Is Starting a Family Financially Feasible?

Can You Afford The Cost Of Starting a Family?

Can You Afford The Cost Of Starting a Family?Is the cost of starting a family financially feasible? Should the cost of starting a family even factor into your family planning and decisions?

Do you have a spare $245,340 lying around? Probably not, and you don’t need it all upfront, but this is the new estimated cost of raising a child from birth until 18 years of age in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

When accounting for inflation for the next 18 years, it will eventually cost about $304,480 for the average American family to raise just one child. This figure includes birthing costs, education, food, housing, and some activities, but it doesn’t include college costs, which are estimated to be $18,390 for a bachelor’s degree at a public university later on.

These costs vary depending on which area of the country you live in, what your family income is, and how frugal your lifestyle is, but in most cases, you can expect to pay a minimum of $11,000 per year for your child’s first 18 years of life.

Can You Afford The Cost Of Starting a Family Of Your Own?

If you’re thinking of starting a family or want to add another child to your growing nest, it’s important to look at the financial implications as well as the emotional ones. As the Pew Research Center points out, finances are a major concern for parents in America and the affordability factor strongly influences people’s decisions to have kids. Millions of babies are born each year, so it’s not an impossible dream, but this baby-readiness guide will help you determine whether it’s financial feasible to add a child to your family.

Pregnancy & Delivery or Adoption

Pregnancy and delivery fees vary widely, depending on your insurance coverage, possible complications, and whether a C-section is required for the birth. If you have excellent health insurance or qualify for Medicaid, your prenatal care and delivery expenses will be minimal, but folks without insurance can expect to pay between $30,000 and $50,000. The choice of hospital plays a role in your delivery costs as well, according to a study from the University of California at San Francisco.

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Different Types of Insurance Available

Types of InsuranceInsurance is a financial product in which companies that offer it will take on some form of monetary risk in return for the payment of premiums. There are many types of insurance that you may want to consider purchasing to protect yourself and your family.

An individual will typically invest in it to guard against having to pay out a large sum of money for common problems that may occur. Being insured gives peace of mind that should disaster strike, the financial implications of this can be dealt with and some of the common insurance products available include the following.

Life Insurance

No one wants to think about dying although all adults need to consider the problems this can leave for family members. This is especially true for those that are breadwinners, and life insurance is designed to pay out a sum of money in the event of the insured person dying.

This is most commonly paid to a family member and is a way for someone to ensure their loved ones are provided for in the event of their death. Contacting a company that offers this is a way to get life insurance quotes that will show how much money can be obtained for different premiums.

Property Insurance

Anyone buying a home or business premises will usually have to get property insurance as part of the deal for receiving a mortgage. This type of business insurance can have a few elements to it, with the two most common being building and contents.

The building part covers for the cost of damage to the property caused by fire, flood, and other disasters. The contents part covers for the loss of the property owner’s belongings due to theft, vandalism, or damage.

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How to Spot and Prevent Medical Identity Theft

Medical Negligence Claims

It can happen out of the blue. You get a bill for health services that you never obtained, or maybe you file an insurance claim and your insurer tells you that you have reached your benefit limit. Identity theft can also be found in the medical and healthcare sectors. It is not just limited to your financial data. In this case, identity thieves confiscate people’s health insurance and personal details so they can obtain certain types of treatment, procure prescription drugs and receive medical care. How to Spot Medical Identity Theft Unfortunately, there are even people working in the medical field that are using patients’ information in order to submit bogus claims to insurance firms. Not only can your budget … Read more

The Fine Line Between Too Much Insurance and Not Enough

You need to protect yourself with umbrella insurance.

A few weeks ago I wrote a guest post on one of the biggest personal finance blogs around, Free Money Finance, about the ten insurance policies that everyone should own. There is a fine line with having too much insurance. I took some heat in the comment section of the post from people who said that the ten different types of policies I listed would leave me insurance poor. Maybe they would do that, but maybe they wouldn’t. How many policies are too many? How Many Policies Do You Need? Do you need ten different insurance policies? Maybe you do need them, and maybe you don’t need that many. One commenter actually listed a few policies that you should have that … Read more