I recently had a discussion with a friend who is in her mid 30s and hasn't yet started trying to get pregnant because she's worried about how she'll afford a bigger apartment, daycare, diapers, and all the other costs that come along with having a baby. Though I understand and share her concerns, I encouraged her to get going! She might (MIGHT!) have more money in a couple of years, but then she'll also be beyond the magic pregnancy age of 35 and have all kinds of other things to worry about it.
Then I came across this blog post called What Comes First: The Chicken or the Nest Egg? by Rebecca Woolf of Girl's Gone Child. I chuckled when I read her smart words "there is never enough money and there is never enough time and there is never enough of anything ever the end." I couldn't agree more.
Kate and I did wait until we both had decent(ish) paying jobs and an apartment that can (perhaps uncomfortably) accommodate a baby...but we didn't wait until we had enough money to really do this thing. I'm not sure when that day might come. We had the added financial complication of needing to put up a fair amount of money at the beginning just to attempt to get pregnant, so we actually did have a bit of a nest egg. Since it only took 3 tries (woohoo!), we had some of our baby making savings left over, a bit of which we recently used on vet bills for our other baby, Batman the cat. But I digress...
My point is that I don't think there's ever a "right" time to have a baby. Obviously it's ideal if future parents have enough money to provide the basics for their baby and I certainly do wish we had a little more (who doesn't?), but I don't regret our getting pregnant before having all of financial ducks in a row. I should add that we're very lucky to have very supportive families who would never let BCG go diaper-less. Phew.
We want to hear from you! Do you have financial check boxes on your pre baby-making to-do list? Did you make it it work on a budget? Do you have advice for us? We'll take it.
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