There's Ready and There's Financially Ready...When Having a Baby?

By: Robert Katz

While most people have an age in their head for when they think they want to have a baby, most of them never really considered whether or not they would actually be financially ready when that time comes. Love and wanting to start a family are beautiful things, but you can really ruin them both if you don't think about the costs involved before hand.
According to thousands of moms who took the Baby Centers Exclusive Survey, you'll spend approximately $10,000 in the first year your baby is born. Ten Thousand Dollars!! I read that number and I almost went and got a vasectomy. Yet, the truth is while this may seem like a lot that is the least of your worries. You have to start thinking about life insurance, disability insurance, a will, your tax status, health insurance needs, loss of income from maturnity or paternity leave, the costs of childcare, etc. the list goes on and on. Even worse, on top of all that the expenses just keep growing the older your child gets. Okay, now that I have completely scared the crap out of you, you can calm down now. The real truth is all of this is managable as long as you are prepared with a plan.
I know what your thinking, my parents had me and I turned out fine I don't really need to plan this out that much, they never really did. Well, the problem with that assumption is that, "A 2007 analysis from The Pew Charitable Trusts in Washington, D.C., found that American men have 12 percent less income than their fathers' generation did at the same age...Meanwhile, the cost of housing for families with children shot up 78 percent between 1984 and 2001, says Amelia Warren Tyagi, co-author of The Two-Income Trap and All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan." So, you see that now and days it is even more imperative for the livelyhood of your family that you understand all the expenses involved in having a baby and formulate a well thought out plan. Becoming a parent will be scary enough on its own with out burdening yourself financially in the process.

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