Can You Afford a Baby?
If you're of a certain age and life stage, then you might be asking yourself: Should I have a baby? Before getting carried away with visions of Baby Bjorns and onesies, consider this: Babies cost more than ever. According to the Agriculture Department, middle-income couples spend an average of $11,000 during the first year of a child's life. By the time that newborn reaches his 18th birthday, he'll have cost his parents around $204,000. (Creative solutions such as relying on grandparents for child care and swapping clothes with friends can help ease the strain.) Here is the Alpha Consumer quiz to help figure out if you're financially ready to become a parent:
Explanation of score:
0 to 2 points: You may want to consider taking further steps to prepare financially for a baby.
3 to 5 points: You are on the right track, but additional planning could help ease the transition to parenthood.
6 to 7 points: Congratulations. You seem to be financially prepared to have a baby.
Did you know? Baby experts recommend saving up between $5,000 and $10,000 before giving birth to help offset some of those upfront costs, including child care, health insurance, and diapers. According to a survey by TheNestBaby.com, 61 percent of women who aren't pregnant or haven't had a baby yet are already saving for a future baby. Many first-time parents are also surprised by their workplace policies, including the cost of adding a new dependent to an existing health insurance policy. Of course, money isn't the only factor going into baby-making decisions, but planning ahead can reduce stress later.
Join a Discussion: How much money do you think it takes to afford a baby? And would you consider postponing parenthood for financial reasons? Our friends at BettyConfidential want to know.
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Reader Comments
I feel very ready
I am ready for kids -- both emotionally and financially. I knew this both before AND after reading this article/quiz.
Since this quiz pertains solely to the financial aspects of parenting, I will abstain from discussing my solid relationship and emotional maturity, and just focus on a few financial points.
The economy hasn't exactly done wonders for my career or salary advancement, but I'm in stable footing because I made smart decisions prior to the first signs that the economy was tumbling. I paid my credit card debt to $0 a long time ago and I also paid off a fairly large car loan more than 3 yrs early. Doing these things has also allowed me to build excellent credit so that I can hopefully obtain a mortgage soon(although my partner already has a house so perhaps my own property wouldn't even be needed). I always try to work more than just one job so that I have extra income + I have a back-up job(or two, in my case) in the event that one of my jobs lays me off, like what happened to me not too long ago. Right now I do not have employer provided health insurance, but I am responsible enough to shop around for an affordable PPO and budget for it myself, allowing me to attend all the necessary doctors visits to make sure my body is in healthy shape for a pregnancy, and for fertility counseling.
In the meantime I also live way below my means. Every week I budget my money as if I were a single mom raising a child right now, putting any "baby expense" money into savings to use for the time that I'll (hopefully) have an actual baby to spend that money on -- so although I'm (very very unfortunately) childless, I do not allow myself to live the financial lifestyle of a low-expense "childfree" person. Yes it means not allowing myself to have much fun or go out very often, and yes it means me feeling even more bitter each month when I go through such great efforts and STILL not end up pregnant, but it gives me the confidence that I am ready and "yes I can" be a mom(if God only gifted me with a baby already, darnit).
Can you afford a baby?
Just one comment - if our parents had waited until they could afford us - none of us would be here!
There are a lot of people out there...
spending a lot more money than they need to.
My husband and I certainly do need to bring in more money if we're to last another two months (my husband has been sick this year, cutting our income down to 1/4 of what it could have been), but we only spent about $3000 on our daughter her first year of life.
She was covered by insurance for the first month, until our insurance was canceled (long story, the fault of an embezzler at my husband's work), but subsequently discovered that her well-baby appointments cost less than half what our monthly insurance premium was and simply paid for those out of pocket until her Oregon Health Plan coverage began.
All her clothes, her crib, her car seats, stroller and toys were gifts or hand-me-downs, all in great shape and mostly stylish. We acquired so much baby stuff, we passed most of it on to others or to Goodwill.
Because I could not fully breastfeed, we did have to buy formula, which was most of that $3000. We used cloth diapers for her first six months, until I got fed up with the stink in our small house and the overwhelming amount and frequency of laundry, and switched to disposables.
Easy peasy, and really cheap, esp. if you don't have to buy formula! We've lived on $1800 a month for the last 22 months and have done all right until now. So I'm soon heading back to work.
You can do it! And for more than a year...
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