Comments on: You Can’t Afford Kids

By: Is Saving Money Overwhelming? | Ultimate Money Blog- Save Green and Live Green!

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 15:01:52 +0000

[...] going to need for the future, and it freaks me out. I think about how much it’s going to cost to have kids, replace one of our vehicles, and even how much money we’ll need for retirement. I feel like [...]

By: Health Insurance Options? | Ultimate Money Blog- Save Green and Live Green!

Health Insurance Options? | Ultimate Money Blog- Save Green and Live Green! — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 10:30:46 +0000

[...] a planner (obviously), and I’m kind of stuck as far as options go. You see, when we finally have a baby, I want to be a stay at home mom. It’s one of my hopes and dreams, and I really want it to [...]

By: H Lee D

H Lee D — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 04:39:16 +0000

Don’t be sad that you can’t give them that. Be sad that her kids get stuff and not time. Any ol’ jerk with money can buy stuff. Not everyone will give time.

By: Mrs Money

Mrs Money — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 02:54:58 +0000

$350,000?!? You are not helping me want to have kids. just kidding! I am glad your baby is doing well now!

I am the type of person that would rather give experiences. I have a friend that gives her kids everything and it just makes me sad when I’m around them because I know I’ll never be able to give them that.

Thanks so much for the comment!

By: Weekly Round-Up: Alexa Challenge Heats Up! | The Amateur Financier

Weekly Round-Up: Alexa Challenge Heats Up! | The Amateur Financier — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:28:39 +0000

[...] You Can’t Afford Kids – A conversation stopper right there, although it raises some interesting points about when in your financial journey you should add kids to your household. [...]

By: Debt Free Dude

Debt Free Dude — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:45:00 +0000

Kids change your lifestyle so much, you can’t compare the way you live now with the way you live after kids. Also, different parents have different ways of raising their kids. Some focus on giving them experiences (trips to the library, time with grandparents, walks in the park, etc.) and others focus on giving them things. The “things” route is much more expensive. If your friend has kids, look at how they parent–they may have a very expensive style that you don’t to mimic.

Make sure you have some type of insurance though–even if it has a very high deductible. Our second child ended up costing over $350,000 and 5 weeks in a hospital that wasn’t near our home so we had to stay in a hotel. Without insurance, it would have wiped us out. We ended up paying about $10,000 out of our pockets over some time. Obviously this was a big expense, but nothing compared to what it could have been.

If you have a big deductible, you may want to try to time getting pregnant so the frequent prenatal appointments and childbirth are all applied to the same deductible. We tried to do this, but it turned out our insurance year ran from October to October instead of January to January. So we hit the deductible once for prenatal care and once again for having the baby. (Who is doing fine now and is in good shape.)

By: The 219th Festival of Frugality: The Ration Book Edition | Miss Thrifty

The 219th Festival of Frugality: The Ration Book Edition | Miss Thrifty — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:14:28 +0000

[...] Money presents You Can’t Afford Kids posted at The Ultimate Money [...]

By: Mrs Money

Mrs Money — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:26:54 +0000

Ted- I think I’d like to have a surprise! That would be fine with me. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this year is the year I get pregnant.

By: Mrs Money

Mrs Money — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:26:24 +0000

Money Reasons- Thanks again for the post and for the nice comments! I think we need to just go for it and see what happens. We’ve got a good amount saved already.

I hope you continue to enjoy your kids, even when they are teenagers!

By: The Best Time To Have Children | Money Reasons

The Best Time To Have Children | Money Reasons — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 05:20:08 +0000

[...] reading UtimateMoneyBlog.com’s piece on “You can’t afford to have children“, I decided to state my opinion on when to have children. When to have [...]