herlihyboy wrote:
- quote -

This is excellent advice. I now have two kids, age 6 months and 2 years,
and while it's been financially really tough since my wife decided to
stay home when my daughter (the 2 year old) was born. Basically, our
income was cut in half. And our expenses went up (though it's not as bad
as some people will make it out to be). For the first year I was always
worried about money, and I took a part-time job with hours from 8pm to
4am on weekends just so I would be able to bring in some extra cash but
also be around for the kids until they went to bed. It helped ease the
transition for us, financially, but really if we had just buckled down
and gotten used to not having a bunch of cash coming in every 2 weeks
(my wife's old paycycle), we would have been fine.

In fact, I was just inquiring a month ago about this - I just paid off
my wife's sizable student loan in cash. Mine's next. Had we still been
married with no kids and eating out 3 times a week at restaurants, and
going out on weekends, etc, we'd probably still have that loan and the
credit card debt we used to have.

I think I heard this on TV once from some financial guru, and it's true:

You spend what you make. I think that is definitely true, at least for
most people.

My co-workers (I work with mostly all women) who have recently had kids
always have a saddened look on their face when the subject comes up and
I tell them that my wife stays home with the kids. They invariably come
out with "I don't know how you could possibly afford that, I know I
can't." And then I see them in the parking lot at the end of the
workday, getting into their 2004 BMW mini-SUV. No wonder they can't
afford to stay home with their kids.

mark

Pineapple wrote:
- quote -

Hi, Pineapple -

Here are a couple of interesting calculators:

http://www.babycenter.com/costofchild/
http://mortgages.interest.com/conten...ildrearing.asp

Don't bank on what the calculators tell you, though. Talk to your
friends who have done it and are currently doing it who have similar
lifestyles to yours. There are a lot of factors that go into this -
how many household incomes [e.g., one parent at home], whether you will
buy used clothing or HAVE to buy new, cloth vs. disposable diapers,
etc.

My two cents? Don't choose to NOT have kids because you think it will
be too expensive. Yes, your expenses will likely be higher. But, if
you are committed to it, you will learn to adapt.

Ryan

Hello

I live in Toronto, Canada.
I just wonder if you know of any resoureful personal finance websites
for people who plan to start a family. Just want to get an idea how
much it will cost in all aspects once the first child is born.

(Kinda like when people prepare to apply Mortgage stuff, they go the
bank site for mortgage calculator or something )


I am not exactly sure if i post in the right group. If you know of
more relevant newsgroup , please let me know.

Thanks for your attention.