Forest Hill's Jeff Judge in MarketWatch: Daycare years are your highest-income, not a reason to quit saving

By Jeff Judge, CFP®, AEP®, ChFC®, CLU®, Managing Partner, Chesapeake Financial Planners, Forest Hill, MD.

Most young parents treat retirement savings and childcare bills as two things fighting for the same dollar. They're not, and the years that feel like the worst time to save are usually the best.

When MarketWatch asked me about this, my answer was simple: childcare and retirement savings don't have to compete if you automate the retirement piece first. The years you're paying for daycare are typically your highest-earning years too, which is exactly why quitting on retirement now costs more later. I had a client last year where both spouses worked and their daycare bill topped their mortgage payment. They wanted to stop 401(k) contributions entirely. Instead, we brought the contribution down to one number: the amount that captures the full employer match, and nothing more. Below that number, you're leaving free money on the table. Above it, during the daycare years, is optional.

For families in Harford County, this shows up constantly. Two working parents in Fallston paying for full-time care, a young family in Aberdeen weighing a nanny against a second income, commuters heading into Towson who assumed retirement had to wait until the kids were older. It doesn't. The strategy isn't about doing everything at once, it's about automating the number that survives the expensive years and revisiting the rest once the bills change.

The takeaway: before you pause retirement contributions to cover childcare, find the one number that keeps the employer match intact. That's the number that can't wait.

This piece builds on "How parents can keep saving for retirement during the expensive childcare years," in MarketWatch (August 2026).

Jeff Judge, CFP®, AEP®, ChFC®, CLU®, is Managing Partner at Chesapeake Financial Planners in Forest Hill, MD. Book an intro call.