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Hi All, My sister has done Computer Science engineering Bachelor degree and has 5 years of work experience in India. She is applying for MBA at https://www.kenan-flagler.unc.edu/programs/mba/full-time-mba/ and https://kelley.iu.edu/programs/full-time-mba/academics/majors-minors/marketing.html. Her overall goal is to get into Software Product management. Any suggestions if any of these MBA’s can open path in the desired space or if she is better of doing an MS in Comp engg. to further develop deeper Technology skills. Thanks
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To quote my consumer behavior professor. The single biggest event driving a shift in a consumer’s spending is having a baby. Everything is about to change. Where you shop, what you buy, where you eat out, etc.
But also what you care about.
Agree that childcare is the biggest structural change.
Kids can be financial black hole or manageable - up to you. If you need top of the line everything, it will be expensive. There is for sure a ‘baby-industrial-complex’ that will try to convince you that being a good parent requires a $2k stroller, etc.
Remember. One of the few things that humans have done most successfully for millennia is have and raise other humans. None of that stuff is necessary. Some is helpful. Some is just buying into the BS.
Pro tip- use Buy Nothing to get most things second hand. Except the car seats.
Cost for a kid changes over time.
Childcare is the biggest thing to factor in. Our daycare cost is about $25k/year for full time (infant room) and then went down slightly each year. This was about 10 years ago.
After we built up our baby gear and figured out what worked for our kid, the non-childcare expenses mellowed out. But the first three months were filled with daily Amazon deliveries- mainly panic/desperation purchases. I’d say the average monthly cost was about a hundred dollars for kid-specific stuff (diapers, wipes, ointment, baby lotion, breast milk bags, etc.).
Our food budget didn’t really change until several years in. But that is a slow progression so I don’t remember the pre-post baby food budget #s.
Congrats and I hope this helps!
I'd get the DaddyUp app for practical tips during pregnancy.
Lots of one-time costs upfront (a few thousand most likely, but could be a lot more if you splurge on a few things). Then run rate costs probably in the $1k. / month range for diapers, supplies, clothes. You'll probably end up with a bunch of stuff you don't need (took us a while with our first to dial in what stuff actually worked).
Biggest single expense is childcare, depending on what you and your wife decide there.
Let people throw you baby showers, and then budget at least $300 a month for food, diapers, new bottles, clothes, random gadgets/toys, etc. However much you budget just know that it’s worth it as you will not likely have any bigger responsibility and contribution to society than raising a child. Giving up eating out at a nicer restaurant one weekend will be worth it.
We have a 1 year old for context. Childcare is $2500 a month. Other than that, we are spending less per month. We are eating out less, Uber eats less, less vacations and the expenses that come with that. It’s averaged out with diapers and stuff which really aren’t that bad. We had some upfront costs for the nursery… maybe $700. Every other big cost we got through registry or friends passing it down.
We haven’t done much babysitting but we are starting to. That is going to make every night out very pricey but we need it.
I don’t see this changing drastically for us in the next few years.
Two books I really liked a lot (they’re very different):
“Your Baby’s First Year” by AAP -> basically an owners manual to a newborn from the American Academy of Pediatrics (eg How do I shampoo a newborn? How many layers of clothes should they easer?)
Cribsheet by Emily Oster -> She’s a Brown economics professor and breaks down varies decisions new parents make with data-driven backings (eg pros and cons of circumcision, difference of breast milk vs formula, etc).
Broken record, but childcare’s gonna be the biggest expense at 20K-40K per year in HCOL. Everything else is peanuts in comparison. If you do public school that’ll go away eventually. Everything else is annoying but manageable. Just remember that toddlers have a habit of breaking things you didn’t know could break that you will need to fix or replace (e.g., my toddler loves playing with the dials on our oven and suddenly it doesn’t heat up anymore, not sure what the repairs will be yet)