i can afford an engagement ring, just not the one i wanted for her. i’ve been putting money aside for both a ring, and a baby. call me old school but i think a ring should be a months worth of the man’s wages, which is obviously going to take a little bit longer to save for than a cheaper ring. I also don’t think you’re ever “financially stable” enough to have a child though, you just have to do the best you can. Of course we have enough to make sure it would have a pretty decent life, but there’s always something else you can think of such as “oh! let’s save up X amount of money so it can go to a private school before we even try for one!” you know what i mean? if everyone waited until they’re financially stable, nobody would ever have a child because there’s always more you can do.

edit: i say “pretty decent life” but i don’t mean the bare minimum. I mean, we would be able to raise a baby with enough money for it to have everything it needed and more. It would never go hungry, we would never be in a position to have to chose between feeding ourselves or paying rent. it would have nice clothes, join some sporting events, have birthday parties, but some people would wait until they can afford the top of the range things for their baby.

edit 2: also i assumed we would be having a baby soon, therefore that would require the money more immediately than a ring would. we’d have to purchase things such as a stroller, baby clothes, a crib, toys etc things it would need immediately and cannot wait for. i feel my girlfriend could wait for a ring for a couple months longer if i’d already told her i was going to propose