Author Topic: We are officially a DINK couple......  (Read 3899 times)

golfreak12

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We are officially a DINK couple......
« on: June 08, 2019, 11:04:31 AM »
Wife just graduated from school in Finance and has a job lined up.
$48k to start. 40 hrs and after 1 year she can work at home on Friday.
It might not seems much but $48K is a lot to her.
She came to the US 6.5 years ago and I told her to go to school. I'll take care of everything.
She constantly worried about being able to get a job after college but I really didn't care if she did or not. We are doing pretty good regardless.
I've been making $120K-$130K for the last 5 yrs so with her getting a job is just the icing on the cake.
I joke with her I can retire now. We can live easily on $48K/yr.
Don't know how much longer we will remain a DINK couple as her biological clock is running out and she does want to have a baby.
I'll enjoy for now. Maybe cut back on my work for a little while.

Steeze

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Re: We are officially a DINK couple......
« Reply #1 on: June 08, 2019, 02:10:23 PM »
Congrats to you and especially your DW! - definitely makes a big difference. We are in a similar situation where DW was in school when we got married and has now been working for a little over a year. Luckily she was/is totally cool with investing 100% of her income. It is also nice knowing that I could quit my job and we can live off her income and still save if needed.

Our DINK days are probably numbered as well (we are early 30's), but it sure is good while it lasts. I will probably encourage her to be a stay at home mom for the first 3 years or so if she is interested. Will definitely set us back though. I figure having 1 kid will require us to work an extra 4 years; 2 years for the 3 years DW might stay at home, and 2 years for the costs of raising 1 child (200k +/-). If we want more than one kid it would really set us back. She is saying 0 or 2 kids. I am saying 0 or 1 kid. I haven't quite wrapped my mind around the costs of 2 kids + any extra time DW would not be working - I really do not want to be working at 40 let alone 45 or god forbid 50.

Bloop Bloop

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Re: We are officially a DINK couple......
« Reply #2 on: June 08, 2019, 11:35:53 PM »
Congratulations, yay! $48k might not seem like a huge amount on this forum where 6 figure incomes are thrown around with impunity, but it's a good figure for a recent grad, and it's a great start to any career to have a reliable and stable job!

Plus, your partner earning $48k is sort of like you earning $65k-$70k when tax implications are considered, so that money actually goes further than you think!

Welcome to the DINK club, and I hope it brings you both good things.

Omy

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Re: We are officially a DINK couple......
« Reply #3 on: June 09, 2019, 02:22:26 AM »
As an older DINK, I recommend it highly!

Radagast

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Re: We are officially a DINK couple......
« Reply #4 on: June 11, 2019, 10:45:23 PM »
Sweet job! I am in a similar position to you and Steeze. Suddenly having an income twice as high as a year ago with the same expenses feels great!

Brother Esau

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Re: We are officially a DINK couple......
« Reply #5 on: June 13, 2019, 05:43:45 AM »
Welcome to the club!

sixwings

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Re: We are officially a DINK couple......
« Reply #6 on: June 15, 2019, 11:03:23 AM »
Welcome to the DINK club! It's sweet.

golfreak12

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Re: We are officially a DINK couple......
« Reply #7 on: July 10, 2019, 08:00:00 PM »
She started her job this week. This is about 2.5 months after graduation.
Job is nice but she said its a bit overwhelming first week. She gets to go to Atlanta for training and I will meet her up there for the weekend.
Back when she was interviewing for the job, they had about 20 candidates for dinner and she really didn't think she would get the job.(didn't know how many they were going to hire). Shes only been in the US for 6.5 yrs so her English is not her strong suite. Now that shes there, they hired 10 out of the 20 and only 4 of them get to go to Atlanta for training. I've been joking with her that she was in their top 3.

On another note, our whole plan was for her to be at her job for 6 months to get settled in and then we were going to try and have a baby via IVF(she can't have one naturally). All her friends are having babies. (I'd rather not cause I would like to retire in 5 yrs but what the wife wants, she gets).
So before starting her job she took a trip to Vietnam. We then went to Europe and Hawaii. The funny thing is on our trips, she started mentioning wanting to live in other countries 6 months at a time and what if we decide not to have a baby).
LOL, I didn't see this coming. We'll see whats her mindset 6 months from now.

2Birds1Stone

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Re: We are officially a DINK couple......
« Reply #8 on: July 11, 2019, 12:32:23 AM »
All her friends are having babies. (I'd rather not cause I would like to retire in 5 yrs but what the wife wants, she gets).
So before starting her job she took a trip to Vietnam. We then went to Europe and Hawaii. The funny thing is on our trips, she started mentioning wanting to live in other countries 6 months at a time and what if we decide not to have a baby).

From this post, I would say a baby right now is a *TERRIBLE* idea.

You should be absolutely sure you want to bring a child into the world, and want to be a parent. Having a baby because "all her friends are having them" is a sure fire way to ruin your own lives, as well as the potential child's.

Linea_Norway

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Re: We are officially a DINK couple......
« Reply #9 on: July 11, 2019, 01:44:21 AM »
All her friends are having babies. (I'd rather not cause I would like to retire in 5 yrs but what the wife wants, she gets).
So before starting her job she took a trip to Vietnam. We then went to Europe and Hawaii. The funny thing is on our trips, she started mentioning wanting to live in other countries 6 months at a time and what if we decide not to have a baby).

From this post, I would say a baby right now is a *TERRIBLE* idea.

You should be absolutely sure you want to bring a child into the world, and want to be a parent. Having a baby because "all her friends are having them" is a sure fire way to ruin your own lives, as well as the potential child's.

+1. You two don't sound like wanting to settle with a baby.

golfreak12

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Re: We are officially a DINK couple......
« Reply #10 on: July 11, 2019, 10:22:19 AM »
No, she really do want a baby. Having a baby would not be "settling" for her.
Her little sister just had a baby and she went to up North to help take care of the baby for a month.
I see her taking care of the baby and I can see she really want one.
The "settling" would be me. I do love kids but I also want to retire soon. Have a baby now would bring me into my 60s before we can retire. I'm 45, shes 35.
I think shes changing her tune because she do see how old we will be before we can retire and the freedom and carefree lifestyle we can have without having a baby.

mrsnamemustache

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Re: We are officially a DINK couple......
« Reply #11 on: July 11, 2019, 10:35:05 AM »
Just going to chime in as contrarian to the two previous posters. Being not very excited about having a baby ("rather not") does not portend that  you will be an unhappy parent or have an unhappy child (exceptions perhaps for if someone is really set against having children). I think more people in this day and age are nervous about having kids and recognize the tradeoffs, which may manifest as going along with a partner's choice but expressing hesitation (as you have). It is hard for many people to see all the great things that come with having a child, whereas the hard parts are more obvious. Thus, you have a better idea about what the joys of retirement might be than what the joys of parenthood might be, making that seem like the better choice. In sum, it is hard to predict how children will affect your life, but I don't agree that what you have said suggests that it is a terrible idea (though there may be other, unspoken reasons why it is a bad idea).

 

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