Financial Family Planning

If you plan to have children in the future, I want you to create a family budget. If you do not plan to have children in the future, you can act as a financial family planner and create a family profile. First, describe your future family (partner, # of children, etc.). Consider average cost of children each year (food, clothing, and other expenses). You can use the figures from the textbook or the internet.  If you plan on adopting, do some research for cost of adoption.   Consider various monthly family expenses: rent/mortgage, car payments, food, clothing, phone payments, life insurance policy, activities/experiences, retirement, taxes, Netflix (and other monthly subscriptions), healthcare, student loan debt, etc. My expectation is that you itemize all major future monthly expenses.  Ask yourself if you will be doing the house work, lawn care, etc. or hiring someone to help with those responsibilities.  Think about a neighborhood you may want to live in and do some research on the cost of rent/mortgages (You can search for homes on Zillow and they typically provide monthly mortgage rates).  Will you start a college savings account for your children? If so, how much do you plan to contribute each month? Factor in the costs of preschool, private school or whatever option you think you will pursue.  Consider your future career and do some research on the hours you would be working. If you plan to work part-time, what is the salary range? What is the full time salary range? If you plan to be a stay-at-home parent, how much would your spouse/partner need to make to support the family?