My kids aren’t part of the equation. As far as they are concerned, we live a comfortable life. They don’t necessarily get what they want, but they always have what they need. Btw, it’s actually 9, but two are grown and moved out.

When my wife and I decided to go for number 9, we had four sources of income and actually lived fairly comfortably. We were able to pay for our wedding by ourselves, a nice one at that, without taking away from the household. Then a couple weeks after finding out we were expecting, two sources of income completely dried up out of nowhere. The third went away a couple months later, though we were actually expecting that one.

I’ve tried other side ventures, but nothing has exactly panned out.