Reply to Want a baby but not in the best place financially..

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I would say that there are myriad reasons why you probably should wait in your situation (a lot of it has to do with ensuring you and your BF are in this thing for the long haul as parents/partners)

BUT at the same time I am going to play devil's advocate and say that people in this area are a little jaded on financial realities. a couple making 70K per year is hardly financially unable to have a child! The "living paycheck to paycheck" part probably means you will need some lifestyle adjustments to happen ASAP so that you can begin making a savings/cushion for your self. (size of your apt and area you live in is the biggie here, but also debt restructuring of student loans and/or other debt, etc is probably something that you should do and put the small surplus in savings).

But lets get real, a couple with 70K a year income is not hovering above the poverty line. I had parents who had to be financially austere, lots of people do. It becomes eerily close to social engineering when we put numbers on who should and should not have a baby at these levels to me.
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I don't think they shouldn't have kids because they make 70k per yer. I think they shouldn't because they live paycheck to paycheck. Get your finances in order before choosing to have a kid. That's all. [/quote]

The problem is that they make $70K on two incomes and after the baby is born, they are likely to be living on $35K because the OP has mentioned that she would like to SAH with their child.  If she does go back to work, they'll have to make room for a significant amount of childcare.  Even inexpensive in-home daycares in this area tend to be in the ballpark of $250-300/wk for infants, which is $1000-1200 of childcare/month before they even tack on the diapers, formula (if for some reason she cannot BF), clothing, supplies, etc.  That's a lot of expenses to be adding on to a paycheck-to-paycheck household.

I'm the earlier poster who suggested that she start saving $50-100 per week NOW and creating an emergency fund of money they can use to help with supplies and such.  It will also get them acclimated to living on a lower amount each month, which they'll need to do once they add a third person to the household.  If they can't get used to living on less and making compromises now, then they really won't be able to make such compromises when they have a baby and will find themselves quickly becoming stressed out over money that they don't have.[/quote]

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