<prompt> Human: So my wife and I are expecting our first child in 7 weeks or so. She makes roughly 42kyear, and I make the same, but close to 50kyear if we want to include overtime pay. Our plan is for her to take 12 weeks off to stay home, and return to work after that time. Because her leave is unpaid public school teacher I was wondering if it would make any sense to boost my take home pay during this time by reducing my 401k contribution. Currently I put 15 into a mix of Roth and traditional options and need to contribute 5 for the full employee match. My current 401k balance is around 43k, so at age 27 Im pretty happy with the progress made so far. Without crunching numbers, Id estimate I could bring home and extra 200 paycheck, or 400 a month if I reduce contributions. We do have a decent chunk in our savings account, so Im in no way worried about being financially strapped, but would like to not pull from there as much as possible future down payment for building a home in a few years. After my wife returns to work, Id put my contributions right back to 15, or more, depending on if I receive my yearly pay increase by then or not. Curious to hear everyones thoughts!  <response>: One thing to consider is that you will have a lower tax liability next year, so you can reduce your withholding amount and see an immediate increase in your take-home pay without touching your 401k. Id think about doing that first and then seeing where you stand. If its going to be stressful, then drop your 401k contribution by a couple of points, and set a hard date where you will increase it again.Another thing to keep in mind is that your expenses may change pretty substantially. Before childcare costs come into play, you may actually spend less than you did pre-baby. If I were you, Id see the impact of the baby on your tax liability and then see if you can make ends meet without touching your 401k, and then look at dropping the 401k contribution after a couple weeks if needed. 