Find Out How You Can Be Financially Prepared to Have a Baby
Having a baby requires not just emotional, but also financial preparedness. If you and your partner decided to have a child, there are things that you can do to make you more prepared when it comes to the financial field. Here are some of the things that you should consider.
Check Your Health Insurance
Not all health insurance are the same. Take time to understand the ins and outs of your health insurance so you can determine which is covered and which is not. During your pregnancy, you’ll undergo several check-ups and various tests. Different medical procedures will also be done by the time that you’re giving birth. After this, you and your baby would still require follow-up check-up to make sure you’re in good health. If there are complications, this may require more tests and medical attention. Even if there are no complications, your baby would still need regular check-up with the pediatrician to monitor his growth and ensure his health. See which of these are covered and which are not. Find out which will be automatically billed to your insurance and which you need to pay out of the pocket. You may need to spend some cash and request for reimbursement afterwards. Check other providers so you can compare them with your current one.
Verify Leave Policy at Work
Determine if your company offers maternity leave. Not all companies have this since those that have less than 50 employees are not required to offer this. If not, you need to determine how long you would stay at home before going back to work and make sure that you have enough money to take care of the expenses as you will not be paid for the time that you’re not working. You may also check if you can use your sick and holiday leave to be added on the days of your maternity leave once you give birth. Aside from this, there would also be follow-up check-ups in which you need to take time off. If maternity leave is not covered, you may ask your employer if you can work part-time at home so you can continue earning. In case you need to go back to work soon, you also need to consider who will take care of the baby. You may need to hire a nanny, which is another thing that you need to consider on your budget.
Practice Living with One Income
In order to prepare yourself for the future, if you can do so, you may practice yourself working on a budget coming from only the income of your husband. This doesn’t mean that you need to quit work. You may save your income for future use. It’s an exercise so it would be easier for you to adjust in case you’ll be forced to temporarily stop working after giving birth.
Consider All the Expenses
When making your budget, list down all the expected expenses as it would be easier for you to plan and work on it this way, instead of just working things out in your mind. This doesn’t just include the expenses that you’ll have after giving birth as you’ll also need to consider the expenses that you’ll have during pregnancy including maternity clothes, baby’s things and vitamins that you need to take. It’s understandable that you want to have everything ready for your baby. Sometimes, first time parents get so excited that they tend to purchase things that are not really needed. If you can have hand me downs from family and relatives, that would be great, especially babies grow up fast that they would just outgrow their newborn clothes and things fast.
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Photo Attribution:
Featured and 1st image by Øyvind Holmstad (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
2nd image by Prefeitura de Olinda from Brasil (Posto de Saúde da Ilha do Maruim) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
3rd image by ParentingPatch (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
