Get a jump start by “paying” for day care well before your baby arrives. This will help you identify optional expenses to reduce or eliminate and help you build a savings cushion before your baby’s arrival.Ĭhild care is the single largest monthly expense for most new parents. If you don’t have access to paid leave, or you’re planning to take additional unpaid time, practice living on the reduced income to the extent possible. Trust me, you don’t want to be one week postpartum emailing your benefits provider to unravel the logistics of your leave payments. You also want to know when and how your benefits will be paid out, especially if they’ll come from multiple sources. Do you need to use vacation and sick time first? Find out how many weeks are covered and at what percentage of your salary. If you have paid leave through your employer, ask questions early. And only 25% of employers offer some form of paid leave, according to a 2019 survey of employer health benefits by KFF, the nonpartisan health care think tank formerly known as the Kaiser Family Foundation. In fact, only 11 states and Washington, D.C., have paid leave laws, some of which won’t take effect for several years. Paid parental leave is far from guaranteed. When hospital bills start rolling in, you can pay directly from your FSA or use a rewards credit card and submit for reimbursement. Have access to a flexible spending account? If timing allows, set your contributions to save incrementally, tax-free for your hospital bills. Use these figures to set a realistic savings goal to cover them. Then take a deep dive into your health care coverage to understand your coinsurance, deductible, maximums and coverage limits.Īnthem, United Healthcare and other major insurers have tools you can use to get estimates of total and out-of-pocket costs, based on your plan. Even with insurance, new parents can expect to pay several thousand dollars out of pocket for maternity care.Ĭontact your insurer or the hospital where you plan to deliver to get more specific numbers. The average cost for delivery can range from $10,000 to $20,000, depending on where you live. Then build a plan for managing the other costs, large and small, that come with having a baby. “This will absolutely need to be adjusted as you get closer to your due date, so having a starting point is priority No. “Outline all your current income and expenses so you and your partner have a solid understanding of where your money goes each month,” Hargrove says. If you don’t already have a budget, start there, says Cecilia Williams, a mother, certified financial planner and the chief operating officer of Halbert Hargrove, a financial planning firm.
You’ll be lucky to remember what day it is, much less when your next credit card payment is due.ĭo your future, sleep-deprived self a favor and start prepping your finances early into your pregnancy so things can run on autopilot for a while after the baby arrives. Mustering the energy - and attention span - for otherwise routine tasks like showering and paying bills can feel like a tall order. In the early weeks, your waking hours are a cycle of feedings, diaper changes and Googling “Is it normal for a baby to (fill in the blank).” The arrival of a new baby is all-consuming. Business & Finance Click to expand menu.
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