<prompt> Human: EDIT: Thank you all there is a lot of good stuff here: using my wifes short term disability insurance to cover part of her maternity leave is a great idea. And we might just have a kid first, then wait till we save up for a nice fat down payment to buy a house, it will be less stressful to separate the move and the kid by 6 month of so. Thanks all!!!All right, so my wife and I have been working hard to pay off our debt and save up some cash. Right now we have no debt at all, and at the end on this month we will have 13,000 saved up.We want to buy a car to replace our 13yo car that needs almost constant repairs, have an emergency fund, buy a house, and have a baby with some money saved up to make up for maternity and paternity leave. We have a combined income of approx 4,800. Our monthly expenses are 1,800. We save 3,000 every month, sometimes a little more. No debt at all. We live in TX, our incomes wont go up by much for the next 18 month, and we max out our respective 401k match.Heres what we want to save up before or while having a kid: Ideally 12,000 emergency fund Car: between 15,000 and 20,000 Down payment on a house 20: 30,000 Maternitypaternity leave: 6,000We just dont know what order of savings would be the best, and would appreciate advice from experienced folks here. We have the emergency fund now, still building up savings to buy a car, then a house down payment, then the maternitypaternity leave.Im personally not so crazy about starting to have a kid until were close to our final goal 6-9 month from it so that we dont have to live in this 1 bedroom apt with a kid, but move to a house instead, not sure if this is such a big deal for others. Also we will lose our saving power for a few months once we have a kid if we take off work for a few months leave.The car budget is for a certified used or new car, my wife works for a car manufacturer and gets dealer price - 10 for any new car she wants there, so well go with one of the cheaper cars in this manufacturer and the price will be the same or better than a recent used car from a private party.Any advice appreciated, were feeling overwhelmed by all this money to save up and really want kids sooner than later. Thanks!  <response>: Definitely make sure your life and house is ready for a kid. My brother and my sister both had to move with babies on the way, and it wasnt any fun. Lots of stress, lots of tears. Trust me, you want to be in the new house before you even think about conception. A friend of mine stopped using birth control, assuming the actual pregnancy would not happen for at least half a year or so. Bam, pregnant immediately, so that she was very very pregnant when she defended her thesis. Morale of this story: be serious about birth control until youre truly ready to have a kid. It might take a few months when you stop using birth control methods, but it might not... 