Let’s Talk About Pregnancy and Finances

You may recall me mentioning how finances may be affected in Let’s Talk About Pregnancy: Your Parenting Primer: You’ve got ten months to pay off and cut up those credit cards, missy. But are babies really that much of a financial burden? How much do they really cost? I was on the phone with a good, married friend the other day. She is the last of my good friends from high school to still be baby-less. She admitted that having a baby at this time in her life would probably put her in the poor house, but I insisted that … Continue reading

Let’s Talk About How Much Babies Really Cost

The Center for Nutrition/Policy and Promotion division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that by the time a child born in 2004 reaches age 6, parents with an income exceeding $70,200 a year (the median family income for 2003 was $52,680) will have spent $95,840 on said child. The report also notes that parents with a $70,200-plus income will have shelled out about $353,000 by their child’s eighteenth birthday. It’s no wonder that people are intimidated by the supposed large price tag of raising a family. If you don’t have insurance to cover the cost of delivering the baby, … Continue reading