Author Topic: Net worth at birth of first child?  (Read 21052 times)

GetItRight

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Re: Net worth at birth of first child?
« Reply #50 on: February 08, 2015, 08:50:23 AM »
It's interesting to see what others answer to this as I've been thinking about this lately. We don't have kids, but require at least a zero net worth or ideally no debt aside from a reasonable mortgage. It may be that our ship has sailed by that time but that's just the price of paying for previous luxury purchases (college) and living within our means.

My advice would be, don't delay childbearing too long for solely financial reasons.  A stache is nice but fertility declines with age.

This sounds to me the same as saying don't delay buying a fancy new car or any other luxury item just because you're not in a good financial position for it. Children are a luxury.

johnny847

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Re: Net worth at birth of first child?
« Reply #51 on: February 08, 2015, 09:01:06 AM »

My advice would be, don't delay childbearing too long for solely financial reasons.  A stache is nice but fertility declines with age.

This sounds to me the same as saying don't delay buying a fancy new car or any other luxury item just because you're not in a good financial position for it. Children are a luxury.
It's not the same thing though. It is physically possible to buy a luxury item at any point in your life (whether you can afford it is a different story). But after a certain age giving birth to a healthy baby just becomes infeasible.
Of course this assumes you want to give birth as opposed to adopting a child. 

kander

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Re: Net worth at birth of first child?
« Reply #52 on: February 08, 2015, 09:07:32 AM »
It's interesting to see what others answer to this as I've been thinking about this lately. We don't have kids, but require at least a zero net worth or ideally no debt aside from a reasonable mortgage. It may be that our ship has sailed by that time but that's just the price of paying for previous luxury purchases (college) and living within our means.

My advice would be, don't delay childbearing too long for solely financial reasons.  A stache is nice but fertility declines with age.

This sounds to me the same as saying don't delay buying a fancy new car or any other luxury item just because you're not in a good financial position for it. Children are a luxury.

Having a big stache is also a luxury ;) I would prefer having children over having a big stache... It's not all about the destination, it's also about the travel and who you travel with towards your destination.

Bracken_Joy

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Re: Net worth at birth of first child?
« Reply #53 on: February 08, 2015, 01:03:00 PM »
It's interesting to see what others answer to this as I've been thinking about this lately. We don't have kids, but require at least a zero net worth or ideally no debt aside from a reasonable mortgage. It may be that our ship has sailed by that time but that's just the price of paying for previous luxury purchases (college) and living within our means.

My advice would be, don't delay childbearing too long for solely financial reasons.  A stache is nice but fertility declines with age.

This sounds to me the same as saying don't delay buying a fancy new car or any other luxury item just because you're not in a good financial position for it. Children are a luxury.

But unlike a fancy car, children are integral to my ideal life and my plan for personal development. I can still get places with a cheap car vs an expensive one (or a bike). I can't achieve parenthood without children (biological vs adoption being a different discussion entirely though).

iwasjustwondering

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Re: Net worth at birth of first child?
« Reply #54 on: February 08, 2015, 02:14:56 PM »
What was your net worth when your first child was born? If you haven't had a child yet, what net worth are you aiming for upon such birth? More important, when do you think is the optimal time to have a kid in the path to FIRE?

Seems like MMM had about $650k banked at that time....
-$70,000.  We had student loans. 

iwasjustwondering

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Re: Net worth at birth of first child?
« Reply #55 on: February 08, 2015, 02:20:25 PM »
It's interesting to see what others answer to this as I've been thinking about this lately. We don't have kids, but require at least a zero net worth or ideally no debt aside from a reasonable mortgage. It may be that our ship has sailed by that time but that's just the price of paying for previous luxury purchases (college) and living within our means.

My advice would be, don't delay childbearing too long for solely financial reasons.  A stache is nice but fertility declines with age.

This sounds to me the same as saying don't delay buying a fancy new car or any other luxury item just because you're not in a good financial position for it. Children are a luxury.

That's wrong.  If you delay having children, you are more likely to have kids with serious  medical problems and diminished quality of life.  Not something I'd do for a few bucks.

enpower

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Re: Net worth at birth of first child?
« Reply #56 on: February 08, 2015, 03:31:36 PM »
My partner is 27 and I'm 26.

We plan to have our first child when she is 32 or so.

Our net worth at the moment is almost $200k depending on house prices of our investment property. Would hope with savings over the next 4-5 years and capital growth in property we would be perhaps $400k or so.

We live in Auckland, New Zealand.

cats

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Re: Net worth at birth of first child?
« Reply #57 on: February 08, 2015, 04:18:27 PM »
Assuming infertility does not strike, we'll be at our "bare minimum" FI amount by the time we have a kid (we are currently 33/32 and just dipping our toes into the TTC waters, so basically....within 9 months we'll be at that minimum number).  Our minimum number assumes some willingness to relocate to a cheaper part of the country and no child-related expenses, so we obviously won't be retiring once our hypothetical baby shows up :)  We are hoping to have 2, and in the if-everything-works-perfectly version of things, by the time #2 arrives, we'll be very comfortable dropping down to 1 full-time or 2 part-time incomes.  Basically, we want to be done saving for our own traditional retirement and only worry about bringing in enough income to cover our family expenses and maybe save a bit against possible future child-related expenses (e.g., university, if that is still as $$$ and "necessary" as it is now).  If that doesn't work out for whatever reason, we'll deal with it somehow, but that's what we're hoping.

We didn't really plan a networth threshold to having kids, but it's just kind of happened that this is (we think), the best time--we've both now been out of grad school for a few years and I've gotten established enough at my job to feel comfortable with the idea of taking a "longer" maternity leave (4-6 months). I do worry about infertility though...it does seem like I run into a surprising number of people who have had trouble conceiving :(

Cassie

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Re: Net worth at birth of first child?
« Reply #58 on: February 08, 2015, 04:25:44 PM »
My now ex-hubby & I had 3 kids -I was 19-25 & he was 9 years older. We had 2 old cars, hand me down furniture, etc.  He had a college degree & an okay job at the time. We were frugal & made it work. Our net worth was $2000.   Did not divorce until the kids were grown. The upside is that I was only 43 by the time all were 18. Of course that did not mean that they all magically left home or didn't come back a few times. 

RunHappy

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Re: Net worth at birth of first child?
« Reply #59 on: February 08, 2015, 05:19:21 PM »
I was 19 when I had my first child.  My net worth was MAYBE $3k and that was because I had no credit cards, loans, and my parents gave me a car.  We bought most of what we needed from Goodwill or yard sales.

I am now expecting my second child (20 years later) and even though I will be able to afford more convenient baby items (like a changing table), I am still planning to keep the costs low by using Craigslist and thrift stores for baby furniture and clothes. 

I think the most expensive things about babies are formula (if using it), diapers (if using disposable and some higher end cloth diapers) and daycare.  Other than that babies don't need much.

Edit:  While being financially stable is important I don't think it should be used as the only reason to delay having a kid.  I would also not worry about fertility treatments unless a doctor has told you to be worried.  I am 38 and had no problem conceiving.
« Last Edit: February 08, 2015, 05:47:10 PM by RunHappy »

Mississippi Mudstache

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Re: Net worth at birth of first child?
« Reply #60 on: February 08, 2015, 06:02:39 PM »
We had maybe $20,000 in the bank and retirement accounts and about -$50,000 in negative equity on the house plus two car loans. So -$30,000 or somewhere around there. But this was well before I'd ever even given my net worth a thought.

greaper007

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Re: Net worth at birth of first child?
« Reply #61 on: February 08, 2015, 10:53:23 PM »
Somewhere in the negative range.    I'm guessing around $40k maybe less.    We had both finally finished school and the accompanying crappy jobs that followed though.    My wife was 30 and I was 26 so it was time for her to get moving so she wouldn't have to deal with the advanced maternal age junk.   

Our net combined income was just over $100k, and we were low spender.   That seemed to be a good justification for being able to afford kids to me.

firelight

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Re: Net worth at birth of first child?
« Reply #62 on: February 09, 2015, 05:43:47 AM »
We had $450k when we had our first. Not that we planned for it but the money cushion was a good one for any possible bumps.

MsFrugalista

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Re: Net worth at birth of first child?
« Reply #63 on: February 10, 2015, 04:52:42 PM »
Net worth was at ~700K (ages 32 and 31). My partner and I did think it was ideal to have kids once we reached FI, however we did not wait for this. It took us a year and a half to get pregnant and in hindsight, I'm glad to have had that time to build our stash, travel, move cross country, establish our careers, and continue to build a strong relationship (10 years and counting). Like others have said, things don't always go as planned so just be prepared for the unexpected and try not to stress when things don't go as planned :)

I would like to wait until we reach FI (on track by ages 35/34) before we have another child (if we decide to have more).
« Last Edit: February 10, 2015, 05:02:38 PM by MsFrugalista »