Advertisements
It just seems like one thing comes up after another in IA, and I was just wondering if anyone else has been in a similar situation: I have a rather large student loan that I'm trying to prevent from going into default. The basic issue with it has been that the people holding the loan, and at least it's consolidated thank god, want exorbitant monthly payments. Even with paying what we can afford and still setting a little aside for adoption costs, it's going to be a black mark on my credit report. Fortunately my husband's credit is squeaky clean! Now, I've been told by my agency that they would never check a PAP's credit report, and that the Russian government wouldn't either, and that it's more important that we meet the income requirements, which we do. My question is whether, given all of this, I should even disclose that I have this student loan at all unless I'm directly asked? Other people on this board have suggested that I might have disclosed too much with other things, but in the spirit of honesty I've felt the need to be up front with my agency. Do some people hold things back that don't really have "relevance" in order for things to go more smoothly? I've even seen this advice in books on IA and Russian adoption. If you don't feel comfortable replying here, then please feel free to send me a PM with any advice. Thanks in advance!
Like
Share
I think it all depends on what your agency asks for the dossier and what the region may ask for. For our first adoption, our CPA had to show our debts and assets and total net worth. That was in 2004 In 2006 we had to only show assets and net worth. Same agency. I would ask specifically what the dossier requires.
Advertisements
My student loans were $126,000 total. We waited until they were paid off (took 7 years) to persue adoption. We wanted the debt load to be minimal knowing that a child would be in our care.. that meant saving for college, kid expenses, adoption expenses, etc. Yes, it was hard to be that patient, but now I'm very glad of my smarter money choices, like bailing out of debt quickly. It gives me a lot more freedom now.
The hard question you might need to be asking yourself (in addition to the one you are already asking) is: given that I now have a high loan payment to make every month, can I afford the costs of this adoption and any loans associated with it , plus the further ongoing costs involved in raising a child? We waited to adopt until all of our student loans were paid off and we had no debt. It was a good thing - while I was employed, my husband was intermittently jobless during the final 2 years before we adopted, and that ate up the substantial nest egg we had put away. Even after he got his new job, we found the costs of raising a child (child care costs more than $1,200/month for a baby where we live) plus medical care etc. hard to get used to. And we paid for the adoption out of our retirement savings, so we had no additional loans to pay off.
I am with the other posters in that it probably would be best for your family (now and in the future) to work on getting yourself in a better place financially before adopting. I would never change who my children are, but I sure do wish in hindsight that we had made more of an effort to pay off student loans and other debt before having kids. The expense of actually raising children and having debt makes it tough to do more than just "get by" sometimes. And it can lock you into so many things: having to work when you would rather stay home, wanting to change jobs or careers but you can't "afford to", moving to an area with better schools, upgrading cars or homes when you need to, etc. Debt only takes away freedom and choices, and adding kids means you have less money to pay off the debt.
Adopted DS from Guatemala in March 2006 and they did ask for income/debt/monthly obligations etc. As another poster said you might want to reduce that loan as much as possible. In my area infant daycare is ... hold on $22-25k per year. Even now at almost 4 DS's daycare is almost $17k - and I always remind myself that's $17k NET. Good luck I, too, had paid off my graduate student loan, car was paid for, and I saved vacation time for two years so I could get almost four weeks of paid time off in addition to what my workplace was giving me. Have you checked with either your or your DH's employer to see if they give anything to APs. I actually changed employer about a year before starting the whole process because they were family-friendly.
Advertisements
Thanks for the good advice all. I'm definitely going to try to reduce it as much as possible, but I won't be able to pay it off completely as I want to begin our adoption sooner than later. (I'm going to be the big 4-0 this year:eek: ) Fortunately for us, I'm going to be staying home with the kid(s). I can't believe how much you guys pay for childcare. That is insane! More power to you all!
I think what people are saying is that if you now find it hard making what you call exorbitant monthly student loan payments and worry about defaulting, you will surely find it even harder to make these payments while shouldering any extra costs of raising children plus paying off any loans associated with funding a Russia international adoption (which in recent years can come to as much as 63K). Even if you stay home, you will be living on one income - in our case, I doubt we could afford that while covering any extra loan payments, let alone exorbitant ones.
Max'smom
I think what people are saying is that if you now find it hard making what you call exorbitant monthly student loan payments and worry about defaulting, you will surely find it even harder to make these payments while shouldering any extra costs of raising children plus paying off any loans associated with funding a Russia international adoption (which in recent years can come to as much as 63K). Even if you stay home, you will be living on one income - in our case, I doubt we could afford that while covering any extra loan payments, let alone exorbitant ones.