<prompt> Human: My wife would like to have a baby, while Im still on the fence. Im currently in my second year of medical school. She would like to get pregnant asap. She currently works and makes 65kyear. I obviously do not work or make any salary. We have about 60k in a 401k and 80 in investments.I wouldnt begin working until residency which would be in 2018. At this point, I can expect about 55k a year, perhaps upping to 8090s by my thirdfourth year of residency assuming I enter a program which allows moonlighting. That said, I will also have student loan debts which I may push off during residency until I begin bringing home real doctor money. Either way this will be about 2.5-3.5k a month in loan payments depending on how I structure the repayment plan. BUT, before that happens we have about 2 years where she will be the sole source of income. I also dont want to drain savings accounts to have a baby either. Can her assumed salary of 65k hold us over until I finish med school and start working? edit: we live in SF, i.e. cost of living is high. Assistant: Make a budget. My biggest concern would be child care costs. 65k is fine if one person is a stay at home parent. Depending on your location, even with childcare costs it could be fine. You might also need to change your lifestyle. There isnt nearly enough information to answer your question.Human: We live in an extremely high cost of living area...rent here a large house with a pool in other areas of the country. Assistant: Whats rent? Can you move further out to get cheaper rent? Whats daycare costs? You need to make a budget and figure out what your costs would be before you can say if you can afford it right now. You need to decide what kind of lifestyle changes youre willing to make. It sounds like you havent done any research.Human: rent is 2,150 for a modest one bedroom. moving further is not an option given schoolwork. besides, the bay area doesnt get cheap until youre WAY out of the city. I do have student loans which cover living expenses, but I dont really want to max out student loans just to have a kid.  <response>: I live in SF, and all my friends are paying 2000 for daycare. Edit: I noticed youre paying 2k for rent, so I assume youre in the Bay Area but not SF itself. So daycare will probably be slightly cheaper.Unless she is past 30, I strongly recommend that you guys sit down, figure out what dollar amount you actually need to have a kid e.g. How much is daycare exactly? Do you want to rent a two bedroom or buy?. And then come up with a budget and plan so that you can have that amount saved in a set amount of time say, two years. That way, she knows youre not putting it off indefinitely, and you both have something you can work towards. Also, others may disagree, but I think you can slow your 401k contributions to save for the baby. You have a decent nest egg in place gaining interest, and youll be able to save for retirement more aggressively once you have a full doctors salary. 