<prompt> Human: My wife and I are in our late 20s quickly approaching early 30s and weve started to have the kids discussion. Together we bring in a little under 5,000 per month after taxes. We have a mortgage 1,100 and 2 car payments 250 325 along with student loan payments 475 350. After all other expenses we usually are able to save about 500 per month. My wife is able to save at a decent rate for retirement but Im only able to put away 150 per month at the moment. Our question is to those that have kids, what does your child cost you per month? We know we arent financially in a good spot right now, but we arent sure how far away from a good spot we actually are. Thanks everybody!Assistant: The biggest expense is childcare. Either one of you stops working or you both have to work weird-ass hours to share in childcare. Or...you pay for a daycare center or nanny. It ends up costing as much as college the first few years and slowly decreases in cost until the kid is 12. This entirely depends on childcare costs in your area. In NYC, it is 2000mo. or more for cheap baby care. In Alabama it is way less. Then you need to save something for their college!If people based parenthood on it being reasonable financially, no one would ever have kids.Human: I believe childcare around us is roughly 1300 per month. The hard part is we use my wifes teaching job for good healthcare but shes the one that would have to leave her job if one of us were to quit. My job isnt a job I can leave and come back to so I wouldnt be able to stay home to avoid childcare expenses. Fortunately we wouldnt need to pay childcare in the summer and over school breaks but thats still a big expense.  <response>: Maybe take last years tax return and redo the figures as if you had a baby, do it once with your wife working and redo it without her working. There are tax advantages and credits to factor into your decision, see: 