It's not easy, and there are trade offs, but we did. We have two kids out of the house. One on their own, the other will be a senior in college next year. We have a younger child in 5th grade that we home school.<p>We felt it was better for the kids to have one parent at home versus sending them to day care and spending a ton of money on that. It just wasn't worth what the take-home was after paying for that.
If you're willing to accept a lower standard of living, you can raise a family on a quite modest income. Do we really need TVs and smartphones and hot water? Not to live, but they're widely valued for good reasons.
The lifestyle inflation that has happened over the past 30-50 years is under appreciated. I had an upper middle class upbringing (two parents with graduate degrees, my mom stayed home for much of my childhood). My brother and I grew up in a 1,100 square foot house. I have a much smaller house than I could afford, and it’s still almost 4,000 square feet. 2,500 square feet seems to be table stakes outside the city.
Yes, you certainly can. Our family is not the only one that does but we are in the extreme minority.
My neighbors waste tons of money on:<p>Landscapers<p>House cleaners<p>Food delivery<p>Brand new cars!<p>And of course baby sitters and child care
The "it's expensive to raise a family" is simply Parkinson's Law for budgeting. Similarly also due to hedonic treadmill.<p>2 main issues I observe, 1. folks expand their personal expenditure to live pay check to paycheck and then have a kid. The child is on top of them already spending everything, no wonder they think it's too expensive.<p>2. Having children later, they think they need to provide that child with their current standard of living or better. Imagine the standard of living a 21 yr old parent provides vs a 31 yr old vs a 41 yr old. All 3 of those children are likely to survive. Yes the older parents likely provide a superior outcome on some fronts, but that doesn't mean the 21 yr olds do not provide an adequate outcome. Children often just need the basics in most areas of expenditure.<p>Eg: Feed them a balanced diet with home cooked foods instead of expensive dining out and convenience[1] foods, let them play local soccer or basketball instead of expensive sports like football/hockey (unless you believe you have the genes to produce a NHL/NFL star). Spend time with them teaching them things (or learning together) like languages, small electronics kits, programming, music. It doesn't have to be expensive private lessons.<p>You can find more similarly minded advice at <a href="https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/</a> -- eg the most recent blog post is pretty bang on point <a href="https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2022/12/10/the-california-effect/" rel="nofollow">https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2022/12/10/the-california-ef...</a><p>[1]: which often proves more costly both in time and money, in reality <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTtEaji27A8" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTtEaji27A8</a>
Author says, "just live like they did in the 50s." Looking around me, there are plenty of homes from the 70s or earlier. Even from early 20th century. Guess what, they're all way more expensive. More or less the same price as the ones built in the past 20 years. And, no, I don't live in an elite tech hub.<p>Just look at Case Shiller[1], 63 in 1987 and 299 today -- so about 5x more expensive.<p>Also have to laugh out loud about the point that families in Niger or, previously, South Korea raise families with virtually no money. Yes, duh. But why bring it up? Are they seriously advocating we adopt those standards? You first!<p>[1]: <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CSUSHPISA" rel="nofollow">https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CSUSHPISA</a>
This is a very strange article or post or what have you. It poses a question, answers it with a single word, and then adds "A few comments". The argument is not very cohesive and leaves me with lots of questions.
Yes. I'm doing it. It's not particularly hard. Any American software dev makes enough money to do so, as long as they avoid the high-cost cities, which is now easy.