Hi all,
what salary would you say is reasonable for a family to live on? My husband and I are looking at starting a family and me staying home until they are school aged. We currently earn 170k between us and can save quite a bit of that at the moment. However if I stay home once we have children we obviously lose my salary and add the costs of children. I know we could live on much less than we do now, but how much less? I worry there are costs im not factoring in - ive thought of increased private health costs, groceries, general costs for children such as clothing, furniture, etc. What else am I missing? Thanks in advance, just wanting to get an idea of what to expect!
4 Replies
We live on the beach with a full veiw and my partner was on 25k a year- I got about $150 a week centerlink after the baby bonus went out- we holiday twice a year over seas and eat mostly organic food. But I make other sacrifices to get those things - it's so so so doable. You did the ways to make cuts where it suits you .
Totally very doable! My son and I live off less than $30000 a year. It's about our expectations. If you are the type who wants the best of everything you will struggle to survive on anything. Otherwise you will be totally fine. Kids clothes are dirt cheap, but of course if you only want to buy expensive boutique clothes then that's up to you! Once you have a cot you don't need to buy a cot for the next one, it gets passed down.
It depends on your priorities and lifestyle. If you want to live in an expensive area well then you'll need more money!
Family of 5 and we live off 1 income of 80k a year. We have a mortgage, private health and private schooling, our kids do 2 out of school sports/activities each. Kids never go without but hubby and I have made sacrifices. We live mostly week to week but we are happy and it's a small sacrifice we have to pay for the short time I will be home with our children.
Definitely agree with other posters, it depends on what you want in life. Before bubs we were on approx $200k and struggled to live on one when I was on unpaid maternity leave ($130k hubby salary).
Rent was the main kicker as it is approx $25k a year (due to living in a great school zone), plus about $35k would go in tax, $10k pa in car maintenance and petrol (2 cars), $10k in groceries, $3k in utilities, $2-3k in nappies, (bubs does like 4 poos a day at 18 months still!!! Aargh!!), $8k in lawyer fees for wills, guardians stuff, tax etc, You get the point. Granted a lot of our costs are because we choose to have a great lifestyle and live in a great public school district so in the future we don't pay for private schooling but again it depends on what is important for you.
I returned to work when bub was a year and love working (perhaps you may decide to return to work after you have left). Now back to $200k with me working part time (yay awesome payrise for me!!) and love having the extra money so we can enjoy the luxuries of life!