Finally, some breathing space. With kids at teenage years, different challenges arise.

Perhaps the main income earner has continued their string of luck with annual income keeps growing - a great situation.

But this is not always the case. It may be that the main income earner is finding their own footing with a new career path or even simply working through issues related to changes in employment with their current job or a new job.

With teenagers sometimes self-managing, the parents may be freer do what they need to do. The spouse/partner might go back to the part time job. But the teenagers seem to keep asking for more money.

Things are never quite as good as when they were DINKS, but they will find themselves much older and now more than ever before, concerned about wealth accumulation.

Interesting, when they were DINKS, it wasn't that wealth accumulation wasn't a problem, it more like wealth accumulation wasn't on the horizon.

Stage 4 brings Wealth Accumulation to the fore.

And the expenses are still there. It's just that another parent has more time. Kids are not necessarily cheaper - with tertiary educational costs, kids wanting cars, and even and often the cost of weddings needs to be attended to.

The trick at this stage is to balance these still high costs, whilst managing the overall financial picture from a growth perspective.

And this can be done whether you have a fast growing income or not.