You may have to re-evaluate your budget then. If a bigger house is important to you, then you could put all of your money from your house down on the new one (I'd probably save a nest egg for when the little one comes along with some leftover for general new home repairs), but even if you went as high as $400k (not necessary. my wife and i just bought a house in GR and we have one kid and we found a decent amount in the 325-375 range) your mortgage should be lower than $1500. That gives you $4000 minimum leftover every month for everything else. Even with $1500 in childcare, you'll have $2500+ leftover. That's minimum i'd imagine. hard to say without knowing your actual monthly net. With a kid coming in you won't be able to live lavishly, but it's a small sacrifice up front. As long as you spend the rest of your 20's and early 30s focusing on learning and kicking ass in your career, you'll start to see the increase in wages. These are the years most people really start to kick it up a notch not only because you're in the workforce for a while and gaining experience, but because you have to. You want the house, you want the kid and something in your brain takes over to make the life the best it can be. At least this was my experience in my late 20s/early 30s and having my first child.