SoFi Blog

Having a child is one of the biggest decisions a couple can make. The second largest decision? Choosing which child care is right for their family. With all the options out there, settling on just one can be a challenge, as every family’s situation and needs are different.

On top of that, in my 10 years of helping new parents financially plan their families, child care also tends to be the second largest monthly expense, after housing. And contrary to what you might think, it’s not an expense that some parents can choose not to budget for. Even if you have one stay-at-home parent, you’ll still need to pay for some babysitting and child care, as it’s wan important part of maintaining a healthy relationship with a partner—not to mention provides a necessary mental break for both.

Starting a family, or even starting to think about it, is an incredible stage in life. But it can also be overwhelming. You might be thinking about the hard questions: What will your life be like with a newborn? What will you and your partner be like as parents? Should you move closer to family?

Having lived her entire life in Greensboro, North Carolina, Katie Shank, 26, was ready for a change. After graduating with a bachelor’s in history from University of North Carolina Greensboro, Katie was working an office job at a large clothing corporation, as a liaison between departments. It was paying the bills, but not exactly her dream job.

So when her boyfriend, Jordan, asked if she wanted to quit her job and buy an RV to travel the U.S., Katie jumped at the chance. With the help of a mysterious Craigslist ad and a $9,000 SoFi personal loan, Katie and Jordan now have a mobile home from which they can search for their ideal city. Soon they will be headed west to make a new life for themselves, all within the comfort of their tiny home on wheels.

A wealthy real estate mogul recently told millennials to stop buying avocado toast if they ever want to buy a house, and the internet went berserk. The advice was poorly received, because many felt that it was out of touch with the current financial environment. For one, the millennial generation has only ever known income stagnation, wages that haven’t kept up with inflation, and skyrocketing college and real estate prices. Two, the assertion that we can’t stop shelling out for fancy breakfast foods buys into the shallow narrative that millennials don’t know the meaning of hard work or the value of a dollar.

While I largely side with the outraged denizens of the interwebs, I’ll play devil’s advocate here: Clearly, Avocado Man was hoping to make a point about frivolous spending, but he veers off track when making the assumption that this is a trademark of the millennial generation. Current times have seen people of all ages spend more on “stuff” than ever before.

When I was laid off from my corporate marketing gig in the fall of 2015, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. All I knew was that I didn’t want to go back to the handcuffed existence I’d spent so much time working within.

One day, while surfing the internet, I saw a part-time internship listing for a local fitness company. Even though I knew my eight years of work experience and MBA made me overqualified, I applied. My thought was that it seemed fun and could bring in a paycheck while I figured things out. As luck would have it, the owner agreed to hire me (with a Director of Marketing title, no less) for five hours a week of work.