Hi Guys,
I am new to this website and it is lovely to find a thread with people trying to decide whether or not to take the plunge and start their family. I would love to have a family. I have been with my husband for 9 years and we have been married for over 3 years and it feels the right time, we are more than ready for our next adventure together and both really would love a family. But, financially, there is no way we can right now. We are young, so there is no rush, but that doesn't make it easier to deal with the desire to have kids. We don't own our own house yet (although we rent a lovely 3 bed house in a nice area)and we would rather be on the property ladder first but can't see this happening for a few more years. So maybe buying will just have to wait, but even if it does, we still have too many outstanding financial obligations to be able to cut my salary quite yet.
We are hoping that in about 6 months time when I will have finished paying for my car and we have slightly more money in our pockets that we will be able to decide. We will however, be forced to choose between kids or owning property, at least for the next 5 years or so, I am sure both are achievable in the long term.
If we decide to buy, there is no way we can save the 10k we still need to buy and have kids. Also a mortgage (on a much smaller place than we currently rent)will be much more money a month than rent, so buying would mean increasing our outgoings, making the kid thing even harder to afford!
However, if we do have kids instead of buying it will probably be years until we can afford to buy, which in turn, makes it even harder to get on the property ladder. So maybe it is more sensible to do the house thing first. But living daily with the desire to have kids and the only thing that stops you is money, can be and is heart-breaking.
All I know is that if I could only have either the house or kids, I would go for kids every time. Having a family means more to me than owing bricks and mortar. Still its a big decision to make.
Anyone else in a simliar situation?
P.S Sorry for the rather long post!