How much money to raise 2 kids.

FLYINGCYCLONE

Well-Known Member
Aug 27, 2022
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LuVerne Iowa
Do you need to make $400,000 a year to afford 2 kids? Day care for 2 kids is $28,000 ?
KCCI thinks so. In their news tonight. Glad I don’t live in Des Moines.
 
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Wasn't the source Lending Tree?

What I can say for childcare in the Des Moines area is that my brother and SIL strongly considered having her stay home with the kids. It was low 20s per year for their two kids.
 
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My friends in the DSM area and 1 in St Joe's talking about daycare costs alone, ignore every other expense, has been the best birth control in my life. Stuff like $700/week for 2 kids, it's insane that every waking moment is just getting the kids to Kindergarten to lose the massive financial burden.
 
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It's about 12k per kid for us in Dubuque. We both work and I question why sometimes, but I know that I personally would lose my mind if I had to be a stay at home parent. Many props to anyone who lives that life, it would be tougher than many full time jobs in my opinion.
 
Do you need to make $400,000 a year to afford 2 kids? Day care for 2 kids is $28,000 ?
KCCI thinks so. In their news tonight. Glad I don’t live in Des Moines.
Depends if you make them kids earn their keep or not!
 
Do you need to make $400,000 a year to afford 2 kids? Day care for 2 kids is $28,000 ?
KCCI thinks so. In their news tonight. Glad I don’t live in Des Moines.
What does Des Moines have to do with it? When we had little kids in daycare it was super expensive in Traer, IA - enough that when we had our third, my wife quit her teaching job and we came out ahead.

And it's not like the people working at these daycare places make a lot of money. If you have cheaper daycare, the person doing it probably isn't charging market rate.
 
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We are counting down to June when we finally get our third and last out of daycare. Wife works in the schools so she will be home with the kids in the summer before sending him off to kindergarten. We planned carefully so we never had more than 2 in daycare, that would have been impossible. But yeah, 300ish per week per kid here in the WDM area.

And no, we do not make 400,000 between the two of us. Unfortunately, not even close.
 
It's about 12k per kid for us in Dubuque. We both work and I question why sometimes, but I know that I personally would lose my mind if I had to be a stay at home parent. Many props to anyone who lives that life, it would be tougher than many full time jobs in my opinion.

I stayed at home with my young kids in the summers when I taught. Did it to save on daycare. It wasn't difficult at all. Way easier and more enjoyable than a job. And yes, I actually took great care of, and played with my kids.
 
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I stayed at home with my young kids in the summers when I taught. Did it to save on daycare. It wasn't difficult at all. Way easier and more enjoyable than a job. And yes, I actually took great care of, and played with my kids.
That's what's hard about it for me. They are 5 and 2 so kind of still need to keep on top of them at all times. The age gap is enough that they don't care to play with each other a lot yet which makes it hard to help the 5 year old with Legos when the 2 year old just wants to eat them or destroy what the 5 year old is doing. I'm not gifted at planning multiple days worth of activities for young kids like that. I can handle a weekend or evening after working all day, but if I had to do it all the time I know I'd struggle.
 
It’s pretty bad. It’s not a mystery why people aren’t having kids anymore.
I don't understand the appeal. The cost of daycare, the idea of raising them in such a ****** up world, uncertainty in the job market, etc... When I was a young adult I briefly thought I might want kids someday but that was short lived. I only want to be responsible for myself. I love being able to save money, pack up and move wherever whenever the hell I want. I can be pretty much be selfish as hell and don't worry about feeling bad about it.
 
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Do you need to make $400,000 a year to afford 2 kids? Day care for 2 kids is $28,000 ?
KCCI thinks so. In their news tonight. Glad I don’t live in Des Moines.
Where do you live and what do you pay?
 
Sounds about right. We’ve got three of them and they’re in 8th, 1st and PK. Wife took about 5 years off working because of the cost of daycare and is now back to working part time here and there. Will probably ramp back up when the youngest gets to KG.

I don’t know how much they cost but it’s a lot. We run about 800- 1000 a month on just food. We had to cut out a lot of spending to make it work. It has gotten waaaay harder to pencil out over the last few years.
 
I don't understand the appeal. The cost of daycare, the idea of raising them in such a ****** up world, uncertainty in the job market, etc... When I was a young adult I briefly thought I might want kids someday but that was short lived. I only want to be responsible for myself. I love being able to save money, pack up and move wherever whenever the hell I want. I can be pretty much be selfish as hell and don't worry about feeling bad about it.

Honestly good on you for recognizing how you operate and taking the best path for you. I love kids but it is hard and anybody telling you different is lying to you.
 
I stayed at home with my young kids in the summers when I taught. Did it to save on daycare. It wasn't difficult at all. Way easier and more enjoyable than a job. And yes, I actually took great care of, and played with my kids.

I mean this sincerely consider yourself lucky. My older two were no problem. My youngest has pretty severe ADHD and he needs the structure of s system and honestly I’m not great at providing it.

He’s my guy, he’s way more like me than my other kids and we’ll probably do more stuff together when he’s grown than my other kids. But if we were together 24/7 we’d be super annoyed with each other.
 

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