Having a financial plan is not only responsible but NECESSARY. And any argument that says anything different is a blatant justification of a selfish decision. I don’t care how much “love” you have in your home, if you had that AND money you and your family would be better off.

Now, if you know you will never have money and there’s nothing you can do about it, go ahead and pop out those kids. There is nothing to “wait” or “plan” for.

I’m nearly thirty and so I don’t have time to achieve very much on that list.

I haven’t got any credit card debt, but I can’t even imagine ever owning my home, let alone in the next few years.
My partner is still doing his PhD and I’m postdoc-ing, which means that I have no permanent job prospects either.

As for the car, I take consolation in the fact that people had babies before cars existed.

I’ll save as much as I can, but if I tried to be ready I think I’d have to wait until I was eighty.

But to me they are all 4 well worth it. sure we don’t have all the best everything, but we do have food and shelter, once those are taken care of most of the rest is like icing on the cake.

I still maintain your feeling is more important than financial security or lack therof, but I can’t tell you it will ever be a ’sure thing’.

Also to anyone worried waiting will make them unable, adopt, it costs about the same as childbirth.

But that’s just me.

Regardless, I think if you can prepare as much as you can, as much as you’re comfortable with, do so. It’s your future and with or without kids, it will only be better if you have little or no debt to add to the stress, excitement, challenges, etc. ahead of you.

this comment made me very sad. we had our first baby when I was 24 and my husband 26, while he was in grad school and I was only working a 20 hour job. We had to cut our expenses a TON, and i am glad that we had saved a lot our first two years of marriage, but now he has a job that supports our little family without me having to work. having a child when we were young and living on half of an income did NOT make us poor, it actually made us RICH- richer than any family living on two incomes.
I think that this article is wonderful for those who would like to begin planning financially for children. However, after reading all the comments I am very discouraged. Just as people may look down on you for waiting to have kids until you are “ready,” is it fair for you to look down on those of us who have decided NOT to wait, to trust the Lord to provide for us?
We are not being reckless, or stupid, which is how many of these comments make us feel. The reality is that life WOULD be easier if we had done all of those things before having kids. But, on the same token, you can still have a wonderfully happy family with less money and less financial security for a time.
Bottom line, neither way is wrong, they BOTH have advnatages and disadvantages.

I actually just posted something similar to moneysmartblog.com about moving in together. Check it out. I would love to hear your thoughts.