Heart wrenching story
Question: Robin is incorporating fertility planning with Dave's financial planning. Insurance pays for most of the fertility planning and they pay their 20% with cash. They have $2,000 left in their fertility budget. She is 39 and feels "under the gun" personally and financially. Dave gives her a disclaimer and offers his best advice.
Dave Ramsey's advice: You guys have to decide the medical part; certainly there's no higher calling on this earth than being a parent. It breaks my heart to hear you talk about this. To me, it almost seems petty to talk about debt on something this important, but since you asked I'll do the best I can, even though I've never been there.
What if we tried to break even on the debt while trying to do something this important? I'd rather have a $5,000 car in debt and have a $7,500 in-vitro debt than a $15,000 car. That way, you're no further in debt and accomplishing your goal. We're kind of trading around the type of debt, but we're not adding to it. We're doing that to accomplish a goal that's much more important than owning a car.
Would I roll the dice on in-vitro as opposed to owning a car? I can pretty much guarantee I would. I might downsize in car to justify picking up some in-vitro debt. You guys make $97,000 a year, so you'll be able to knock this out pretty quick when you get to it.
I hope that the nice lady who called in, or any other couples who are in a similar situation, will consider something called NaPro Technology, pioneered by Dr. Thomas Hilgers, and implemented by a network of affiliated fertility doctors around the United Status. Dr. Hilgers has had impressive success using innovative methods to find out what is actually causing the fertility problem, and then correcting that problem -- rather than just trying to bypass the body's natural fertility process, as is done with in-vitro fertilization.
More information on NaPro Technology can be found here:
http://www.naprotechnology.com/
And a network of local doctors who use this method can be found here:
http://www.fertilitycare.org/mcteacher.htm
I have no vested interest in this program; I simply want to pass on this information in the hope that it is helpful to someone who might be reading this post.
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/mar/08031707....
One interesting quote from the article:
"When used to treat infertility alone, NaProTechnology has a success rate of 76% in assisting couples to achieve pregnancy - remarkably superior to the 10-15% success rate of in vitro fertilization, and without the enormous financial cost and adverse emotional and other psychological effects of in vitro fertilization."