Funding Maternity Leave

Rowansmom08

My company offers no paid leave. You have to apply for short term disability which will pay 60% of your salary for 6 weeks ad then you can take another 6 weeks unpaid under FMLA. Im planning to start saving 200 bucks a paycheck to fund my maternity leave whenever that may be. What is everyone else planning to do?  Thanks for any feedback :-)

kindershlitz

With my first I was fortunate to have sick days bank to take 9 weeks (I was a teacher). Now I stay home so it's not really an issue.

We have been TTC over a year and a half so it's hard to plan. Saving sounds like a good idea.

hooligans4

When I had my second I had what you will get now. We never live outside our means so we just made do during those times.
We don't have debt other than a mortgage so our bills were manageable so maybe that's why we were able to do it. I cook all our meals and clip coupons so I'm pretty good on a budget.
Now I babysit from home so if I do ever get pregnant again I plan on taking a week off then go about my regular schedule.
But if you can take $200 from every paycheck now and save it you will be fine when you take your 12 weeks off.

rspalding001

I've always paid into ST Diability through work and live in CA, so we get the 4 weeks before due date and 6 weeks after covered by the state at 100% your regular pay. After that I'll take all my vacation time, then we can take 6 weeks of paid family leave through the state but it's at 50% of your regular pay. After that my company will give me another 6 weeks of parental leave at 100% my regular pay. It's a pretty good deal. To be honest the ONLY reason I haven't quit my job in the last year is because I want to take advantage of the leave package one last time.

emsmama15

So, @rspalding001, am I reading this right that you'll be off 22 weeks plus your vacation time?  That's INSANE!  I'm so jealous.  I wouldn't leave my job either!  I do 2 weeks of PTO, 8 weeks of STD (c-section) at 65% my regular time (I add PTO to equal 80 hours), and 2-3 more weeks of PTO.  So I take 12-13 weeks depending on the day I deliver and how it falls in the pay period.  I work up till I deliver and I go back to an empty PTO (vacation) bank.  But I'm very happy to be able to take 12 weeks off ... and be paid.

rspalding001

@emsmama15‌ yeah it's pretty awesome. I work at a public accounting firm so the hours suck in general, but the maternity leave rocks