[mully4235]

Has there always been a net worth of 80,000 to adopt from China? To me that seems awfully high. That is the one major thing that is stopping us from considering adopting from there. I just did a net worth calculator and only came up with 53,000. In order to get 80 we would have to rent out the house we have now, and buy another fixer up , fix it up and get it reappraised. We already own two houses, we have one for sale and have a rental. Getting a third mortgage would definelty be pushing our luck. Either that or have some nice person just suddenly gift us with 30,000. How did everyone else come up with that much? It doesn't help that we live in a small town where houses are super cheap compared to the rest of the usa.

The wait time for China does bother me, but I could be patient, and the time required to spend in the country makes it the best choice for us to adopt from. There is just no way we could spend months in another country. It's that net worth that is killing me.

[KarenInCa]

It's not as hard to come up with $80,000 as it might seem. Your net worth (obviously) is the net value of your houses. But it also includes what you have in a 401K, retirement plan, profit sharing, the value of vehicles owned, furniture (including big screen or plasma TV's), computers, collectables, jewelry, expensive clothing.

Combined between DH and myself, we had $60,000 in our 401K's alone, and at the time we were DTC, we did not own a house. Unless you are belly up on your houses, you probably have more value in the homes than you think. And there's probably a lot of stuff just sitting around that you aren't even counting as net worth.
Keep in mind that there is no requirement for receipts on anything you claim, so you can give estimates, based on what the value of the items would be if you bought them today.

[mully4235]

Well, DH only has 11,000 in his 401k so that's not contributing much for us I don't have one. And both of our vehicles together only come up to 7,000.

Keep in mind that there is no requirement for receipts on anything you claim, so you can give estimates, based on what the value of the items would be if you bought them today.

How exactly does this work? I spent just under 1000 for my computer but that was about 4 years ago. I can claim it for $900 even though it's that old? When I did the net worth calculator I only counted my couch in at $25.00 cause that's what I bought it for. And the spare bed in at $20, because the matresses are shot, but the headboard is decent. I priced them basically what I would sell them at a garage sale for.

And it seems so odd to me that when I tried the calculator again if we were to sell this house (we currently have it for sale) and pay off debt ( we would be almost debt free) that the net worth actually dropped down to like $34,000 when without selling our house it was 53,000 ? I think a third house is looking better and better! I must be adding something wrong.

[KarenInCa]

If you already have an agency selected, I would ask the agency coordinator for more info on how to count your net assets in. It was not an issue for us, as I had thought it would be, so we did not have to inquire too much about it.

It doesn't, however, make sense to me that your net worth would drop by selling a house, unless you owe more than it's worth, and are planning on taking a loss on it. Otherwise, the amount you make off the sale of the house would be part of your savings and would be counted as part of the net assets.

[mully4235]

I figured out where I went wrong. I replaced the amount the house was worth with for what we would be selling it for. We arent planing on taking a loss. But when we sell in this market there is no way we are going to get close to how much the house is worth. We don't want to go any lower than about 20,000 below what the house is worth. With the extra we make on the house, we are paying off most of our debt with it.

Not working with an agency yet. We want to spend this year getting all our debt paid off and hopefully moving and settling in in a new house. And hopefully saving. I think I figured out a plan of how I need to do this. We just have to get a fixer up like we did with this house, and well, fix it up. Then somehow save about 20,000. That's gonna be the hard one. Thanks for the help!

[pgruodis]

You do know that you don't need to prove how much your house is worth

[CarlaH]

Look at your homeowner's insurance policy and see what it has listed for replacement of contents or something like that. It is probably higher than you think and use that number instead of trying to come up with amounts.

[kayleysmomma]

We were told we can pretty much count anything we own (including furniture, clothes, toys, etc). It doesn't have to be valuable like expensive jewerly or anything.

I counted everything from our wedding rings (what we paid for them) to all our clothing (i figured an amount out if I were to sell all of them at a garage sale). I did the same with all our furniture, electronics, toys, appliances etc. I just figured out what I would sell them for at a garage sale.

As for your houses...what we were told was to go off the price that our house would be listed at right now (not what it would sell for). So if compatible houses in the area were going for a certain amount...that is what we should put our house down at.


Also, checking and savings accounts, 401k's, cars, etc.

Anything you own (big or small is an asset) and can be counted toward your net worth.

[mully4235]

Thanks everyone for all the replies! It helps

[skingspan]

If you are good with spreadsheets I have an excel spreadsheet that I can send you to help you in calculating your net worth. Just plug in the numbers and it does the math for you. If you are interested PM me your email address.

[jessibird]

My father in law said to take about 1/3 of your house worth to figure out the value of its contents-it seems rather high to me, but when I look and think of 4 peoples (2 adults, 2 kids) clothes, toys, small and big electronics, washer, dryer, fridge, treadmill etc. plus all the stuff in 8 rooms of our house and the basement????? It is so overwhealming. I would like to just give a good round guess-which may be too high or low? Do they take much stake in it if your case worker agrees to it?
I did pm skingspan for the excel spreadsheet. I used an online one and think I did it ok-do they pull your credit report to check and see?? (I don't plan to lie-just wondering???)

Thanks,