BG, even you said that you didn’t use public transportation when your kids were young. If someone is earning $45K+, and assuming that’s the lower of the two incomes (which will be the case most often, since the spouse with the lowest income is usually the one who will work in the home instead of wage-earning), then that family would gross **at least** $90K/year. They aren’t going to contort their lives to live like paupers or run around town trying to drop-off/pick-up kids, grocery shop, etc. via bus in order to force the second income-earner’s choices to make financial sense. The whole point of having the second spouse work outside the home is to live a better life, not a worse one.
I have no doubt that many/most people take lunches to work, but I also have no doubt that households with two full-time wage earners would be more inclined to get take-out/fast food, or go out to eat for dinner more often than families with a SAHP. But I gave you the benefit of the doubt and only increased this cost by $75/month, which is **exceedingly low** for a family of five.
Deal with reality as it is, not how you want it to be. Either the numbers work (they have a positive enough income to make wage-earning worthwhile), or they don’t. All you need to do is work on the tax info, since I forgot to include the first wage-earner’s income. You don’t need to fiddle around with mortgages or other types of write-offs, because those deductions would ALREADY exist and be applied against the first wage-earner’s income.
Just FYI for your calculations, in order to qualify for the child/dependent care tax credit, you have to file a joint return if married.
In all my years as a full-time or part-time worker (including high school/college years), both in LA and in North County SD, I don’t remember a single person who took public transportation to/from work on a regular basis (with one exception to follow)…not even those who made minimum wage. I worked with one person who took the train between San Clemente and L.A., but had TWO cars, one at each end of the line, to drive the final miles to/from home and work. He was a higher income-earner, and did this so that he could work while on the train and to make his commute times more predictable.I can’t think of a single person who had kids and used public transportation to take them to/from daycare and then to/from work.
Here’s some info for you that shows how only 4.1% of San Diego’s workers take public transportation to/from work. Another ~20% carpool, walk, work at home, or used some other mode of transportation. Even if we count those in, ~75% drive alone to work. I can assure you that the vast majority of people who live in a household with a $90K gross income will drive alone to/from work and to/from childcare facilities.
You have to work with reality and what the majority of people actually do in real life, not what you think they should, or could, do in some theoretical situation in order to prove your point.
