Dimensions
232 x 134 x 15mm
When couples are planning their financial lives together, few questions are as significant as how to afford a family. The average middle-income family will spend somewhere between $185k and $270k raising a child through the first seventeen years of life, according to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. And now, in this difficult financial climate, tension levels are running even higher over how to cover these costs.
To help couples meet this challenge, veteran WSJ personal finance writer Jeff Opdyke has laid out everything they need to do to prepare for the expense of having kids, and how to handle the obligation of teaching their kids about money. The parent, after all, is the first and most crucial link in this learning process.
First, Jeff explains how to prepare financially for a baby's arrival, and, for those parents who want Mom or Dad to stay at home with the kids, how to figure out ways to make a one-income lifestyle work. The remaining chapters are aimed at the financial lessons kids need to learn so that they have a solid grasp on money by they time they leave home and are living their own life. The chapters are split into natural divisions that track money's major categories: earning, saving, spending, investing, and giving. Finally, there's a section on the all-important basics of what parents should know to save for and ultimately afford college costs.
Opdyke, who for six years was the "Love & Money" columnist for the Journal, provides a smart, accessible blueprint for parents that will help reduce the stress of building a family and enhance parents' skills for raising money-savvy kids. Paying for kids may mean postponing that vacation, skipping that restaurant meal, or giving up on that sports car, but with Opdyke's advice in hand, parents will be well-equipped to create a sound financial life for their family.
