They even traded their large five-bedroom house for a much smaller home. All that domestic down down-sizing was necessary, the Minnetonka, Minn., couple maintained, in preparation for the birth of their first child, Nicklaus, who turns 3 in April. A Second Son, Zachary, joined the household in July.
"It's all a matter of rearranging your priorities," said Mrs, Churchill, 34, a working. mother, who believes the family's frugality will only be temporary.
We figured we better get this baby thing done and get that phase of our lives over with.
Leyden note:
This lady must be ______________ ( fill in your own adjective ) --
" . . . the frugality will temporary" ? Ha !
"GET THIS BABY 'THING' OVER WITH" ????
Honey -- it ain't every over with -- for the next 21,915 days you will be a parent. This isn't a temporary "thing" -- unless you plan to kill your children when you get tired of them and then get on with the rest of your lives. And every day in the USA -- at least five parents kill their child / children. Ask Susan Smith. Also - probably 5 kids each day --- kill their parents.
Tom Brokaw - NBC Evening News added this statistic: There are something like ( can't remember the exact figure ) 21,000 "near death injuries" each year in the USA ( Nov 1995 ).
One of my advisees came into the office in September many years ago -- and i asked her what she did over the summer. "I got married, so that's done."
Gawd --- done ??????
Let's see -- what's on dr. leyden's list of "things to do this week"
-- get some milk and bread
--- faculty meeting
--- teach classes
--- get married
-- correct some tests.
Her attitude about "getting married" was --- ( fill in your own adjective / verb ), eh ?
and another non-formal operational student said in the Eastern News one time: "I'm getting married at the end of the semester -- so then i can start living my life."
Sweetie -- if you aren't living your life to the fullest right now --- getting a ring from Billie Bob ain't going to help you. Undergraduate days are the EASIEST TIME OF YOUR LIFE. When will you ever again have a job where you have to go to work 15 hours a week ?
While few new parents go through such extremes, most will have to make significant adjustments in their lifestyles, not to 'mention their household finances. In fact, sound financial planning may never be more important than at this stage from budgeting for prenatal and hospital expenses to paying for college.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture conservatively estimates it will cost $198,060 (based on 1994 dollars) to raise a child from birth to age 18 for families with current incomes above $55,000 a year. For the first year alone, that same family will have spent $10,510 on their newest member.
Those figures don't even include the cost of giving birth, which can run from $4,700 for a normal delivery livery to $7,800 for a Caesarean section, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Nor do they take into account the cost of sending junior to college, which, based on a 7 percent average annual rate of recent year tuition increases, is expected to skyrocket to nearly $100,000 (for a -four-year public school by the year 2013.
- Adopting a child: costs anywhere from:$2,000 to $20,000, with the average price- tag at $10,000.
"Kids will really raise your cost of living. (But) if it takes a child to make you financially serious, then I'm Pro-children," Jonathan Pond, a Boston area financial planner and father of three, said half-jokingly.
Financial experts say the first order of business for expectant parents is to create a fund for expenses like unpaid parental leave and child-birth costs. Parents should check with their employers and insurance carrier to see what's covered.
After the baby arrives, parents will need to reshuffle their budget to allow for typical baby expenses, like formula and diapers, as well as child care, which could eat up as much as 20 % percent of household income a year.
A good financial counselor can help crunch the numbers. For the techno-logically inclined, Intuit, maker of the best-selling Quicken financial-planning software, earlier this year put out the "Parents' Guide to Money," a user-friendly Windows CD-ROM program that helps new parents calculate long- and short-term family expenses.
In some instances, Ponds says, it simply may not be economically justi-fied for both new parents to continue working. The following worse-case sce-nario of just how little that second paycheck adds to the household coffers of a two-income family with two small children supports that argument:
The second wage earner who makes $50,000 gross annual salary will likely see 43 percent of that in-come eaten away by taxes - 31 percent federal, 5 percent state and 7 percent Social Security -- bringing the after-tax total to around $29,000. Day care for two children can run as much as $300 a week, or $15,000 a year, further reducing the income to $14,000. Job-related costs, such as trans-portation, clothing and lunches at work, can run around $4,000 a year, leaving only $10,000 net annual income.
The second wage earner is toiling mightily for just $5 per hour of net income," said Pond. On the plus side, however, discretionary expenses are likely to drop off dramatically for most newly expanded families.
"Many couples just don't have the desire to go out," said Michael Matheson, of American Express Financial Advisors in Minneapolis, and himself the father of a 1 -year-old.The Churchills have happened.
"When you first get married, you say, 'Hey, let's spend this, let's spend that,"' said Mrs. Churchill. "We don't go out as often as we used to. We make it more of a family outing."
A large portion of what they would have spent on doing things like eating out; plus the $600 a month saved by moving from a five-bedroom to a three bedroom house, is going toward their boys' college education. "It's essential to make it as easy for my kids when they get into college," Mrs. Churchill said. Hank Madden, who runs Madden and Associates Financial Consultants Jacksonville, Fla., says parents should dece ahead of time just how much of their off-springs' education they intend to fund.
Leyden note:
Have you noticed a lack of logic here ?
A few paragraphs ago they said college will cost $100,000 -- and they are going to try to make it easy ?
HOW ?????
In two decades the idea of work at Hardees and baby sitting to save for college will be ridiculous. There is no way a person can earn $100,000 between the ages of 12-18 working at Hardees. Financial 'experts' say that kids will take out a $50-$70-$100,000 loan to attend college -- and pay it off the rest of their life. That will become a basic fact of life.
"This is a moral issue," he said "Some may want to provide 100 percent... Other say the child should pay for part of the education, like living expenses or books. You shouldn't let college saving get in the way of planning for retirement, either. Pond recommends his clients save between 30 and 40 percent of the ex-pected costs of college so as not to become too overwhelmed and perhaps end up not saving at all.
To that end, most financial experts recommend growth-oriented investments, such as stocks and stock mutual funds.
"A common mistake is investing in EE (savings) bonds," said Matheson, "unless your joint income is below the point where you can take advantage of tax free withdrawal of the income."
Besides investment and budgetary concerns there are insurance and estate planning to consider. Most employer-sponsored group health policies provide maternity benefits, then automatically cover the baby after birth. However, parents will likely need to Purchase additional disability and life insurance to cover unforeseen emergencies.
Financial planners recomment planners reommend life insurance coverage equal to at least six to 10 times annual income, while dis-ability coverage should replace at least 60 per-cent of lost income. Then there's the matter of drawing up a will.
"The single-most reason to have a will is to name a guardian for your children should something happen to both parents," noted Pond. Mrs. Churchill says she has that aspect covered, and she and her 42-year-old husband have their own form of "insurance" as well.
When Joe and I travel, we always fly separately and use separate airlines just in case."