<prompt> Human: Pregnant and trying to plan for future. What is the magic daycare:income ratio? I earn 55Kyear and bring home 33K after taxesstandard deductionsmedical insurance401Ktransportation subsidized commuter pass. Its about 635week.If I work fulltime, Id be out of the house from 7:30am to 6:00pm, including commuting time. Thats about 52.5 hours of childcare per week, which runs about 525 around here for an infant. That leaves me with 110 per week. I could double this if I stopped contributing to my 401k.I feel like it would be a lot easier to earn 110week just by selling crap on ebay or working a few nightsweekends at a retail job while my husband stays home with the baby.If I keep working fulltime its like I would only be working so that I could afford to pay for daycare, which seems totally backwards to me. If its important, Ive been at my job for 10 years and theres literally no career ladder to climb. I would not be missing out on any promotions by quitting or taking an extended leave, because there are no promotions to be had.Also if its important, we could survive on my husbands salary 80k, but it would be very tight. This will be our first and only child. We have a mortgage but no other debt. We have a 12-month emergency fund. I would like to negotiate some kind of work-from-home situation so that I could keep my income without giving 83 of it to a daycare center, but I dont think theyll go for it. Free daycare from the grandparents is not an option. Assistant: well, dont throw away your medical or 401k, the 401k contribution would need to be made up out of your husbands salary, and youd need to jump on his medical plan as well. So those costs dont go away when you stop working. You say youll miss no promotions, assuming that is true, in 5 years your kid will be in school, will you be able to find new work at a similar salary? you wouldnt be the first mother that could never get a foothold in their old career after taking 5 years away.Theres some quantifiable benefit to raising your kid of course, assuming you want such a thing, thats for you to decide. Human: Medical wouldnt matter because wed be adding the baby to his insurance anyway and theres no difference in cost to him if adds 1 person or 2. I was thinking of taking maybe 1 year off, not 5. I havent discussed anything with my bossHR yet but I suspect they would let me come back if I wanted to. Theyve done it for other moms in the past. If they didnt, Im confident that I could find a similar position with another company. Youre right that I might have to take a pay cut, though.  <response>: I havent read all the responses yet but is part-time an option? You can likely keep your benefits and it might be a good compromise for the next 1-2 years while you master motherhood ; Several new moms go part time at my job and management is usually cooperative because its better than losing you altogether. 