>I saw your response about schools and not wanting to pull your older kids out at this point which does make sense. But why stay in that house? The house is bleeding you dry from every angle (mortgage, maintenance, upkeep) and you absolutely need to move especially since there is no public school or work commute restriction. It’s about to be spring selling season, call an agent like yesterday and get out of this.
I showed this thread to my husband and he's now on board with us selling the house. Once we all get over the flu, we will be calling our real estate friend and seeing what we need to do to get our house ready for the spring market.
> Second, you need to cut back on things that aren’t a necessity. You’re majorly living a life you can’t afford. You can’t spend $500 a month on gifts. You can’t spend $1500 a month on entertainment.
Our twins aren't in school so we spend a lot of money for child-related expenses/memberships, lessons, and classes. We definitely should cut back on those.
> You can’t have the whole family travel for your one kid’s sporting events.
It not usually the whole family. However, if there is a major tournament or competition, I enjoy having the whole family there for support. My oldest is going to the junior olympics so I thought it would be nice to bring the hold family considering how special the event is. However, my husband pointed out that our twins not only make things more expensive but they make traveling less pleasant so perhaps it should just be me tagging along.
> Take a break for a year or two from family travel (this is a bit confusing since you moved closer to family, so this must be other family? Can they come visit you? It’s probably cheaper for you to buy plane tickets for a couple people to visit if that’s the case than fly 6 people somewhere else). You’re spending more on one vacation than you have in your entire 401K.
It's to visit my family and they are located on both coasts. We didn't have to travel to see them when we lived in NYC because work/vacation usually brought them there but no one wants to visit us in our flyover state. However, your point is solid.