, goodbye $5k. We’re at $3500 a month in childcare costs alone. My property insurance keeps going up so my insurance and property taxes are almost has much as my mortgage 😭. It feels a lot harder to make it than ever before. There’s no “I’ll live in a cheap house farther away and cut coupons”. You still need both parents to work to make the mortgage and there’s no daycare than can cover your kids late enough to allow you to commute 2 hours each way everyday.

Yep. Working just to pay bills. I touched 6 figures this year, but with school tuition, inflation on groceries, insurance, and utilities, I'm drowning over here.

Kind of jealous of those OE ppl right now

We live in Nashville for reference. I know $200k is nothing in some places.

Folks, sometimes it’s worth taking a big leap. My husband and I moved from the city out to the country, where our mortgage for a home on 20 acres is $500 a month. We quit our corporate jobs, launched our own business, and work from home. We sold off a lot of what we had, downsized, and lived a simpler life. Now I bake bread, raise chickens, and do consulting from my home office. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. I absolutely love it!!!

We are relatively similar in MCOL in Nevada. For a small city their real estate was incredibly expensive due to retirees and Tesla opening their gigafactory. 2 kids in full time daycare is about $4k per month, plus maxing out 401k, saving for 529, paying mortgage, we cut it close every month. And we don’t have any state income tax so that’s about 5% savings. Just saying, we feel your pain!

Yup. Same here in the DMV area and a combined 300k. Sucks so much. Working to just pay for our home and village. 💀 some are lucky and have family support to make it easier.

If you can afford all your necessities you aren't broke. Bet there's plenty of fun things to do in Nashville that are free or low cost, that's one of the benefits of living in a city

We are making 550-600 still feel broke with two kids, mortgage… and we ain’t driving luxury car or anything like that, only a Highlander

I'm unsure if you're living in a situation with debt or not. This was us with two small kids in daycare & I felt like we'd never get ahead. This is when I discovered Dave Ramsey. Now I'm not a die hard advocate of him & a lot of his information is crap, but his advice for getting out of debt & "starting over" is decent. We actually took a really big step: we sold our home and used the proceeds to eliminate 95% of our debt. We rented an apartment for less than a year & used a 401(k) loan to buy a new home. We've been debt free since then and it's very freeing. Unsure if a program like this would help you or not, but just putting it out there. Ours kids are 12 & 8 now, we maximize our retirement savings ($60k/year) on a combined salary of $250k. Now we're in a LCOL state and daycare was 5+ years ago for us, but I remember it being another mortgage payment at the time. Just know: it will get better- try to cut costs where you can & this too shall pass.

We suffered through the same thing. The time will eventually come when you will suddenly have money. Just think outside the box and do 'free' things like picnics, camping, day trips, crafts, etc., something the kids like. We had to do this for about 10 years - it was tough, but we survived. And then you start making more money and your bills suddenly seem less and then you can go on nice trips or do something fun like go to the amusement parks without breaking the bank. Getting annual passes to the local parks is always a good idea if you can afford it. Hang in there but spend quality time with the kids!!

Complaining about not being able to go to destination weddings? Honestly, I can't understand how out of touch so many people with privilege are about the poverty that many refugee children live in.

Same. We had a nanny and that sucked up a ton of money. Both of my kids are in school now and let me tell you, that windfall never comes. The cost of sports, clothes and grocery bills for two growing boys is astronomical. Oh and then just wait until things start needing repairs/upgrades in your house. It never ends.

Same, we save about $1k/month which isn’t in bad for us