Young couple cannot afford a family on 100k per year!

[dottiedodah]

All subjective of course.Young couple feel they are unable to afford a family ,With lots of expenses .YABU they should just save and keep going .YANBU if they want children then they would have to cut back .Apologies DM link!

Hilarious. My DH and I are raising our daughter on less than half that household income. She has everything she needs and more. Difference is, we have been willing to make sacrifices such as making do with a smaller home and not holidaying abroad in over 6 years. The wife looks as though she spends a considerable portion of her income at the aesthetics clinic.

@dottiedodah well they need to get rid of the avocado on toast and the starbucks coffee every morning and sell the expensive car and take the bus

Well it's relative isn't it. DH and I earn about £90k between us but we live in a place where an average family home is £800k and a decent 2 bedroom flat £500k. Childcare is over £100 a day. The supermarket choices we have are Co-op or Waitrose. I'm expecting our first and we'll be ok just about with budgeting and some flexible work but far from well off. We certainly can't afford an actual house with current mortgage rates.

We could of course leave and move to a much cheaper area, but then our salaries would probably fall by half, and we'd be in a similar boat.

To be fair, you also have to look at long term costs too eg private education, university fees. It's about wanting to do what you feel is best for any future child.

I don't know why people say "move to a cheaper area" as if that solves all the issues. Usually in cheaper areas your salary is also a lot less, and people tend to have families and support networks around them in the places they currently live, which frankly are worth their weight in gold.

Okay, the article looks cringe.

But I think it's better attitude to really assess before having children whether you can afford them and whether you want to make the necessary sacrafices.

Can't send them back and all that.

Looking at the state of them, it's probably a good thing they aren't reproducing. 'Young couple' my chubby arse. She looks older than me!

They look more smug than victim in this.

Everyone can afford children. The real question is how much of your lifestyle are you prepared to sacrifice?

How would you afford a child on minimum wage? You're single with a mortgage, work FT, and have £20 left at the end of the month and there is nothing to cut as you're already struggling. No family support
You can't guarantee that the man will pay via CMS either

I really dont fit in with rich folk i raised 2 on a lot less than 100k a lot less.
We had no fancy house and no fancy car no private education main stream local schools.
Days out were cheap and cheerful.
They are both adults now they turned out just fine both full time work grew into wonderful young men.

Sometimes people forget that what kids really want is for you to be there and not be a part time parent paling them off at every free chance. It's not all about money if money is all your thinking dont have kids.
Do kids want fancy holidays at 2-3-4 year old no but they would love to make mud pies in the rain with you and not be told off because they're dirty.

On 100K they could definitely afford to have children but they would have to make some lifestyle changes (as most people do). I don’t know anyone who had the same amount of disposable income after having children. Particularly in the expensive nursery years. We earned less than 100K when the dc were born, but we were fine. No big home improvements, no fancy holidays etc. But we could definitely afford them. They are prioritising lifestyle, which is fine, but then don’t moan you can’t afford a family.

If you’re on minimum wage, you will most likely have rent not a mortgage.

If they really wanted children, they would have had them by now. I think it is a fashionable excuse these days for why couples are happy being childless. Before Covid, it was the we cannot have children because the world is so fucked by climate change. Now with cost of living it’s we can’t afford children. If Ukraine, Gaza, Yemen and Sudan erupt into WWIII it will be who would bring a child into this world anyway?

The excuses for those who cannot admit publicly they don’t want children, change to match current events.

The DM may have chosen this click bait too to pressure Hunt into putting some tax breaks in for the poor mites scraping by on six figures.

Just because I’m curious how many of the “I’m raising mine on X” are getting benefits and breaks that these two wouldn’t get because of their income?

Good for them for recognising it though if it feels too tight for their desired lifestyle some people are content with a lot less, thats fine so it should he okay to say no we are only going to be able to do it our way with a bit more. I don't agree that if they wanted kids that much they would cut back, no point having kids if you're going to be miserable and thus make them miserable because the lifestyle that is ideal for you is out of reach. People who do do that inevitably have to work really hard at not letting their kids know sacrifices were made for them to be here and are often quite jealous of others and bring their kids up with limiting beliefs making for a really miserable existence.

@Cherryon I have a mortgage, that's why I posted that

No one is getting benefits and breaks that take their income from 30k to anywhere close to 100k.
The toddler years are financially tough but they don't last for ever. They might not be able to max their pension contributions and take long haul holidays while they are paying nursery fees but they aren't payable forever and if they conceived a baby now the change in funding would mean they would qualify for free hours way before the point that anyone who currently has a child in nursery did.

You definitely do!

Young?? mid 40s at least

We have a what I consider a very comfortable life as a single parent of one DC working with universal credit top ups — certainly luxurious compared to my childhood (we didn't have central heating, enough hot water for baths, and we ran out of money for food each month).

We don't have a car, but don't want or need one anyway. Otherwise, I don't feel we lack any material comforts.

Of course, different situations mean different expenses and ours are low (e.g. my rent isn't too high, bills relatively low in a small flat and we're not in an area where you need a car or extortionate train costs commuting).

People have kids on much much less and do fine.

If they mean they can't maintain their life exactly as it is in all ways and have children then it's probably best they don't have them because children change your life quite a bit!

When we married my husband had a very expensive hobby - flying.

Could we have kids and continue to afford him taking to the skies? No.
Does that mean we could not afford to have kids?
No.

Says in the article they are 33 and 38.

But it’s not fair..: the woman who earning £100k will be paying a shit load of tax (which is paying towards lower earners childcare) yet isn’t allowed to claim it herself.

a single parent on £100k is still paying for nursery and lives in the London area is unlikely to be living a life of luxury

Completely agree and she's probably made a lot of sacrifice to get there. 100k isn't a starting salary. It is very very very unfair.