[For Brooklyn]

Hi all!

Can anyone who has had a homestudy help me out here? What type of financial situation are they looking for? Is there a minimum in savings/assets they like to see? Is there an amount of salary "after bills for the month are paid" that is considered a comfortable cushion?

I am single. Does that factor into the financial section of a home study?

Any insights would be appreciated!

Thanks,

Marti

[ddhuab]

I will preface this by saying I am not single, so the following is long and anecdotal, and might not be relevant for you (just in case you want to skip my post!)

I am sure each part of the country (US) is different, but an overall, general idea is that you want to have enough to pay all of your bills and then have enough to care for the child or additional child you are adopting. As a single person, you should call day care facilities (or baby sitters or whatever) so you know (and can show you know) how much you will need to have in your future budget for day care. [If you have a relative or friend that will do it for really cheap or free, I would still have a "back up plan" to show you could afford day care if something changed so that the friend couldn't sit for you]. My friend with a baby (almost a year old now) says that their extra expenses on formula, food, diapers per month is about $300. Others can tell you if this sounds about right.

Also, the country you choose will have a specific requirement probably (for instance, I think for China -- or Korea, I forget) you are supposed to have a salary equal to 10,000 for each family member including the potentially adopted child (although singles may have to have a minimum of $30,000). I don't think you need to own your home for most (or maybe for any) of the popular countries. I would get on the specific board for the country you are choosing and pose your question there.

Also, I don't think most places require life insurance, but you will want to think about how you would provide for your child if you were to die prematurely... or at least you can talk about your plans for this. The sw will want to know who would become guardian of your child if this happens.

We DID have a homestudy done, but we are adopting from Guatemala and I am married. Still, we essentially are a single income family because I am a graduate student with a small (teeny tiny, almost non-existant) assistanceship. I am not intending on working for at least the first year when we have the baby home, and I mentioned this to my agency. They said that should not be a problem with my husband's income. Now this is the PLACEMENT agency that deals with Guatemala. My SOCIAL WORKER doing the local homestudy had a different reaction. She looked back at our budget (we had to give her a monthly balance sheet sort of thing) and said "well, yes, you could do that, but you will have to really stick to a budget to manage that." Now to us, that was a ridiculous comment, because I just stick all of my earnings in a savings account anyway (usually toward tuition, books, and supplies, but now that I have taken my last class, it is toward the adoption and nursery preparations) and that isn't used for our day to day living. Now, we didn't want to argue with the social worker since she is a nice lady and responsible for writing up our homestudy, but I am sure with putting a minimum of $500 away per month toward our adoption fund, we will be able to use that money post-adoption to care for the baby. What I actually FELT (undercurrent and from other things she said) was that she thought since I had a "potential to make a good living" (her words, not mine) because I was finishing my graduate degree, that I should pursue a career, not stay at home.

Sorry - that was probably a non-helpful answer, but the bottom line is that there is a figure in the "real world" do-able sense that might be different from what your country or social worker has in mind. (Actually, I think most countries from which we are adopting have a much lower figure for what they deem as acceptable income than what many of us Americans have in mind). Just try not to get defensive when they start asking or telling you what they want... just smile and take in the information, then get out your calculator and notebook and see if you can make it work.

Your homestudy agency will probably be like mine and have you complete a very detailed sheet of all your assets and liabilities, as well as all of your monthly income and expenditures (this included items like food, clothing, entertainment, hair cuts, etc. in addition to bills.)... this was for your current household, not estimating costs that will be added with a baby. I actually started doing a detailed budget and reconciliation in the nine months prior to getting our homestudy done, just because I needed this in order for us to stick to a budget and save money for the adoption. I do not by any means suggest that you need to look at it that long, but you could do it for a month so that you can get a "real picture" without just "guestimating" how much you spend on food, going out to eat, entertainment, etc. (it helped me to start using my debit card for everything so I could look my account up on line and see what I was spending where).

Good luck,
D.

[jasonsmom]

I'm not single but our paperwork shows directions for those who are. We were told that there's a minimum salary of $10K per family member. We haven't had to show a monthly budget although we are filling out a form that shows all our assets and liabilities. The dossier requirements for China (not sure about others) require a guardianship letter for single applicants telling who will take care of the child if something should happen to you and describing their financial situation.

Jasonsmom