Money Date – Having a Baby and First Financial Steps

Money Date – Having a Baby and First Financial Steps

You can never prepare enough for this amazing life event – emotionally, physically, or mentally. However, there are steps you can take to prepare financially.

You all know Yuri and I just welcomed our baby boy Liam into our family 15 weeks ago. What a life change!

Here’s a laundry list things for your consideration. I know you might not get it all done before the baby arrives, I certainly didn’t, but at least you can get a jump start on organizing your finances!

Before the baby arrives:

  1. How much time will you take off? Is it going to be paid? Do you get maternity or paternity leave?
  2. Set a budget. How are you going to manage living expenses? I could almost do an entire session on this alone. I’ve spent a ton of money on getting all of the baby things we needed before Liam was born – and after.
  3. Think about medical coverage. Make sure your coverage is in place and double check it will cover the delivery.
  4. Do you have life insurance? Yuri and I planned this way in advance and made sure we secured additional coverage.

After the baby arrives:

It’s going to be awesome, overwhelming, and challenging at the same time. Take life one day at a time.

  1. Add your child to your health insurance plan in the first 30 days. Hard lesson learned…even though I called and double called, they still didn’t add Liam!
  2. Plan for child care. At least start thinking about what will happen beyond your time off with the baby.
  3. Get your estate documents updated.
  4. Open 529 plan. Education savings is critical!
Anna Sergunina
Anna Sergunina
anna@mainstreetplanning.com

I passionately believe that in order to live a life of fulfillment and joy, we must genuinely serve each other in any way possible. I found my mission in life to serve others via financial planning. Anna regularly writes about personal finance. Her work appears on Business Insider, Nasdaq, Nerdwallet, among others. Anna is the creator of Money Flow system.

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