Sunshine and Light

Is raising kids a fools investment?

MSNBC has an article about how expensive kids are.

Duh.

I've been doing a lot of reading about personal finance lately, (gee what a surprise, huh?) and one topic that's always good for a healthy debate is the financial impact of having children. When should you have them? How much money do you need to have stored up? Are you a sucker for having children because of the cost?


I think the MSNBC article hit the nail on the head in one aspect - kids used to be a financial investment when they worked around the farm and took care of their parents in their dotage. But now they're an emotional investment. And while I would never say that you shouldn't consider finances (believe me, I've considered them a lot of late), I find it hard to believe that finances are a prime mover for most of us in deciding whether or not to have kids. (Note: For an exception to the rule, read Jeff Opdyke's "Love and Money".) I have two dogs who are emotional investments as well. If they keep the house from getting robbed, that's a nice bonus, but I got them for non-financial reasons. I ride bikes for fun, it's an emotional investment. If it makes me healthy, great! There are a lot of things we do that aren't financially motivated.

Having said that, I'm not suggesting that if you want kids, you shouldn't factor finances into the timing. I just think that if you want kids, you'll make things work. And you probably aren't deciding to have kids because it's a sound financial investment.

posted by MyHusbandRules @ 2:21 PM