Newbie with Finance?????

There are some programs out there, but they are few and far between. Most of the help comes after you have spent the money. You mentioned some reimbursements you can get from the Guard. There also is an adoption tax credit that is now up to almost $11,000. However, you only get this after the adoption is completed. My wife and I used a loan as you mentioned plus some help from our family. We plan on paying the loan back with our tax refunds over the next couple of years using the adoption credit. Also, I have heard of people holding fund raisers. I hope this helps some.

My dad loaned us money and we also took out a loan from my 401K. We also used money from savings and our tax return last year. Since we knew that our adoption was going to be completed this year, we changed our tax withholdings back in May so that we didn't have to wait until tax time to take advantage of the adoption tax credit. We put that money into savings so that it was available to pay for the rest of our adoption expenses. We were able to pay back my 401K loan with adoption assistance money we got from my employer and we will be pay back my dad once we get this years tax return money.

I sent you a PM with a list of resources for adoption grants.:flowergift:

I also might add that one of the reasons China seemed so right for us is that the cost of adoption doesn't have to be paid upfront, like the domestic adoptions we looked into. You pay this in chunks as you move along, so it's a little easier to save for each expense. The expense deadlines have worked out well for us. About the time a new cost comes up with the paperwork we've got the money saved. That's one small silver lining to the current long referral wait. :)

You can do it! If your heart is leading you towards adoption, don't let the expenses scare you off...Like others have mentioned, the adoption can be very expensive, but fortunately you don't have to pay all of the money upfront. The bulk of the cost comes when you are close to getting your referral. This would give you an amount of time to try a HELOC, getting a loan from your 401k or retirement, fundraising, ebaying etc... My husband and I personally saved and took some out of my 401k on a loan that we will pay a large amount off when I receive the reimbursement from my company as well as the tax credit combined.

It's not the same thing, but back when we bought our first house, we took a loan from our 401K for the down payment, which worked out great because we were able to basically pay ourselves back tax deffered. My favorite finance guru, Suze Orman always says to go as low interest as you can when borrowing, so if you can borrow from yourself (i.e. 401K or HELOC, relative), you are saving yourself from more high interest gobblygook. It worked out for us that we had savings and bonuses from work, but we also liked this program because the fees are spread out. Having that $3k in new 100's for the orphanage won't be so much fun, but the rest will be easier since it's not all upfront. Get a good spreadsheet going of your fee schedule and any options you might have. I'll bet you'll be surprised that it will be easier to work out than you think! Good luck!

James, Sometimes the costs are scary when you look at it all up front, but the payments are not due all at the same time. Through savings and tax refunds we have been able to pay all the costs up through where we are now. Since the wait has increased, we will be able to save the remaining funds (about 50% of the total costs). We have a LID of August 17, 2006, so hopefully by this time next year we will be traveling. Also if you consider a special needs child there are grants out there to help. Some employers have programs as well as some religious groups. I wish you the best of luck.

Also, if you are comfortable adopting a special needs child, some agencies have reduced fees. Our fees were reduced by about $1500.