Having children is a magical, life-changing experience, but it can also be the most expensive period of our clients' lives. Even with many years of experience as a financial planner, I was shocked by the total cost of starting my own family. Here’s what I’m advising my clients who are starting a family.

What I’m Telling My Clients

Build Up Your Savings 

Pre-pregnancy, pregnancy, delivery, and postpartum expenses are all more than many first-time pa🗹rents expect.

I help my clients consider all the potential costs of starting or growing a family. I encourage them to segregate additional savings for fun expenses, such as purchasing baby gear or decorating nurseries, as well as financial flexibility for possible澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网: fertility treatments, unpaid parental leave, and vehicle upgrades. It's a great time to educate clients on maximizing HSA contributions, if availaཧble, to build savings f🏅or potential pre-pregnancy, delivery, and postpartum support.

Tune Up the Budget

A little trimming of lifestyle expenses can build a more reliable surplus for incoming costs related to their children. I urge clients to get organized and automate their bill pay and savings so their plan can run on a🧔utopilot when they are sleep-deprive🌟d. 

Guiding clients to run a mock budget with the exp꧂ected costs can encourage them to become more diligent savers today in preparation, especially once childcare costs are modeled. I help clients think through different options, whether it’s a nanny, daycare, o꧅r family support, and consider the long-term impact on their budget. If clients plan to rely on family for childcare, I guide them to research a backup plan and consider adding their names to waiting lists for local centers.

It’s important to remind clients that things do not go according to plan. For example, a surprise twin pregnancy or extended NICU stay can create massive medical bills.

Rethink Benefits Enrollment

During benefits enrollment, we consider their company’s benefits, including parental leave, maternity care, health insurance coverage, life insurance, and disability insurance. We also consider other health care services they could receive during the same year they plan to max out their health insurance 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:deductibles. 

Plug Future Children into a Financial Plan

When meeting with younger couples without children, we develop various plan scenarios for future children. For instance, one of my clients is choosing to front load their 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:529 accounts before starting their family. College funding is important to them, and they feel it is much easier to save and invest now, before their budget changes dramatically. Their 529 accounts will have more than 18 years to 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:compound.

Get Affairs in Order

I guide my clients in creating or updating their 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:estate planning documents and increasing 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:life insurance coverage. They are assigned tasks to complete, such as creating a household operating manual, adding each other as authorized users and joint owners of various accounts, and educating each other on the location of important documents, household roles, and their ultimate wishes. These tasks become more challenging to achieve o🎐nce they are busy with a newborn.

The Bottom Line

Preparing for a family involves 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:careful financial planning that can alleviate the stress of unexpected costs and life changes. By encouraging clients to build savings, fine-tune their budgets, review workplace benefits, and update their estate planning, we equip them with the tools to navigate this exciting yet challenging transition.