So far,

IRA = $10,000
529 = $7,500
401k = $20,000
investment = $30,000

TOTAL = $67,500

$32,500 more to go.

I don't think we'll meet this goal, but we'll try.

Edited: Increased goal to make it more challenging.

You can do it! And besides, what fun would the challenge be if it was easy?

Pretty impressive numbers!

With a third of the year (okay, a little less, but close) left to go, I don't see how you can fail!

What are you investing in under the "investment" catagory? Stocks? Bonds? Mutual Funds? Property?

H~

Stocks.

Individual stocks? Cool. Good for you.

Thanks for letting me know and good luck!

I've been thinking of changing to part-time schedule at work. That means, it will be harder to hit the goal. Hopefully, my husband's promotion to upper management will become official soon (in a couple of weeks).

Have you discussed it with your husband? What does he think?

Yes. We have talked about it off and on. He's supportive to whatever I want to do. I know I don't need to work but I will go crazier if I stay home. I was home for 4 months earlier this year due to the arrival of our first child. Going back to work helped with my sanity. Being a working mom is not easy either, so I've been trying to find a good balance.

Just realized that we can achieve the goal if we are willing to move some funds from our savings/checking. We can achieve the goal now if we do that, but I have a huge security gland.

Having kids is not easy. Children need their parents. It's one thing if a family is struggling to get by, and desperately needs every last penny to make ends meet. However if a family is well-off (and I think it's safe to say that having $100,000/year in savings capacity qualifies as "well-off"), I think the child will have a better chance at growing into a well-adjusted personality if one parent cares for them full-time, rather than confusing them by sending them to daycare for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.

Just my opinion, but I think the ideal situation is for children to be raised by their parents, not indifferent daycare workers.

I don't believe that sending kids to daycare means the kids are not being raised by their parents anymore.

We both feel good about leaving our baby at the best daycare in town. We believe it is better for our child to have a happy mom than a grumpy stay at home mom.

With all due respect, it doesn't really matter whether or not you "believe" it, it's a logical tautology. If you take 2 children and send one off to spend 8 hours a day with a stranger, and the other spends those 8 hours a day with a parent, then obviously the latter child is spending more time with a parent, and an argument can be made that the former child is being raised by a stranger.

The reality is, when a child spends his days in daycare, the parents are going to miss a lot of major milestones. His first words, his first steps, the first time he reads - the things that parents claim are the achievements that drove them to want to have children in the first place. Instead of achieving those accomplishments with a parent, the child will instead be celebrating those victories with some minimum-wage babysitter.



I'm trying really hard to be diplomatic and civil about this, but again, with all due respect, if you were not emotionally prepared for the ups and downs of parenthood, maybe you shouldn't have had children in the first place. Raising kids is hard, but that doesn't make it right to just slough the job off onto someone else. The child will suffer for it. The statistics bear this out. If you look at the proportion of prison inmates and drug addicts who came from broken or absentee parent households (such as those where both parents worked), it's dramatically higher than the general population.

The ideal situation is to have one parent stay home and raise the child, while the other works. This is the undeniable conclusion of pretty much every study, every child psychologist, and every statistical analysis on the subject. The best argument people can make for daycare is that "it's not that bad," which is an implicit acknowledgement that the alternative (having the child be raised by a parent) would be better.

Obviously, in many cases, this isn't possible, and I certainly do not mean to malign single mothers (or single fathers) trying to make the best of a bad situation. But when parents have such an enormous income (as you do) and have the capability of providing their child with the best environment, and make a conscious choice not to, it just seems selfish to me. Again, I apologize, it's not my place to judge, I'm just speaking my mind here. You're going to do what you're going to do, it's your life and your child. I just hope you understand the increased risks you're inviting into your child's life, for the sake of a little extra cash in your pocket.

Do you have kids? And you read every study that has to do with kids staying home or going to daycare, that is impressive Yes you do miss some things but what is the big deal about the first time they do something? Its not like they only do it once and never again. You will get to see the accomplishment the next day or so. Its not that big of a deal.

I don't think kids are going to become criminals because they go to daycare. If you send them to a good daycare and are a good parent then they will probably grow up to be good person.

I personally can't tell if the people I deal with everyday grew up with one parent at home or both parents working. Both my husband and I grew up with both parents working. I don't think we are messed up. I actually believe I turned out better because my mom was working. I have friends with stay at home moms, but I wouldn't trade places with my friends.

It's ok. You are entitled to express your opinion.

I think it's important that you do what you feel/know works best for you/your family.
If you know you can't stay at home full-time for your own sanity, but think you might like to work part-time, why not give it a try? If it doesn't work, you can return to full-time, or perhaps stay home and look for some other way to restore your own balance.

But I'd encourage you to focus on the impact on your own family rather than trying to meet some idea of the "right" way.

I don't think the teachers at the daycare make minimum wage. Why? The daycare costs more than how much it will cost to send our child to private school.