Is it just me or do not a lot of people talk about how to prepare financially for children? I stumbled on this article from the Washington Post about some things a couple can do to prepare financially.

Financing a baby is typically the last topic on the minds of new parents. Hours and hours go by discussing less pressing matters: Do you think the neighbor’s daughter is old enough to babysit? What about a theme for the nursery? Sports, animals or clouds? Where should we register? Which stroller? Should we take one last vacation — a babymoon? Where should we go? How should we prepare the dog for his new sibling?

“Most people don’t plan their own spending on their own wants and needs,” said Barry Glassman, a financial planner with Cassaday and Co. in McLean. “With kids, it’s even a step further in the wrong direction. It’s so easy to get caught up in spending in a variety of ways, and there’s no planning or accounting for how the dollars will add up.”

This makes sense to me, an obsessive planner. I make extensive plans for everything from taking vacations to moving to a simple day off. In my experience, when people talk about having babies, they only talk about buying the baby clothes, decorating the baby’s room, or how cute they’re going to be. But I do realize, having taken care of my siblings as babies, that they are a lot of work. Plus, with Trin and I still developing a financial plan to buy a house, I know that a baby can really mess with the financial equation.

Besides. Half the time, Trin and I are so preoccupied with the stuff that we want to buy for ourselves, that’s all going out the window once we have a baby. Later on. In the future. Heheh.