I've been thinking a lot about money lately, mostly because I want to make a baby and be as secure as possible when that happens. I know nothing about money beyond the fact that I have many negative amounts of it from school and my new mortgage.
I sent a crazy text message question to Val yesterday and her voicemail back encouraged me to learn more about money. Who cares if Corey has a degree in econ and almost one in accounting? I don't want to rely on him to make financial decisions. That's where problems begin. So I bought a book.
I learned about it on Blogging Away Debt and so far, I really like it. It's so straight forward and breaks everything into really small chunks that I read during elevator rides and bus jaunts. The best part is that it uses examples based on people who make what I earn as a graduate student, which is not very much. And that's ok! (The book's intended audience is female recent college grads)
I feel really excited about it, like I am learning my way into a world that I always assumed, as a writer or at least English nerd, I would never care to enter. I feel very adult about the whole thing, and safe. I like feeling safe for once instead of anxious and sweaty. I'm giving the book to my little sister when I'm done.
After years of nomadic temporary employment, advanced degrees, and chocolate ice cream, a rugger with a love of knitting and a cyclist with no domestic skills signed a Ketubah and bought a house in Pittsburgh.
8 comments:
Just be thankful you don't need to buy sperm. I'm a planner too and have been working on figuring out how to be secure "enough" to have babies in a couple of years (kids won't know if they're not "rich" till middle school, right?) despite my astronomical (and growing) higher ed debt, C's (smallish) school loan, and our impending mortgage.
At 200-500/vial, plus shipping, swimmers make a big dent in the baby budget.
argh.
(will check out your recommendations too)
When you sent me your text- I was surprised becuase I know about your dumpster diving days and your frugality so I assumed you knew what to do with it versus only figuring out ways to reduce the amount you need to spend.
And Emily- why don't you adopt? Didn't you watch the miracle of life and Knocked Up? Ouch.. Adoption is cheaper and I have 2 friends that work in adoption agencies...
Val, adoption is NOT cheaper, LOL! You're looking at 10-30K up front for the convenience of not growing it yourself. Plus the process of being declared qualified to adopt, which is, shall we say, not as easy if certain traditional legal arrangements do not exist.
Katy, Pitt should have free or low cost financial counseling for students. Check it out. I have one through ISU and it has helped me a LOT.
Em have you looking into buying sperm can cost up to $100K to get prego and not always 100% effective. I had one friend spend about $100K and then gave up trying to get prego (there was nothing wrong with her health) and adopted the cutest baby for $10K
Adopting is $5k-30K depending on age of child/ country/ regulations/adoption agency.. As for the qualifying portion it really depends on the agency you go to. Emily and Chris would be fine if they went through my the one my friends work for.
And adoption is not about convenience- it can take over 2 years to get one and trips to other countries versus 9 months after getting laid. It's about getting a child that might never have family.
Val, my brother is adopted. I should have put 'convenience' in ironic quotes to be clearer. That was my bad. I am not badmouthing adoption by any means. But I assume Em and Chris will have fertility testing before they go this route and reevaluate before their cost gets anywhere near 100K. Sperm donation is a variable cost that could be lower than adoption, b/c of adoption's higher fixed starting point (and infant adoption is more expensive, or at least it was 21 years ago). But it could also be higher than adoption b/c of the reasons you listed.
I am supposing that sperm donation can be as expensive as you make it depending on how long you need/decide to keep trying, but I was going off the 200-500 figure Emily quoted, which would still take many tries to get into the cost range of an average adoption, right? Or is there something I'm missing? Insurance should cover pre-natal care, so that shouldn't need to be factored in. What else is there?
Sidenote: 200-500 bucks a pop!? How much of that does the donor see? Just for jerking off!
And please, I am not trying to pick a fight, and I'm sorry if it came off that way.
i wish i had some sperm to sell you all. i could put the money toward the investment strategies i'm learning about.
I think you should have a party invite all of your friends and me. Your other mother who spend tens of thousands on fertliy treatments;then adopted twins, and retired at 46 because of good financial investments. I'll bring the cupcakes:+)
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