<prompt> Human: My wife26 and I24 are thinking about starting a family within the next five years or so. We are both employed, making about 60,000 a year combined. Currently the only debts we have are the house360mo and 51k remaining on it, my car 180mo and 4K on it, and my student loans 100mo 12k remaining. Under our current budget, we are saving about 500mo. and have 3k in savings currently, and I am maxing out my employer matched 401k 10 of mine and 10 match. We also just opened a Roth IRA and are putting about 100mo in there for now part of the 500mo we are saving. We also have decent health insurance through my work. My job is very stable and I earn 40 of the 60k, my wifes job is new and we arent 100 sure how stable it is, but seems to be ok.What should our short term goals be before starting to try for kids?Editing for requested info and also attempting to formattake home pay per mohealth ins,tax, and retirement taken out:3650billsutilitiesfoodinsnecessities:1500misc expenses per monthbudgeted, I usually dont exceed this:800I have been paying an extra 200month on my car payment bc the int rate is on the high sideAlso, my wifes job doesnt offer a retirement plan, which is why i maxed mine, and opened the roth  <response>: I have a 6 month old and dont have as much saved as you. That being said nothing prepares you for having a child, and if you seriously want kids I feel you should just go for it. There will always be a bunch of things to get in order before hand but you are still young. I am 30 and knowing what I know now about babies if I could have had my boy 5 years ago I totally would have. Also look into cloth diapering. Its not as gross as it sounds and all in all we spent about 150-200 dollars on cloth diapers and minus a few replacements thats all I will ever have to spend as opposed to disposables which are actually really expensive and disgusting. 