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After paying for a full time nanny and private preschool (no public prek here either) we are lucky to save anything. But we also have the emergency fund and contribute to 401ks.
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I just keep reminding myself you can take out a loan to help pay for college but not for retirement!
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I have 2 kids in day care, we max out our 401K, and aside from that we don't save much. We do have an emergency fund.
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Anyone reading this thread thinking man, this sounds nice? Investments and choice-based retirement? 529s? We are nowhere near that.
We have 3 months of an emergency fund and have a mandatory 10% pension contribution. We try to max out our HSA but keep having to spend it. We don't have any other retirement savings, only $100 in the 529, and no investments. I don't know how we would do any of that.
We save for smaller goals, like a badly needed pool renovation, unpaid maternity leave, paying for my mom's flight for the birth, and summer travel to see family.
Other than that, student loan debt and car debt is more of a focus. Luckily we have only one car loan, and it was for a great-value used car.
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@babypugs: yes! a lot of our friends/family are way more well off than we are and I am usually just living vicariously through other people's insta-stories
I've taken DD1 on one overnight trip and that was tagging onto DH's work conference! @bluestriped bee: Yes, I feel like everyone openly complains about how expensive childcare is but you don't really go in depth talking about this with your friends/family, so it's nice to know that I'm not alone, with details (i/o of just general commiserating).
@KayKay: That's totally where we are some months where I'm literally down to the last budgeted dollar or worse. And I think it is just a scary feeling just b/c I've never been this tight before!
@merriment: wow, that's a good point. Just curious, new school costs as in like school supplies? Or more than that? Ugh, totally agree that after school care/summer camp stuff will add up too....
@DesertDreams88: I def don't have a 529 for the kids and not even sure if we're gonna do that. And an "investment portfolio" may sound fancy but it's really just so my small nest egg can get a little more than minimal interest! I think we all do what we can! I feel like baseline is to have emergency fund and anything beyond that I guess is just what you can do!
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@DesertDreams88: I feel ya. We prioritize our retirement, HSA, and 529 (and definitely not maxing any of those out!!) and have an extremely pitiful emergency fund, so I'm gawking at responses in the opposite way. Sometimes I'm not sure why we don't prioritize liquid assets more!!
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@runnerd: I'll be honest that most of my nest egg is before I got married. I lived at home until I got married at 28 so I had time to save. Even after getting married it was harder to save b/c of house/house projects and then before you know it, kids!
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@DesertDreams88: Our savings just got seriously depleted by unexpected house repairs and come to find out keeping our ac at 78-80 for about 7-9 hours a day (when it's generally 95-105 outside) yields a $750 electric bill. So there goes that.
We get a large check annually but it's not for another 5 months. So our retirement is doing ok but otherwise my dh either works a lot of planned OT or we have to be very careful.
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@2littlepumpkins: ahhhh that ac bill
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@snowjewelz: We pay about $15000 per year for daycare (8 am- 6 pm, they only close for major holidays). So once school starts, my daughter will attend aftercare from 3 pm- 6 pm ($300 per month, about $2700 for the school year), she will need to go to camp in the summer (the only camp around us that offers extended hours is $5000 for the summer which includes busing). So immediately we are down 1/3 of the anticipated savings. There
are a bunch of holidays scattered throughout the year. We hope to organize a coop of parents to cover some of those days, but we are anticipating having to pay for a sitter for a handful of days, so I assume five or is days of a sitter at $80 per day? I would rather over budget and be prepared...
those are the big expenses. Supplies, requests from the PTA, activity fees, uniform (as she gets older and maybe wants to do sports or band or whatever) etc I expect will fold into our normal budget. -
@merriment: I agree... better to anticipate ALL kinds of costs! At least daycare costs are pretty all-inclusive but you're right... School has so much random expenses as you go along. I'm paying 24k a year for daycare for 2 now. man, just typing that is super depressing. Expected, but still!
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@2littlepumpkins: ahhhhh, poor thing!!! We just moved to a new house and were really careless the first month and got $400 electric bill (we were expecting more like $175). Now we are constantly increasing the thermostat, closing blinds, turning lights, etc
I've taken DD1 on one overnight trip and that was tagging onto DH's work conference! 
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