A Boy For Me, A Girl For You

Jacquette M. Timmons

The ball has dropped; the New Year is here. And when you and your boo kissed at the stroke of midnight, you both noticed an extra twinkle in each other’s eyes. You have talked about it before, but now it seems more probable than ever as you wonder: “Might this be the year that we conceive (or finalize our adoption)?”

As you know, family planning goes beyond contraception; it also entails financial and career planning. All three spheres require proactive engagement and conscious choices, and the following are a few steps you and your spouse (or partner) can take to help get your financial house in order whilst you work on your goal of having a baby:

1)      Consult the HR/Benefits department to confirm your company’s maternity/paternity leave policy. Decide if you’ll want to take more time than what the leave policy allows. If so, consult your accountant to get an estimate of how the additional time off will affect your net salary. Also, speak with your employer about how taking the additional time will affect your health insurance coverage. If you are self-employed, decide how much time you can “afford” not to work; measure the cost of that downtime against how much time it will take to replenish your financial coffers.

2)      Do it on your own or consult with your accountant (or other financial advisor) and create financial forecasts (worse-, likely-, best- case scenarios). Run the numbers and update your personal income statement to include additional childcare costs (food, clothes, pampers, childcare, etc.)

3)      Use the forecasts from the tips above to get a clear picture of your potential cash flow, and also assess if you can begin to start living off one or 1 ½ salaries. If it all seems feasible, your next step is to create a transition plan to migrate managing your money from before to after the baby arrives.

4)      Determine whose career is the most flexible. This can be measured in terms of hours worked and who’s can best support your desired lifestyle, while easily meeting your financial obligations and goals during your maternity/paternity leave and beyond.

The above are just a few steps you can take to proactively plan for your expanding family. These will aid in the achievement of the goal to have more stability and less stress--a perfect combination so that you can fully embrace the joys and unknown aspects of parenthood.