Having a baby whilst paying off debts.

Cyrus

Go for it.

downhillfast

Definitely go for it. You seem to have your finances under control. Think how you'd feel if in X years time if finances were perfect yet the fertility bodyclock had called time. Sometimes in life you just have to go for it.

My wife and I are expecting our first baby having decided to put saving for a house on hold in favour of paying for fertility treatment as we weren't getting any younger - DW is 33.

Good luck :beer:

FBaby

I would go for it because ultimately, a child will always be much more worth long term than a life without debts.

However, I feel from your OP that you might not be totally honest with yourself about managing your debt. How did you get into such debt in the first place if you earn a decent income and that was before having children?

Also, are you considering the costs of childcare when your wife goes back to work? Or the impact of raising two young children working long hours? What if she decides that she doesn't want to go back to work, or do so reducing her hours signficantly?

You say you can still have a decent lifestyle. My view is that if you are serious about getting rid of the debts, I would give up the decent lifestyle for the time being, prioritise trying for another baby and pay every single penny you can towards your debts so you can get rid of all of it asap. You will then have more freedom to decide about how to make changes to your life if necessary once your second child is with you.

Darkphaery

My mum always said if you waited until you could afford children to have them you'd never have one. Yes you're in debt but at the end of the day it's only money compared to another member of your family x

MrsSave

We're in the position where we're thinking about having a second child now, but like you are paying off debts. I'm in my early 30s and conceived my ds very quickly, so haven't got major worries there (though you never know), but if we waited until all our debts were paid off, my age could start to become an issue. I won't get a good maternity package as I work as a supply teacher, so our aim is to save as well as to pay off debs. We want to make sure we have enough money behind us for the first 9-12 months without having to touch a credit card. We are fortunate in that we have everything kept from our first son, so would only need a few new items (car seat, mattress and clothes if we were to have a girl!). I'd say go for it, we will be in just under 2 years (our saving target!!).

catshark88

This is only my opinion, but I would combine going for it re. the baby and really committing to very active debt busting!

Babies are so precious, I wouldn't wait, given the possible delay getting pregnant and the v important fact that you are already really working at getting the debt down.

Maybe you could use the excitement of planning to have the next child, to inspire you to new levels of frugality and debt busting while you are TTC, pregnant and in the exhausting, but relatively inexpensive first year or so of your baby's life??

Best of luck on both fronts!

timbstoke

Life is all about those certain goals that you want to achieve, whether that be buying a house, getting married, having kids or just paying off your overdraft.

Your decision is pretty simple. Either way, in 20 years time you'll be looking back at the decision you make right now. So take the worst outcome of both decisions, imagine yourself 20 years down the line, and take your pick:

"We chose not to try for a child in 2014 and as a result we left it too late, but we were debt free by 2016"

"We decided to try for a child in 2014 and they're starting at university next year, but we didn't get debt free until 2019"

Take your pick. As others have said, you can always combine by going absolutely all out to try and clear as much debts as possible before a baby comes along.

Mooglet71

If I have learnt one thing over the years, it's that sometimes life gets in the way of your plans!

We had our first DD very easily back in 2005 within one month of deciding to try for a baby. By 2008 we were in a fair enough financial position to start trying to for baby no 2. Unfortunately it wasn't so easy and we struggled to conceive. Eventually after 3 years of trying we were told there was a less than 1% chance of conceiving and this would only increase to 5% with IVF. We decided to stick with DD1 and be happy and move on. I was very sad and became a bit of a spendaholic during the time we were trying for a baby. So I ended up having to go for a DMP in Nov 2011.

Guess what happened in Nov 2013? I miraculously got pregnant :j

Fast forward nearly 2 years later, I have a beautiful 16 month old daughter, a gorgeous 9 year old, a fab husband (who was also made redundant during that time so now earns £13K less than he did), 2 DMPs (me and DH), a job that comes to an end on the 30th Nov (me - voluntary redundancy). Somehow we survive and I wouldn't have it any other way. We are pretty broke near enough all of the time, but there are some things that money just can't buy.

And I was 5 days short of my 42nd birthday when I had DD2.

Sometimes we think too much about the ifs, whens and hows