My wife is pregnant… I’m not really sure how we are going to afford life with a child… (I know, this is our fault). We both have PhDs and make around 70k a year each. Doesn’t sound so bad, right? Wrong. We both had to take about 150k in debt each to achieve our academic goals. We currently rent and our rent has increased from 1700 to 2300 recently. Obviously inflation has caused everything else to cost more as well. Can’t afford a house, which would be a lower monthly payment, because saving for a down payment is nearly impossible and houses are ridiculously priced anyways. Once we add in child care, which on average is around 1300-1500 a month in our area, we aren’t going to be able to afford to live and both work. If we both don’t work, we won’t be able to afford to live. Neither of us are given paid maternity/paternity leave so we are required to return to work immediately. Anyone else is the same situation? I suppose we can max out a bunch of credit cards and file for bankruptcy at some point to survive in the mean time. I guess I could also work a a few side jobs or something and never see my wife or future child. Screwed either way. Anyways, yay for capitalism, at least somebody out there is able to live comfortably.