Newborn on the way. How much does this adjust my retirement expectations?

Retirement

The big question is how far off the internet is from actual lived experiences regarding taking care of a child and the expense that comes with this. Second to that is in the context of our current situation, does it work without further adjustment.

My wife and I are currently 30 years old, with our first child on the way! Super exciting!

We’re pretty solid earners (180k annually) and savers (~$2.3k/month not accounting for bonuses and 2 extra checks per year going to 401k.) The current SS income anticipated for retirement is ~$3k and we plan to keep our current home that should rent for around $3k as well currently.

Prior to our exciting news, we were focused on paying my wife’s car off ($14k left with about $2k monthly additional going to principal.) once this was paid off, we were going to use the cash flow to fund her Roth IRA (Puts us closer to 20% annually saved) while we still can, and fund savings for a new home. We have around $40k for this saved already.

We’re set up currently with childcare, as my wife’s job is extremely flexible and my mom only works part-time to cover any periods where my wife can’t keep the baby. So, trying to fill in that next gap to see what kind of expense to expect and whether all of the money getting tied up in the car ($2.8k/mth) allows us to fund an additional Roth IRA, pay for increased expenses, and continue our savings toward a new home so we can start to determine the timeline there.

Please poke holes or ask any questions on any additional information that I might be leaving out currently to make the most informed response!

Posted Jul 6, 2025, 7:41 PM UTC

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