For us, I would say financial considerations are probably the #1 reason why we would only have 2 children. As much as I would love a huge family, the cost of paying for 3+ private/college/grad school educations is just too daunting.
How important are financial considerations when deciding how many children you will have?
Jun 23, 2014You might also enjoy...
-
Very! It's not our only reason for being one and done and probably not our top reason (that's our happiness and feeling "complete" as a family of 3), but we love the financial freedom we have from having only one child. It definitely gives us more opportunities to travel and of course to be able to pay for her college and at least loan her money if she chooses to continue her education into graduate school. I've crunched some numbers and it's crazy how much we save with only having one child.
-
It's important. I want to have 4 children, but if our financial situation changed, we'd reevaluate that. On the flip side if our financial situation changed in a positive way, we might consider having 5 or 6 children.
-
Very. Right now, we're in a transitional period and will be for 2-3 years (we're pursing educational goals right now). That is the current biggest consideration for us TTC again. Until I am out of school, we will not be having any more.
As for future plans, we have financial accommodations for sending 2 kids to college, but I don't think we could do more. Plus, I grew up as one of three and there were a lot of things we never got to have/see/do because my parents couldnt afford it. I want my kids to have those opportunities.
-
100% the reason we are thinking about being one and done.
We both want to be able to give her the world and never want to tell her no to something simply because we can't afford it. Also we aren't sure how much of our quality of life we are willing to sacrifice to have another. We are still individuals and have needs and wants. Our identity is not solely parents.
-
It's not very important to us. We won't go and have 6 kids or anything, but I'm not going to not have children because I might not be able to send them all to 6 weeks of sleepaway camp every summer.
I put myself through college, with scholarships and grants (no loans), so I guess I kind of expect our kids to do the same. Having kids doesn't HAVE to be expensive, in my opinion. All you need is a loving home, some food on the table, and clothes on their backs.
-
I was going to say not important at all, since we plan to be done after 2. But I was just thinking, if we could afford multiple nannies and household helpers like a chef or cleaner, as well as live in a bigger home, I would totally have 3+ so I guess that does mean that finances plays into our family plans.
-
@Smurfette: This exactly but we agreed to stop at 2 unless something drastically changes!
-
It's not the deciding factor for us. Like any responsible parent, we worry about being able to provide everything we'd like for our kids, but I don't think abstract concerns about expense would drive our family size decisions. And like my dad says, the bill doesn't come all at once
-
It's very important to me. I want to be able to pay for my children's education and travel with them.
At this point I'm not sure if we will even have children, but if we do we won't have more than two.
-
@Smurfette: This is exactly how we feel. I always say that I want to be able to not only give my children everything the need, but also a little of what they want.
-
It hasn't come up for us as a reason to have "X" number of kids. Both DH and I paid for all/some of our college and for our own wedding/home/etc, so I guess that mindset plays into my thoughts about the cost of children as well. I know we plan to help them but neither of us feels like we are obligated to pay for everything.
-
Very. And not just in a "Can we afford daycare/diapers/wipes/food/etc.?" sense. Raising a child is ridiculously expensive. Things pop up--my LO recently had to have tubes put in which cost $800 and we have good insurance! Braces, extracurricular activities, insurance...it all adds up. I want to travel and provide an education for my LO, so we'll stop while we're ahead.
-
It's not the deciding factor, however financially 2 instead of 3 make more sense for our family. But personally, I think 2 is where I will feel like we have a complete family, my DH thinks 3 is. So we aren't on the same page yet.
-
Extremely important. We will never be rich, but I want to be able to live a comfortable life, and provide for my kids like I was provided for. I'd say it is tied with the fact that we do not want to be outnumbered by our kids... so two, max!
-
It isn't a direct consideration, but it does factor into our indirect planning. For example, we didn't want to be in a financial position where we relied on having dual incomes. So, we bought a less expensive house that what we could afford, we do staycations, etc, in the event one of us would like to/is forced to reduce our hours. My husband and I would also like to retire at some point, lol.
-
@lawbee11: exactly! Having another is $3K alone in labor and delivery costs for us. Not to mention loss of income while I am on maternity leave. Not just how do we pay for day care.
-
It's probably the top deciding factor for us. We want to provide our children with every possible opportunity and experience, (within reason), and also be able to enjoy certain "luxuries" in life. It's important to me to be able to go on vacation every year, send my kids to camp, pay for sports or dance lessons, etc. So with that in mind, our plan is to have two.
-
It doesn't really factor in for us, BUT we are very fortunate that we will be able to provide for two children, which is exactly how many we want.
-
It's not a deciding factor for me. I can't think of anything we have now or any future plans that I wouldn't give up to have the size family I wanted. That's easy for me to say since I only want two and we can afford them fairly comfortably.
-
Not very important because we live in a very family friendly country with numerous benefits and an extended maternity and paternity leave. But that's not to say it's not in the equation. I want to cover worst-case scenarios and would like to be able to fully take care of my LO as best I can. In my case, it means going back to school and putting off TTC even though it may risk our chances of conceiving again (I'm no spring chicken)! But we're no way ready for another right now anyway, so the decision isn't so difficult.
-
@allison: Precisely the way we feel. We may only end up having 1 or 2 because of fertility issues and pregnancy complications, but we're basically open to however many kids we get.
-
while it's not the be all end all decision factor in how many kids we will have, I know that paying for 2 kids is taxing. I know once they're out of daycare, all that "extra" money will then go towards their existing college fund. But thinking about another kid and extra expenses and how much more expensive trips become ..... it is daunting. And paying for their college sometimes leaves me freaking out.
-
#1 thing on our minds. If money wasn't a factor, my husband would want me to be a baby making machine.
-
Important(ish). I have no desire for a huge family and we can afford 2 for sure, 3 would be a stretch that would require us to cut back a lot in our traveling/vacations. But at our age, we'll likely only have 2 so it will also work out financially.
-
@Smurfette: wow, reading how much it actually costs to "only" birth the baby is crazy. Here I paid $0 for L&D and mat. leave is 100% of your income for the first 2m pp and 65% after that for the first year.
College education is practically free except for the costs of living.
So financial reasons haven't really played a role yet, we'll see how we do once #2 is here and it comes to making a decision on a potential #3.
-
We are more restricted by my age than we are finances. We are lucky to be fairly comfortable and will likely have substantial income increases in the near future. Ideally we'd like 4 but I'm 33 and will be almost 34 when #2 arrives. I'm not sure how many more pregnancies I can handle.
-
It's a consideration, for sure, but not the deciding factor. DH and I have agreed we will provide some monetary input for education, weddings, etc. But our children will also work and save for what they want, just like we did. We are very careful with our finances and plan ahead for emergencies and save for the future. We also work hard for that money. We aren't going to have a lot of children but we aren't preventing ourselves from having the size family we want due to money.
-
It's not, really.. Lets say that DH and I combined make X amount of money, and that is only enough to support one child financially (braces, wedding, college, etc.) so we are planning to be one and done. Then what happens when DH gets a massive raise or a new job? We could then afford 10 kids, no problem. But then I'd be too old to have more kids, or we would have kids really far apart in age (which neither of us want)
Or right now I can afford 10 kids, college paid in full. Guess what, DH could lose his job next week and never find one that paid as good.
To me, money is impossible to predict. I know that right now I can afford to have one more kid. So, we're going to. It just seems silly to base family plans off of something you have no idea what will happen. If that makes sense..
-
It's a serious consideration but it won't stop us from having more children. I ko
-
Very important. I don't want to have to deprive my kids of many of the things I was deprived of as a child. If we had more, we would need a larger home, two new cars...less money that would go to our savings for the kids in the future.
-
They are very important to me since I've seen how it can be to have more kids than you can afford. When I was growing up, we were always worried about money and whether we would make it to the next paycheck. I don't believe that is something a child should have to think about.
-
It's not the most important criteria for us. We wanted 2, we have 2, we are done. If we adjusted our lifestyle, we could have 3, but we don't want 3.
-
@Smurfette: This sums up one of the main reasons we're one and done very well!
-
Not the most important. We are only interested in two, but I also think LOs should contribute to certain things as well.
-
I am lucky to be in a position where finances are not that important in this decision for us. That being said, we do not intend to pay for private/college/grad school education for them. They will attend public school and we will help with college as much as we can, but our parents didn't pay for our grad school and it turned out fine for us.
-
@Smurfette: When all was said and done I ended up paying almost 7k out of pocket for E's birth, with insurance!! (of course, with my current insurance it would be $25, total!)
It's a huge consideration for us. Neither of us have very well-paying jobs. We feel we can give one kid a good life, but two might be straining it. I know that giving kids material thing isn't the most important thing, but as someone who grew up in a dirt-poor household, I WANT to be able to give him as much as possible. It's not the end all be all factor, but it is the biggest one.
-
@MrsTiz: Ditto.
@allison: Ditto.
And, ditto on this too, @snowjewelz:.
Well said, ladies!
-
@lovehoneybee: Holy crap! $25. You should have another now
-
@oliviaoblivia: I'm in the same boat and will be 34 two months after #2 is born and this definitely plays a bigger role in the # of kids for me.
Subscribe to our newsletter
- Google Plus
- Stumbleupon
- Twitter
- Facebook
- Pinterest
- Favorite0
111 comments