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In high-cost-of-living areas, there are two other major costs worth considering. First is the cost of daycare (or equivalently the opportunity cost of having a

In high-cost-of-living areas, there are two other major costs worth considering. First is the cost of daycare (or equivalently the opportunity cost of having a stay-at-home parent). My wife watches our son, and we're glad that she can afford to do that, but that's $100k of forgone take-home pay we're leaving on the table. Second is the increased rent/mortgage of a house with an extra bedroom. I pay ~$600/mo more for an extra bedroom and have a substantially longer commute than most of my coworkers to live in a place that can accommodate our family. Both of those costs far exceed anything else we've spent on our son, which mostly falls into the "optional" category you mentioned. Both of these factors are much more important in high-cost-of-living areas, which may explain in part why there aren't many kids in San Francisco.

hx87 9y ago
The extra bedroom is also optional.
atourgates 9y ago
The cost of college is another one that every parent should consider as early as possible. It's certainly optional (you may be comfortable letting your kids go it alone for college tuition), but definitely worth making an intentional decision on and planning for as soon as you're able. Also, I'd strongly recommend you use several of the many "future cost of college" calculators available out there. For example, a college that costs $35,000/yr today is estimated to cost $56,000/yr in 10 years per Vanguard's calculator's defaults[1]. The "Worlds Simplest College Cost Calculator"[2] also provides a reasonably good and easy to understand picture of how much you'll have to contribute monthly to reach your goals by the time your child starts college and brings in some reasonable numbers for grants and scholarships based on your income. You could certainly "oversave" if the insanely high cost of higher education manages to correct itself, but pretty much any tax-advantaged educational savings account can be easily converted to retirement savings. In my case, it's also provided a bit of extra motivation to support my children in developing good study habits early on in their education. Once you understand the likely cost of college in 10, 12 or 18 years, the prospect of academic scholarships becomes really, really appealing. [1]https://vanguard.wealthmsi.com/collcost.php https://vanguard.wealthmsi.com/collcost.php [2]https://www.savingforcollege.com/calculators/worlds-simplest-college-cost-calculator https://www.savingforcollege.com/calculators/worlds-simplest...
- secabeen 9y ago
  > The cost of college is another one that every parent should consider as early as possible. It's certainly optional (you may be comfortable letting your kids go it alone for college tuition), but definitely worth making an intentional decision on and planning for as soon as you're able. Any parent planning on saving for college needs to have their retirement savings locked in and fully funded first. You can borrow money to go to school, but you can't borrow money to retire.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- XorNot 9y ago
  You should also just consider immigrating to Europe,Australia,Japan...really anywhere else in the developed world. Like I'm only being partially facetious here, but my suspicion is even accounting for currency differences you could come out on top.

hx87 9y ago

The extra bedroom is also optional.

atourgates 9y ago

The cost of college is another one that every parent should consider as early as possible. It's certainly optional (you may be comfortable letting your kids go it alone for college tuition), but definitely worth making an intentional decision on and planning for as soon as you're able. Also, I'd strongly recommend you use several of the many "future cost of college" calculators available out there. For example, a college that costs $35,000/yr today is estimated to cost $56,000/yr in 10 years per Vanguard's calculator's defaults[1]. The "Worlds Simplest College Cost Calculator"[2] also provides a reasonably good and easy to understand picture of how much you'll have to contribute monthly to reach your goals by the time your child starts college and brings in some reasonable numbers for grants and scholarships based on your income. You could certainly "oversave" if the insanely high cost of higher education manages to correct itself, but pretty much any tax-advantaged educational savings account can be easily converted to retirement savings. In my case, it's also provided a bit of extra motivation to support my children in developing good study habits early on in their education. Once you understand the likely cost of college in 10, 12 or 18 years, the prospect of academic scholarships becomes really, really appealing. [1]https://vanguard.wealthmsi.com/collcost.php https://vanguard.wealthmsi.com/collcost.php [2]https://www.savingforcollege.com/calculators/worlds-simplest-college-cost-calculator https://www.savingforcollege.com/calculators/worlds-simplest...

secabeen 9y ago
> The cost of college is another one that every parent should consider as early as possible. It's certainly optional (you may be comfortable letting your kids go it alone for college tuition), but definitely worth making an intentional decision on and planning for as soon as you're able. Any parent planning on saving for college needs to have their retirement savings locked in and fully funded first. You can borrow money to go to school, but you can't borrow money to retire.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
XorNot 9y ago
You should also just consider immigrating to Europe,Australia,Japan...really anywhere else in the developed world. Like I'm only being partially facetious here, but my suspicion is even accounting for currency differences you could come out on top.