u/Little_FunYun

My wife and I moved here about 2 years ago while she was pregnant with our first. We were shocked at the prices of daycare here but got a spot for about 26,000 per year for infant care. We are wanting a second kid but looking at the cost of daycare it would be a ridiculous amount. We both have decent jobs so we make too much for it to make sense for one of us to stay home and make too much for any kind of government help. Also, we are doing PSLF so both need to work full time. I was curious to see how other families are affording daycare for 2 kids under 2? Or are there any kind of assistance programs I am missing? Our income seems to phase us out of any help yet we would barely be breaking even each month

My wife and I make the about the same salary, she has student loans and I do not. We are doing PSLF and we were on SAVE but now switching to another IDR plan. Her application was approved but for double the amount we were expecting (basically what we would expect to pay if they used our combined income). We talked to numerous people at mohella and the federal student aid all with different answers. We think it is because they are using the wrong tax year information (we filed together in 2024, separate in 2025 in anticipation of this to reduce her payment). However, the most recent person we talked to said filing status makes no difference. They said only the SAVE plan allows you to use your individual income when filing separately and all the other income driven plans take you and your spouses income in consideration regardless of how you file. We think this is all BS and this guy doesn’t know what he is talking about but wondering if anyone else ran into this.