<prompt> Human: Any advice for someone planning to have multiple children in a few years time? Im mid 20s married, earn about 85k-95k per year. I max out my IRA and have about 15k in savings. Counterpart makes about 35k. Edit: Thank you all for the great responses!!Assistant: Child care is your big expense. It would be worth figuring out where you want to be living in terms of minimizing that e.g. near relatives?, since child care could be 2000month for two children, and your biggest single expense. Human: Well my partner wants to stay at home so this will hopefully negate most of that cost, but we both live close enough to parents as well. I figured with the low 35k income It doesnt make sense to spend 20k a year for a stranger to raise our kid. Assistant: Keep in mind that though that if your partner stays at home, as a couple, youre almost certainly going to be losing money in the long run. If they keep working and making 35k, by the time the kids are at school, odds are theyll be making substantially more than if they leave the workforce for several years. If they leave the work force its likely to heavily affect their earning potential for the rest of their life.Quite frankly, financially, it 100 makes sense to pay 20k if theyre making 35k for child care. Human: Financially, a baby is 100 an unnecessary expense.  <response>: On the margin, perhaps, meaning as an individuals choice.In aggregate? There would be big problems if everybody decided that children were unnecessary. 