Finance Question

sgb721 · October 2012

I hope this question isn't to personal- I figure it's pretty anonymous here so hopefully I can find some real answers.

In looking into adoption I'm finding the cost for domestic to range from $25,000 to $70,000. How is everyone financing this. I'd love to say we have that in our savings but we don't. DH and I discussed taking out a home equity loan but I'll admit I'm not totally familiar with how it works. I know we have the equity, I just don't know how repayment and stuff works- research needed.

Any input would be great. Thanks!

DaisyZH · October 2012

I completely understand your question as I have often wondered this too! We actually have changed our plans to adoption from foster care, if for some reason we are unable to adopt a child this way we may look into domestic adoption again in a few years. It would take a few years because of how expensive it is.

When we researched we basically found the following options: 1) Fundraise - there are lots of great ideas, you can do events, an etsy shop, t-shirts, etc. 2) Home Equity Loan - we don't own a home so this one wasn't an option for us. 3) Credit Cards - we found several agencies that actually charge more if you use credit cards to finance and of course this isn't the best way to finance, just a possibility we looked into 4) Borrowing from retirement - again not a great financial move but a possibility 5) Borrow money from family - this would depend on your relationship with your family and whether they have the money to give 6) Adoption Loans - I could find practically nothing on this, I have seen them mentioned online but haven't had luck getting any concrete information 7) Adoption Grants - there are some organizations that give grants but you usually need to be homestudy approved first to be considered and there is a lot of competition 8) Employer benefits - some employers do have adoption assistance, ours do not though 9) Tax credit - from what I understand this is expiring and will be decreased and only available for special needs adoption? I'm not sure on this one, I'm sure others will have more information 10) Personal loan - our credit union offers them but only for 5 year terms so the payments would be quite large 11) Saving up monthly

I'm sorry this is so long, I hope it helps!!

jillianmb · October 2012

We didn't have the money saved up for our adoption either so we saved as much as we possibly could and fundraised the rest. I am a huge advocate of the book Adopt without Debt by Julie Gumm. It is the best $15 investment you can make toward your adoption costs!

Like PP said, the main ways to cover adoption costs are: savings, grants (there are lots available if you do your research), fundraising, loans, and employee benefits. There is also currently a tax credit, but I'm not sure about the amount and the future of the credit. Right now I think it is around $10,000. Maybe someone else has more info on this?

I did a blog post recently on how to fundraise. We fundraised over half of our $35,000 costs so we learned a thing or two. Here's the link to that post.

sarahtoledo · October 2012

Another thought is to look into lower-cost options. We've found three agencies in our area that range from $10-15K. One has a sliding scale.

Dr.Loretta · October 2012

We had a rental property we sold to finance our adoption. If we were to do it again, we've banked the adoption reimbursement from DH's company (very generous), and that would handle about half of the matching fee.

A HELOC is a line of credit for X amount. You can "spend" up to that amount, and pay back with interest like you would for a CC or a car loan. The rates are usually pretty low.

HTH

bumpuser794640 · October 2012

Our total fees will be $22k + the legal fees (less than $1000). We are saving about $750/month right now specifically for the adoption, so we should have the full amount saved by July 2014 (I think). Our fees are split into several different payments at different points during the process. We're planning to apply to the agency in January, so we may very well match before we have the entire amount saved.

DH's parents have offered to help us out in the event that we need more $ when we are matched, and we're also considering applying for a credit card with 18 mos/0% interest if we need to when we match/are placed.

IRR · October 2012

Strawberryglobug:

In looking into adoption I'm finding the cost for domestic to range from $25,000 to $70,000.

I would say the cost is more in the range of $25-$40,000. Not sure where you heard $70K but that seems really high. PP mentioned fundraising, family helping out and just saving. The tax credit is about 10K and some employers also help out with the cost. GL.

Want a personalized experience?

Finance Question

Re: Finance Question

Choose Another Board

Search Boards