"Though we're both lawyers, it will be difficult, if not impossible, for one of us to stay home full-time with any kids we might have since cost-of-living is so high where we live (DC Metro area) and taxes take a huge chunk out of our income. We'd love to have 4 or more kids, but that just doesn't seem realistic."
I find this post very interesting, when I suggest that the purchasing power of the average working man is falling I am lambasted for being a fool but here you are saying that one attorney cannot earn enough to support a family without his attorney wife also working. My father was a carpenter with an eighth grade education and he was able to support a wife and four sons while my mother stayed home and kept house. You seem to support everything that I have been saying and yet there are plenty of people who disagree with me.
I suspect that an attorney with a moderately successful practice would earn as much in one reasonably good week as my father ever earned in an entire year, (speaking in terms of unadjusted dollars).
I wouldn't take us as a typical example. Though we both make high salaries, we live in a metro area with one of the highest housing costs in the country plus we live in one of the more expensive parts of that metro area. As an example, in Arlington, where we live, a 2 bedroom condo of around 1200 square feet costs in the $400K range.
Plus, to be honest, we do have a pretty expensive lifestyle when it comes to vacations, cars, restaurants, clothes, etc. It might be a more accurate statement that if we have kids, we won't be able to afford to keep living the way we are now if one of us stays home.