Become A Surrogate Mother To Pay Off Debt?

Brought to you by the EveryDollar app. Start budgeting for free today. What are your thoughts on using surrogacy as a way to speed up the baby steps? Wow. I mean, we talk about gazelle intensity and sacrifice. That's about the biggest sacrifice you could make, is renting out your body. Wait a minute. Hold on. Let me make sure I understand. Are you saying, because there's two ways you can hear this, are you saying that you don't want to carry the baby so you can keep working and stuff? Or are you saying, I'll carry someone else's baby to make money? I would carry someone else's baby to make the income. Got you. Where'd you get this idea? Is this something that's been on your mind for a while? Or was it like a friend told you about it? Well, my sister does it, but it's also my husband's working day and night right now, 80 hours a week trying to pay off our debt. So as a thought to try to get him home back with us, with our kids sooner, that pregnancy was kind of easier for me that it could be something that I could potentially do. I can't think of any world where pregnancy is easier than anything. Listen, some women, they really enjoy it and their bodies don't seem to mind it. I don't know. Just pop them out. Have you had a baby before? Yes, I've had three. Oh, okay. How old are you? Old hat for you. Yeah. Yeah. 29. 29. Wow. And how much debt are we talking about? I need to see how desperate we're getting because this is getting to some desperate measures. We're 66,000 in consumer debt. Okay. And what's the household income currently? So with his second job and then I work full-time from home with the kids, we're at 11,000. So it's a three job. So you have a great income. I mean, we could knock this debt out pretty fast. We're talking less than 18 months. Yeah. So the question is, do you want to spend nine of those pregnant, hoping, I mean, that's like, this is all things go perfectly, to get rid of the debt a little bit faster. Because 18 months, that's square in the average it takes for people to get out of consumer debt following our plan, 18 to 24 months. Yeah. Well, my thought is it would also help us fund baby step three. Let me, let me, let me get away from the numbers for a minute. Were you planning on having any more of your own children? No, we're done. Okay. Are there, what, what, what would you, I said, I was going to get away from the numbers, but what would you earn for doing this? Just so we can understand. Yeah. Starting cost is about, starting pay is about 65,000 for a first time surrogate. 65,000. Okay. Here's, I'm going to just tell you some of the things that are floating around in my mind. You've had way more time to noodle this around. I've heard it for 90 seconds. So first thing I'm thinking is you got younger kids in the house. You're going to have to explain this to them. And there's going to be attachment, whether you want it or not, there's going to be attachment for you. And there's going to be attachment for your kids because they knew that they grew in mama's belly. And then they're seeing somebody else grow in mama's belly. I'm wondering how that's going to feel for them. So there's an impact here that goes beyond you and your body. And I just want to make sure that we're thinking well through that because there's nothing dire in your situation that I think that we're to that level. Matter of fact, your numbers are very similar to the person that called in earlier. They had made 11,000, made 65 in consumer debt. And I wasn't like, you know what? You should do surrogacy. So I don't want you to feel that you're in a desperate situation that you need to do something desperate. That's thing one. Now, thing two is if you had said to me, and maybe this is true and we just didn't start here. If you had said to me, you know what, and George, I'm thinking about the ministry of surrogacy because I really have a heart for moms who can't carry their children. And that's something that's really important to me. And I think I can help because I actually love being pregnant. Now we're having a conversation. So I think those are the two biggest things that I think we need to talk through beyond the numbers first. So where do you fall? And what do you think about that? Yeah, no, I think it's about, I mean, 50-50. I mean, the idea of being able to help a mom, but at the same time, I see how hard my husband works and him not sleeping only in between shifts because he's working 80 hours a week and just sleeping anytime he has the chance to. I feel like he's missing our kid's childhood. Okay. So let's stop there. That's your driver. I think your bigger driver is getting your husband the rest he needs and you feeling some level of guilt or whatever for what he's having to go through. I actually, it sounds like, I could be wrong. It sounds like that's a bigger driver than what I'm going to call the ministry of surrogacy. Is that fair? Yeah, I would say that's fair. Okay. So let's solve that problem. Let's solve for husband first, and then let's see if all dials point to surrogacy. I have a feeling that they're not, but let's look at other things that dad can do and getting some relief for him. How much is he working with that second job? How many hours a week? 40 hours a week with his main job and his second job. Could he dial the second one down or is it required to be full-time? I don't think it's required to be full-time, but he's at the same level I am of trying to dial into the Ramsey Method and just trying to pay off debt. So he's doing the full 40. Okay. Where does he stand on this? Is he like, hey, I'm happy to keep this going. I'm doing fine physically. I can handle this. Or is he like, hey, I got maybe three more months of this before I'm burnt out? I would say it's about 50-50. Depends on the night, if you ask him. I'm just wondering if we dial it back, let's say it takes you guys two years to pay off the debt instead of 18 months, but you can survive it and avoid surrogacy as a side hustle. Does that sound like a good plan? Yeah, that sounds fair. And I love that. That's if you have no increase in income with your core full-time jobs. Because I'm just looking at a mom who's watching three kids, working a full-time job, now out of pregnancy on top of that. It's going to be stressful for someone. And so I'm like, can you both carry some of the load? Maybe you work a little bit when he's home. He works a little bit, but not 40 hours a week. And then we have a middle ground here. Yes. And I want to say something, and I think I can. We love gazelle intensity. We love people to go fast and we love people to do whatever it takes. But also in a debt payoff journey, mine was seven and a half, not a little decent bit longer than yours. There are, what I'm going to say is there's times where you're really accelerating and there's times where it's like, bro, I'm tired. I got to just pull off the gas a little bit. And that's okay. It's okay to pull off the gas a little bit. You're still going towards the goal. That could look like I've been driving Uber and I hate it. I'm just going to stop driving Uber as a side hustle for a while. And I'm going to give myself a month or two breather. And then I'm going to pick up a different side hustle, right? There are ways that the debt-free journal journey can morph over time, whether it's speeding up or slowing down, as long as you're still going intensely towards the goal and everything that you're doing is done with intentionality. I'm intentionally taking a 30-day break. I'm intentionally now coming back and doing a different side hustle. That's totally fine. What I don't want you to do is I'm hesitant to people when they're putting their bodies on the line, when they could potentially be putting their health on the line, because pregnancy, there's so many factors that can take place. And you have a family of your own. And for that reason, I think I'm going to say, I don't think you should do that unless it's a ministry. Create your free every dollar budget today. The simplest way to budget for your life.