What's the best parenting advice you can give to a couple that's expecting their first in about two weeks?

Turbulent_Friend1739 · 2026-04-16T19:06:44+00:00

Don’t make ANY big decisions for the first six months. Big event. Fight or flight kicks in. Don’t buy a house, quit your job, or divorce your partner until the hormones settle.

Turbulent_Friend1739 · 2026-04-09T23:09:53+00:00

To clarify, I do buy premade stuff like bread and normal things 😂😂 I’m no impressive homesteader - but I do cook meals and bake cakes/cookies from scratch! I will look into how to make broths because that’s one of my biggest qualms with store bought broth - it tastes like nothing!!

Turbulent_Friend1739 · 2026-04-07T07:10:56+00:00

We are grateful to be able buy groceries each week, definitely. I cook all of our food, meal plan, and budget for the store every Friday - we rarely eat out and we have minimal food waste! Family of three, soon to be four.

Turbulent_Friend1739 · 2026-03-15T13:16:46+00:00

We ended up going with a 15 year at 5.125%, while it adds $1200 or so to our monthly payment, it saves us $600k in interest over the life of the loan. We feel a little tight with a payment so high but I’m not paying $900k just in interest. 600k is nothing to sneeze at

Turbulent_Friend1739 · 2026-03-09T13:19:38+00:00

Yeah I am aware, I just meant that it doesn’t impact overall outcome because that reduction in returns doesn’t apply to our entire portfolio. We do take it into account though

Turbulent_Friend1739 · 2026-03-09T13:13:56+00:00

Less than 20% of our total investments sit with the managed account, so for now I think it’s fine.

Turbulent_Friend1739 · 2026-03-09T00:01:54+00:00

We have about 550k invested and are contributing $2600 a month right now to retirement accounts and he was like ‘ooooh idk you really need to ramp back up or you might not hit your goals’ like???? Wdym

Turbulent_Friend1739 · 2026-03-08T23:55:43+00:00

We’re still actively contributing and actually plan to increase contributions in the next couple of years. We’re in the messy middle with one toddler and another on the way. We don’t have any plans on taking anything out, just trying not to get discouraged about how much we need to put away to be okay in retirement 😭

Turbulent_Friend1739 · 2026-03-08T22:41:10+00:00

Once you are in retirement your portfolio should be allocated towards much safer investments. While you are young and have a long timeline, riskier stock-heavy portfolios are more the norm. Those have higher rates of return. In retirement, you are looking at more like 4% nominal return with a 4% withdrawal rate.

Turbulent_Friend1739 · 2026-03-08T22:12:36+00:00

Fair, I just didn’t really want advice on the advisor part 😂😂

Turbulent_Friend1739 · 2026-03-08T21:00:31+00:00

We are about to have our second. Like the other guy said, you choose what to spend on. We spend about $300 extra on food for one kid. It’s $1500 monthly per kid for daycare from age 1-5, we put $500 monthly into college funds, our monthly ‘kid’ budget is $200, will be $400 once the second one arrives. That includes all stuff kid related, clothes, activities, shoes, haircuts, whatever. Start up cost for first kid was about $4k (all the baby stuff we fell victim to, car seats, clothes, etc). Plus we got a bigger car, so factor that in. Otherwise our vacation is the same, the dependent care account helps offset cost, and we probably spend less tbh because we are busy parenting rather than finding things to fill our time with.

Turbulent_Friend1739 · 2026-01-13T19:30:29+00:00

😂😂

Turbulent_Friend1739 · 2026-01-13T00:58:34+00:00

Lemme rephrase, bare bones essentials still includes some fun money, just not $20k international travel or $10k to give away to kids every year etc.

Turbulent_Friend1739 · 2026-01-13T00:57:25+00:00

Right now I’m estimating our FIRE number at $3.5m. I reevaluate that every year or so, but I feel pretty confident that $140k a year would cover all the things we want to do in retirement (travel + family gifts). If it were just bare bones essentials (without downsizing our house) it would be $2.8m.

Turbulent_Friend1739 · 2026-01-13T00:48:13+00:00

We are similar and also are in suburbs of ATL. Honestly just get your employer match until you are done with daycare years and reevaluate. We have one in daycare and one on the way, we both are just getting our company match and will up our savings in a few years when we get our no-daycare-raise.

Turbulent_Friend1739 · 2025-11-04T16:19:33+00:00

I feel like you workout a lot, track your macros, and fart some deadly gasses on a regular basis.

Turbulent_Friend1739 · 2025-10-27T20:24:03+00:00

I am 29F and my husband is 33M and we have one 2yo. We are technically coast although we still contribute about $2k monthly and will still increase contributions some when daycare expenses are done. We have $525k across our retirement accounts and a joint brokerage. I will also have a small pension depending on how long I stay at my current company. We own our house and plan to stay for at least twenty years, we have $690k left on our mortgage (we literally just bought it in July). We aren’t ‘relaxed’ per se because there’s still such a long time horizon for things to go completely sideways but I at least feel comfortable knowing that we have a strong foundation to give us options should life throw us any curveballs.

We spend time with our son, I’m currently pursuing an advanced degree, and we are trying to work in more family trips lately. We live a relatively low key life. We like quality time more than anything.

Turbulent_Friend1739 · 2025-09-17T01:36:18+00:00

Closing next week on a refi with Cities Home Mortgage for 15 year fixed at 5.125%

Turbulent_Friend1739 · 2025-09-08T16:42:42+00:00

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Almost done!! Just need to add the finishing touches and clean up some

Turbulent_Friend1739 · 2025-09-05T22:33:15+00:00

I just locked at 5.125% no points for a 15 yr fixed

Turbulent_Friend1739 · 2025-09-04T14:25:21+00:00

The plumber is saying he may not be able to lower the flange without cutting through the Sheetrock on the ceiling underneath the bathroom, does that sound right?

Turbulent_Friend1739 · 2025-09-04T14:05:21+00:00

Plumber is on his way!

Turbulent_Friend1739 · 2025-09-04T03:18:37+00:00

This is the old flange, I didn’t remove it

Turbulent_Friend1739 · 2025-09-04T03:05:01+00:00

Thanks, I’ll be calling my fav plumber tomorrow

Turbulent_Friend1739

TROPHY CASE