How did you know that you were ready?

^^exactly

i was so anti-kids before we had beeps. like i used to see pregnant women on the street and snicker "sucker!". my biggest motivating factor to get pregnant was that time was running out and i might regret it later if i didn't. pretty shitty reason to have a kid but now i cant even remember what life was like without her.

This is basically us.

I feel like I could come up with a lot of signs of being "not ready" but there is no sign of "ready" other than I guess absence of major red flags? Not ready would be stuff like unemployed with tendency to get fired, drug addiction, complete unwillingness to change lifestyle in any way, tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt with no realistic plan to pay it off, etc.

Financial readiness for kids (beyond having a job and not being on the verge of bankruptcy) is highly subjective and probably heavily influenced by class expectations.

Mental/emotional/spiritual "readiness" is likely to be developed after you have the kid and as you reshape your life and expectations according to necessity.

my uncle told me "it's never a 'good time' to have a kid" and I think he's right