DD was a surprise, but we both had good jobs, great insurance and savings for a house. We didn't prepare specifically for a baby and we were fine. If we were to go back, I would have rather saved more so that we'd have more in savings (we used a good chunk to buy our house when she was six months) but we're fine and TTC#2.
Nope. We're essentially on one income (I work PT and my income is negligible) and have a good chunk of credit card debt but LO is due in May and we'll just have to make it work.
@Ellegee: Thats great to be prepared! My thought is to get a better paying job nxt year -- I hope I do!
@iheartnerds: Are u nervous? Im sure you will make it work!
@Mrsgurzakovic: I have a similar situation to iheartnerds. My income is laughable in comparison to my husband's.
In any case, we are definitely financially ready for baby. My husband makes a good amount of money and has a stable job, my job has a lot of high-paying opportunities if I wanted to pursue that but I don't, but I'm on the waiting list for nursing school (I want to be a SAHM at first anyway). We own our house, have almost no CC debt, no student loans, almost no debt - just our house, my car and our bathroom remodel in debt. But that's life, and it leaves us with plenty of money leftover every month. I wouldn't want to risk bringing a child into a financially stressful life, that's how I was raised and it has altered my view on money.
After having my son just after I turned 19 I think were much better prepared now. Maybe not to what people here would consider financially ready though because people on here seem to make wayyy more than we do. I'd like to buy a house first though, my DH just got a better job and I'm a SAHM so we have everything in place if it happens without planning.
Hahahaha! Yeah... no. DH got a decent job this year in his field, but he got laid off a couple days before we found out we were pregnant. We are determined to make it work! What other choice is there :)? I am a firm believer in making it work, but that has been my whole life, so I am used to sacrifice and being creative to problem solve and make ends meet. And HOPEFULLY he'll find an even better job...
I was 22 and still in college when i had my son. I was NOT financially ready or for that matter mature enough. 12 years and a couple heart breaks later, I am financially able to make it happen- but not sure if fiance and I will have children. In your case, I would seek out any and all information on costs. Here's a couple things to think about-
Diapers- If you go disposable it'll be about 10-20/wk. i'm not sure the price if you go the cloth route.
Daycare- HUGE EXPENSE. Anywhere from 150-300 week
Formula/Breastfeeding- I support breastfeeding, however it's your choice if you choose not too - can's are like 15-20$ and they use about a can a week.
Clothes- They grow like CRAZY
Medical- Dr's visits frequently.
As for time: kiss sleep goodbye for the next 2-5 years. :)
edit: as for starting a family, if you don't think you're financial stable to do it - then trust your gut. and wait a little bit. But if it happens or you decide- humans are problem solvers and we adapt. you'll be fine. Just might be a little bit of a struggle. Good luck to you, your hubby and your little ones on the way!
If I wasn't CBC, I'd be financially ready for a baby. With FI's income, I could easily be a stay at home mom/wife.
Emotionally I'm nowhere near ready.
@Mrsgurzakovic: I'm not nervous. I wish we were in a better place (figuratively as well as literally. I never wanted to raise children in the house we live in but that's neither here nor there!) but I know we'll be fine. DH makes decent money, we have good insurance and I plan to be a SAHM so we won't have to pay for daycare. Our children may not always get everything they want but they'll certainly have whatever they need.
Nope, probably never will be either. If everyone waited til they were finanfially ready I don't think there'd be much of a future for the human race.
Yes, to a degree. I'm still in college and have a part time job; FH has a full time job with great benefits/pay. We are closing on a home within the next few weeks and will be getting married at the end of December. We wouldn't have to pay for daycare because there are TONS of family members that live really close to our new home that would never charge us to watch the child; I plan on breastfeeding (if) when we conceive. So financially, we're fine. Emotionally, we'll be waiting until we've been married a few years.
@iheartnerds: I think it is much more important to be emotionally ready. We'll make the rest work! :)
Ehh. We have savings (not a huge amount, but a good cushion we keep adding to), stable jobs with decent insurance, and lots of supportive family and friends. I already have tons of clothes from co-workers (seriously, up to 2T sizes), and BIL/SIL are loaning us lots of the swings, baby gyms, etc. We're hoping to just keep passing them back and forth! We plan on breastfeeding and cloth diapering, which should help save money, and MIL is going to watch the baby for relatively cheap (she's asking us to pay for a cleaning person to come in here and there).
I don't think we'll ever be as financially ready as we'd want to be. We currently make a good salary by a lot of standards, but purchased an apartment at the height of the market that we can't sell for a price that wouldn't leave us with 0 dollars in savings. So, we live in a space that's probably too small to start a family, but can't afford to move. i'm not really sure what the strategy is going to be if/when we get pregnant.
Financially, we both have stable jobs (I'm PT, he's FT with benefits), and I'm in college working toward my degree. So we'd probably be alright on that end. We just bought a house...so we'll probably need to wait a while. We do have a bit in savings, and no CC debt other than one small loan and one small card that will be paid off in the next couple months. Emotionally, we plan to wait a couple years or so after we get married.
We were financially ready and had the economy drop out from underneath us in 2008. We are emotionally ready, and while we have savings and no cc debt, we imagined we would have more when we started TTC. But we can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
We are 31, and it is time. We can always cut back, he can get a second job, and we could downsize or move to a cheaper apartment or area to live. I'm in grad school so I have decent insurance, and will be able to take an extended maternity leave on fellowship, and qualify for subsidized daycare.
We just don't want to wait anymore and we will make it work.
We could make it work if I found out I was pregnant today. I am working two extra part time jobs in addition to teaching full time in order to pay off our credit card debt. We put nothing in to savings each month but shove money toward our credit card. Ideally, our goal is to be credit card debt free by the time we have a LO. If I were to fall pregnant, we would just keep switching to a 0% card and pay it off eventually, as we would need all that extra money we are paying over the minimum for baby. We also both have tons of student loan debt, but we don't see that as negative debt (since it's more like a mortgage for us). And, once we have a baby, we won't have the extraneous expenses we do now...movie nights, going out to eat all the time, etc. Luckily, we both have stable jobs, and DH makes twice what I do---which doesn't say much since I don't get paid crap lol. He gets a Christmas bonus every year that will help pay for my time off work since I don't get maternity leave (and will also help pay for whatever things we don't get at a baby shower).
We're very financially stable. We would be completely fine if we were suddenly to find ourselves pregant, but my husband wants to have our home almost paid off before we start having kids. We're about 2 years from having the home paid off and we'll be starting TTC this coming summer. :)
We had certain financial goals in mind before we started a family but then realized that we were ready to start our family and we will eventually get to our goals. We make good money and it won't be a struggle to get by when this little one comes in April. We will just have to switch in ways that we spend our extra money. Instead of buying things we want for ourselves the money will go to baby stuff and our money will keep going to our financial goas, which should be met by the end of next year.
My partner and I returned to school in our early thirties, so we are now 35K in student loan debt. :-(
luckily, we aren't carrying any wedding debt as well, since I also have line of credit debt in the 8K range.
so, no, we aren't in a great financial situation to have a baby. But, I don't believe things are even "perfect", and since I just turned 35, I don't want to wait much longer to TTC.
I recently registered with the government as a self-employed person, which apparently I should have done earlier in the year when I starting working on contract, since I won't be able to claim any special benefits for 12 months. I realize in Canada we are better off in that we get 6 months of federally paid maternity, but it won't be a lot. Luckily, my wife makes a decent income, but we live in one of the most expensive cities in the country, so sometimes it's hard to make ends meet.
I just keep telling myself to act from love and not from fear, and really, babies are only as expensive as you make them be. We won't be buying all new, fancy stuff, that's for sure!
@DeathByDesign: OMG, that's amazing you are so close to having your home paid off! I don't know anyone, even my parent's friends, who are in that situation!!
where do you live? how much did your home cost? did you have help with the deposit from your folks?
Nope! DD was a TOTAL surprise and we made it happen. I think it's rare to be "ready" you just take that step and figure it out. It's always a blessing, I promise.
I suppose many bees are right. Not many are 100% financially ready for a baby. So I sat my husband down yesterday and we discussed finances and how I would love to try to start a famil by next year. Hes going to look into getting a second job for a year and use that ONLY for savings which would be great since it means hell save an extra 20 grand and I would look into getting a better paying job and save up as well. Hopefully in another 2 years we can say hello to our new addition in the fam but for the time being, were gonna use the next couple of months to save all we can!
My dad always told me that you're never really ready for a baby but you cope. If I were to get pregnant, I get very generous maternity leave (over a year) and DH would get some paternity leave (2 weeks... which is sucky) so we could cope in those terms.
I have no idea how we'd get on financially otherwise. I suppose without our monthly booze spending, takeaways and satellite we'd be fine.
My parents were financially ready, and raised me to think I had to be as well before having a baby. But I'm 30 and at the point where I know I don't have all that much time left. I've got another 2 1/2 years of undergrad (only taking 12 credits a semester), and we're just going to go ahead and try then.
I know that we're never going to be financially ready. If we waited until we were, we'd never ever have kids.
My parents raised me with little to no money and I never felt like I missed out on anything. i was actually a better and stronger kid for it.
@mtnhoney: We live around 40 minutes north of Toronto. My husband has always been a very hard worker. He started his first business (making signs) when he was just 14, and has been working and saving ever since. He paid is own way through school too. He bought the house 2 years before we were married for 255k. He had a 60k down payment on it (with closing costs and everything else he ended up needing around 80k). Since then we've both been paying in the max our mortgage lets us every year. We've had absolutely no help from parents! We do have a basement apartment in our house, which earns us around 1k a month to cover costs and things.
It's not like a super fancy home or area or anything. We basically live in what would be considered an okay-sized 2 bedroom apartment, but we both make good incomes. Our plan is to sacrafice a little now for a big payoff later in life. When this house is paid off we plan on moving to a standard family-sized home for raising kids and keeping this one as an investment property.
i've been told that you are never prepared no matter how much you prepare. you'll never think you're ready and you will keep preparing until it's too late.
obviously that's not true for everyone, but i don't want to miss out so we are TTC right now. i know we don't have as much money as other people and it will be difficult... be it's still do-able. the only financial preparedness we are worried about is saving up three months worth of my income for when i go on maternity leave.
My friends with kids tell me no one can afford kids. Even if you were a millionaire, you could not afford kids. You just make it work, like anything.
I don't know if we will ever feel like we are financially ready. It is such a daunting idea... hearing about how much xyz costs for his niece and nephews makes us cringe! We are looking at things like- in 6-10 years...we don't quite make 6 figures combined and it worries me to think about what we would do or how we would manage with one of those incomes not only gone, but funding a baby!
nice job on your savings! I wish we had that much! No, we are TTC but honestly we don't have a lot in savings, or any to be honest with you. It's not that responsible, but I don't see a time in the near future when we really will have a lot of savings. We didn't have much in savings a few weeks ago, but now since the hurricane took out our home and all or things we really don't have any extra money. Just trying to trust in God, and follow what He tells me to do, and everything will be okay.
Right now? By the standards of the general public, probably yes. But by my standards, no. I do not want to bring a child into this world until I can give it the life that it deserves. That means we need to wait a few more years. We COULD financially do it now, but it would be a struggle and mean sacrificing things that will bring down quality of life, if you know what I mean. If we wait a few years, I will be making more money, AND have more time to give my children.
@mtnhoney: is it different for self-employed folks? I get 12 months.
DH and I have decided to begin TTC at the end of this month. We have enough money in the bank to cover my lost wages during my maternity leave, medical expenses (basically, our deductible amount), and the basic baby gear (crib, carseat, etc.)
While it would be really nice to have a large nest egg in the bank prior to TTC, that will never be an option for DH and I. We are typical middle class, so sitting on tens of thousands of dollars would be quite the luxury for us!!
@Mrsgurzakovic: Financially yes. Emotionally no.
I'd still have to give some things up... but I mean like that extra pair of shoes or a meal at a fancy restaurant, so I am guessing that, by most people's standards, means we'd be financially ready.
We were financially stable but i dont think youre every "READY" to have a baby, its so life changing regardless of your age.
I was 21 and SO was 26.
We'd be just fine financially if I found out I was pregnant tomorrow. But we still don't plan to TTC for another couple years because we want me to be able to be a SAHM without dipping below our current standard of living. But after DH's next promotion, we'll be able to have me quit working and still be right where we are now financially. Then it will be TTC time!
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I know its too soon to discuss babies -- Ive only been married for just a few months but I would love to start a family by next year so bad! I know ive always wanted to be a mother, and I love babies and while many girls dreamt of having their dream wedding as youngsters- mine was to be a mommy. It doesnt help seeing my friends having babies too, u kno! I definetly dont want to follow the crowd but It would be GREAT to start a family very soon. Financially though, I dont think were ready. Hubby has maybe over 12 grand in his savings - were both working and most likely that saving wnt be going up anytime soon since we both are usin up our paychecks for rent, food, other expenses as well as me saving up for my student loans which ill have to start paying back next year. I just want to know if ther were any bees who felt financially they were really incapable of making it but did it and everything turned out okay?