<prompt> Human: Im 30, wife and baby, more kids in the future. Single income. We want to put our kids in a good school system. Houses in good school systems around here are 250k minimum. My max budget is 200k. Getting into a good school system likely means sacrificing future retirement savings contributions. We only have 20k invested right now. Single income. I am asking for advice on which would be a better invesment. My childrens education or my retirement savings? I obviously want the best for my kids, but dont want to end up broke when we retire.  <response>: Retirement first. You want to be a burden to them when youre old? No retirement savings means they have to foot your bills which puts a burden on them. That will in turn limit their retirement savings and could cause relationship strain with their spouse. Save for retirement. More money later means you can help them more later. 