How Modern Couples Consider Changes in Their World

Over twenty years ago, my wife and I were faced with deciding how to manage the cost of childcare with our careers early in our marriage. We slipped into the decision by weighing only the short-term financial implications, making the default decision to weigh the cost of childcare with her income.

Factors other than finances affect how to move forward after a child is born. It is common for women to leave the workforce for a few years due to such factors, which is increasingly becoming the case for men. This was a factor for us as it is for others, and I’m in no way diminishing the advantages of making this choice.

The world has changed since that time. I just finished a conversation with a young couple who had twins. He received ten weeks of paid paternity leave. Moreover, women make around the same or much more than their husbands in 40% of households.

Yet, we lacked the tools to analyze the long-term financial implications of the choice. Frankly, we also lacked the option of paid paternity leave. And so do others, until now.

In partnership with FinMango, we created a free calculator to empower couples to make a family financial planning decision that considers the short-term and long-term financial consequences. Here is one primary reason why.

What we now know that we didn’t know at the time was that each year she left the workforce, she would lose hundreds of thousands. According to the Urban Institute, each year a woman leaves the workforce early in her career, she will lose, on average, $295,000 in lifetime compensation. In a world full of dual-career couples, that loss of lifetime compensation is a family problem, not just her problem.

The cost of childcare has exploded, and I fear that the problem will only worsen without government intervention.

Our goal is to ensure couples have a tool to use to make a fully informed decision, particularly as young families grapple with the high cost of childcare.

We also developed the free Ultimate Guide to Family Financial Planning to help couples prepare for their first child.

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Our new easy-to-use calculator helps couples project their financial journeys over 15 years — factoring in income changes, career breaks, childcare costs, healthcare, basic living expenses, taxes, and retirement savings.

Whether you’re thinking about a career switch, budgeting for the kids, or just trying to navigate a new chapter of life, this tool is here to help you make confident, informed decisions.

Please click here to access our free family financial planning calculator.