Debt and a baby

jbkmum

Would you wait til you were debt free to have a second child?
I want to wait, husband doesn't.

Mummy2cheekymonkeys

Could you not meet half way and wait a couple of years to get the debt down as much as possible?

selement

A baby is a big decision and will likely slow down debt repayment, but at the same time I understand feeling like wanting to do it now before it's too late. Plus you already have 1 child (I think that theoretically a second child isn't perhaps that much more expensive than 1...)

Only you can work this out between yourselves . My husband and I are currently expecting our first baby despite having debt (around 8k). It's a lot less than your debt and I know we will have to pause paying much more than minimum for a few years but didn't want to wait years to start a family (we can't afford to repay that much a month even without children!).

It might be worth trying to calculate what you could repay a month if you did have a baby and how much it would slow down repaying that 50k to get a better feel for if it worth it

hazyjo

Depends on your ages, where you're living, the age gap between kids, what debt you have and if it'll only get worse. So many other factors that nobody can really advise. I don't have debt nor do I have kids. But who doesn't have debt really in this day and age? Hard to live without it. If you're managing it and can afford extra child care and prob time from work, go for it.


Your sig mentions £50k-odd debt. Does that include a mortgage or is that literally just debt? That would scare me if just debt and not the mortgage...

comeandgo

Surely you can't afford another child with 50k in debt? You mention in your diary taking on a second job, could you keep up payments if you are on maternity leave?
Have you considered going bankrupt as that will give you a clean slate.

chelseablue

Could of asked this question myself!

I'm 35, husband is 29 and we have a 4 year old son who started school last month.

Husband wants another baby where I want to wait (possibly a very long time as I'm happy with 1 :rotfl:)

We owe £14,000 plus our mortgage of £217,000.
Now that we're out of paying the high childcare fees of £850 a month I really don't want to go back into it!

Although my mum no longer works and has said she would look after a 2nd child when I went back to work.
But in half terms she looks after our son so would mean every 6 weeks she'd have 2 of them to look after :eek:

dawyldthing

comeandgo wrote: »

Surely you can't afford another child with 50k in debt? You mention in your diary taking on a second job, could you keep up payments if you are on maternity leave?
Have you considered going bankrupt as that will give you a clean slate.

But then your stuck for 6 years with a lot of 5hings, not getting credit etc. It’s not an easy way out

rach_k

I think it depends on a lot of factors. How well (or not) is the debt being managed? Is it causing you a lot of stress? Are you struggling to make ends meet while making repayments? Do you have to pay for childcare? What's the maternity pay situation? Have you kept your older child's stuff for the baby? Is your current home big enough for another person? Do you have very definite preferences about age gap between siblings?

Everybody will have a different mix of answers to that lot!

sheramber

It depends on why the debt arose.
Is the debt due to regularly overspending or is it due to an one off situation?

If you are not able to live within your income now how will you manage with the expense of a second child?

-taff

If you owe this much money, how much spare cash will you have each week? what happens if you can't pay this debt? Where do you currently live and can you afford to rent if you lose your house? Will you have to purchase/rent another house if you have another baby?
What's the worse case scenario regarding your income v debt and what's your plan for dealing with it if it happens?

phryne

Nothing worse than money worries keeping you awake at night. So if you're the sort who DOES worry about owing other people money, you'd probably be better not extending your family till your debts are cleared.