Waiting for a ring

Now I know that we shouldn't push our significant other into doing things and should wait until they are ready. But at what point is the wait too long?

We have talked about marriage and kids and we both want them.....with each other. But there has been no real talk about getting engaged and making this official. The last time we discussed this we were upset about our financial situation and discussed having children with the low financials that we have now, and how we want to wait until we have better incomes. Marriage came up, by him, and he stated that he wanted to "get married and have kids, but not live paycheck to paycheck."

We understand that children are expensive and we will probably live paycheck to paycheck even then, but we are doing that now, barely making ends meet....with no kids.We also discussed our ages, I will be 30 next year and he will be 34. So we are already going to be older then some families, but don't want to be too old, or no longer around for our children's lives.

We have been together 4.5 years and do not really argue or have any issues between us that are breakup worthy. We both have out moments and out little quirks. But we do see this future together, so how long should I wait?

I know that I will continue to wait because I love him with all of my heart, but a part of me will still wait for a ring to be in each of my gifts, Christmas, Valentine's, Birthday....until one day he asks me.

And of course my answer will be YES!