Let's Talk Finances and Legal Prep for Baby

dragonfly87-2 · August 2017

Just curious what some of you ladies have done to prepare for baby in the finance and legal areas.

Have you started to adjust your budget? Changed your financial priorities in a major way?
Have you created a will or are you planning to do so?

ShePersisted · August 2017

We are blessed that we don't have to change our budget for other things too much but we may need to reduce a vacation or two or be a lot more budgeted during vacation. However second kid means I do need to keep working to keep up our lifestyle. Other than that we have that tax free education account started for our son and will start the same for the second. I think I might need to spend less on my hair and random things that I consider luxury (things I want rather than need), like shopping for clothes, shoes etc. But I'll cross that bridge when needed.

mymulligan · August 2017

We are in the process of creating a budget. We have been super lucky that we never really had to do one before but last year I stopped working, we bought a new home and are planning a renovation and now adding a LO.
We saw a lawyer shortly after DD was born to do our will mainly to name her guardian nd create a trust should something happen to one or both of us. It's a really emotionally difficult process to think about leaving your child(ren) behind and choosing who would be the best fit to raise them, but it does offer you peace and comfort to know that there is a plan should something happen. We will need to talk to my SIL again to make sure she is comfortable with taking both children now. She has 3 of her own so it is a big ask.
We will also set up a 529 for this baby once he is born like we have for DD. You need a ssn in order to set one up.

cwalker042 · August 2017

I, like @ShePersisted do not need to adjust our budget much for an additional kid at this point. Down the road we may have to due to the extra cost of flying, dinners etc. now that DS is 2 we have to pay for a seat for him when we fly so we may not be able to travel by air as often as we'd like. If I chose to be a SAHM we would definitely have to adjust our budget but I like our lifestyle and we do not want to give that up. I may need to cut back on luxuries like my nails, hair, massages, expensive makeup and such, but again, that won't be until the baby ge

curiousfool1 · August 2017

We have done some budget adjusting. Right now, the adjustments have focused on paying off the last of the CC debt before the kid arrives so we can take that $$ and allocate it toward the increased health insurance cost and taking on child care. We also have ceased most discretionary (clothes, etc.) shopping, and have made a concerted effort to be more frugal and conscientious about grocery shopping. We need to draft wills. We also plan to start a 529 plan. Our state gives every baby born in Maine a $500 grant for college at birth, and will match $200 start-up and $100 annually toward 529 plan contributions. Definitely plan to take advantage of that.

dragonfly87-2 · August 2017

Interesting to read everyone's situation. For those who aren't changing their budgeting, will you not have increased costs such as child care or health insurance?

We will be lowering the amount we put into savings to accommodate for our daughter's arrival. Her monthly daycare (unless my parent's manage to move here soon) will be $1,100 a month and adding her to my health insurance will be an extra $280 per month. Currently estimating another $150 a month in miscellaneous costs (diapers, wipes, food, supplies). Fortunately, we won't have to adjust spending, just the amount saved.

Best estimate I can get from insurance is to budget for up to $5,000 for birth/delivery, which is the family plan out of pocket max. Currently, I have about $1,000 in an HSA, but I will transfer from savings to my HSA after her birth (since max contributions will go up with family plan) to pay for those costs.

Other big adjustment will be lost income/wages while I am on maternity leave. For my situation, I am fortunate that I can use two weeks of flex time for full pay, get paid for an additional 4 weeks (due to breaks that are already scheduled) and then get 5 weeks at 60% pay due to short term disability. I plan to work 2 days a week starting at 10 weeks, which will help as well. I can take up to 16 weeks off, but probably will stick with 12-14. So I will lose wages for 2-4 weeks.

I am researching the best ways to get a will and other legal documents prepared. It won't be complicated, but we want to have them prepared. We both purchased life insurance policies ($500k each) about two years ago, so that is in place. We didn't go by the 10 times income rule because our philosophy is that if something tragic were to happen, $500k would more than cover the rest of the house mortgage, car loans and leave about $250k for the surviving spouse to put toward lost income or starting over. It's a sad thing to think about, but to us it would be worse to lose a partner and have no financial plan in place.

dragonfly87-2 · August 2017

curiousfool1 Wow, that's really cool that Maine gives that $500 grant, I have never heard of that before.

cwalker042 Is DS 1 in child care and will the second child be too? Just curious since it seems like you work, but said you didn't have to adjust your budget.

mymulligan I agree that planning for the event of death is emotional, but it definitely is worth it should anything tragic happen. It is heartbreaking to hear of situations where a parent is left to be a single parent and has no financial support from life insurance or to cover loss of income. The same is true when children are left behind and families fight over custody or no one is designated so they go into the foster care system.

ShePersisted Will child care not be a factor for your second child?

kaitlinliz · August 2017

I've been thinking about all of this a lot and am still no where different. We had life insurance through the military - I don't know if we still have it now that DH is reserve and not active duty. We need to do wills but haven't yet (I think he has one from being AD as well but not sure and definitely not updated). We haven't adjusted spending but we don't spend a lot anyway so I'm not too worried on that front just yet. We don't know if I'll be going back to work, depends if we can find a day care that is affordable. I don't make a lot and can't move up in my position, so unless I get a job in the company that I just requested a transfer, I probably won't be staying at work. So our income will have to be figured out. Luckily he pays all the bills minus my student loans, so that's all he'd have to tackle extra if I don't go back.

mymulligan · August 2017

Also wanted to add that we are doubling DH's life insurance since he is our sole income at this time. Mine will remain the same.

littlemissc17 · August 2017

We've just been concentrating on paying off credit cards to kind of make up for any difference. Since this baby won't go to daycare until she's older, we don't have that major expense to account for. My DH can have up to maybe 4 dependents on his health insurance without paying an additional amount, so that helps too.

ShePersisted · August 2017

@dragonfly87-2 what I mean to say is of course a new baby will have extra costs so there will certainly be a dent a savings and our ability to spend on things we typically don't think about but day to day lifestyle I don't think will be impacted too much.

littlemissc17 · August 2017

I think that going from no kids to kids was the bigger adjustment. Going from only needing to care for yourselves to paying for all the things that comes with having kids is a shock to the system.

DungeonTrollMel · August 2017

We are working on planning our budget changes. This biggest one for us will be child care costs, but just cutting H's golfing habit to spend time with the baby will be a decent amount of that. Thankfully working for a hospital, our insurwnce is covered no cost for all of us and we have hit our deductible for the year already.

We do need to work on wills. I have life insurance but H does not because he's technically self employed with sales. His car will be completely paid off right around the time baby starts daycare and that will help as well

cwalker042 · August 2017

@dragonfly87-2 yes, DS1 is in daycare and this baby will be going to daycare but it will not impact our finances in a way that we need to budget for it or cut back in certain areas of our life. Also, hubby carries our health insurance coverage and he has a family plan. That covers every family member with no additional cost for adding the baby.

DungeonTrollMel · August 2017

We are also doing cloth diapering which will save us several thousands in the long run after the initial costs of stocking up

dragonfly87-2 · August 2017

@DungeonTrollMel I considered cloth diapering, but none of the daycares in our area will allow it. So it wasn't realistic for us.

curiousfool1 · August 2017

Our health insurance costs will double going from the couple plan to the family plan (but then won't change if we have other kids later). Right now we're also saving for the out-of-pocket labor and delivery costs. I started my job after the beginning of the plan year, and so could not do a HSA this year. Bummer. But, with our income level and tax filing plans, that out of pocket cost may by deductible.

NYTino24 · August 2017

I went on DH's health insurance and birth should only cost a $25 copay. We are going to figure something out for daycare for the last two months of school between when I come back and summer. I would prefer someone come to our house since DH has a changing schedule. He wants me to stay home from the birth in November until the following September. He has life insurance via the fire department and I should get some too. We don't have a will yet. I have tutored an insane amount over the last few years to put away savings. Plus I pay for short term disability and our state also gives us a portion of our pay for 6 weeks.

DungeonTrollMel · August 2017

Wow @nytino24 that's awesome you are able to be home for so long

NYTino24 · August 2017

@DragonTrollMel I am currently scheduled to go back in April, but can take up to almost 2 years unpaid. However, our district likes to screw with people who do that and move them all around. If I were to get transferred to the other side of town, for instance, it might take me another 30 minutes to get to work. I don't wanna mess with that as my commute is already at least an hour each way. I think it's also better for my mental health to be working and our house is way too small, so we will need my income to upgrade or we will use up a lot of our savings. I have been tutoring like crazy for years to save up.

dragonfly87-2 · August 2017

@NYTino24 Working with teachers on FMLA/maternity leave is always interesting. It's hard to come back sometimes mid-semester and we have to have an adult in the classroom to do the job. That's shitty they mess with people who take longer, but as an employer who has to navigate maternity leave coverage for teachers, I know it can be very challenging depending on when teachers have children/want to return. We try to be flexible, but planning is very difficult for us since we are a small school with a small sub pool (and very few long-term subs).

dragonfly87-2 · August 2017

I just completed my FMLA paperwork yesterday. I can take up to 16 weeks due to 12 weeks of FMLA and 4 weeks of already granted breaks due to holidays. Super excited that I calculated between vacation days (10), short term disability (5 weeks at 60% pay) and if I work 4 half days and 4 full days toward the end of my leave (so 1-2 days a week to transition back), I can take 10 weeks at full compensation.

Even though I can take up to 16 weeks, my plan is to be out 13 weeks total. So only 3 weeks without pay. It will still be a hit, but not as bad as I had expected. Also, it allows me to wait until our daughter is 3 months old to put her in daycare.

kaitlinliz · August 2017

I wish I was able to do what some of you have planned! Lol my boss told me yesterday I have all of 70 hours to use and I'll have about 100 when baby comes. I can't come back til Dr okays me which will be the 6 weeks but I'll only get paid for the 100 hours. And because I'll be gone for 4 weeks without pay I lose my full-time status and start back over, meaning I have to work 3 months at (32 hours a week) to gain it back. Luckily I only use it for the vacation time and use DHs job for insurance. But I'm working on transferring in the company so if that happens idk what will come of my leave and what I'll have to do

NYTino24 · August 2017

@dragonfly87-2 Our contract states that we have to come back at the start of a new marking period when possible. Turns out my due date is the last day of the first marking period and I'm planning on coming back at the start of the fourth. My beef is that they arbitrarily moved people they had positions for and just switched them with others simply because they had gone on (sometimes extended) leave. It's not fair and definitely not legal, but it can be hard to prove. I've seen it 3 times, twice during the second "year" (I say that because they had been out for part of one year and all of the next year) of leave and the third person was told she was moving for the next year (after 18 years in the same building and position) two weeks after she came back from leave. My district has a TON of schools and all have large enrollment. My school has 8-10 sections of each grade per year, so I didn't feel the moves were necessary or justified.

I know someone else in another district who was let go at the end of the school year after taking maternity leave. She found out less than a month after returning, but she didn't have tenure. I get that it's hard to plan around employees who aren't working and (sometimes) getting paid / receiving benefits. But pregnancy discrimination is real. Some places just get around it by doing it while women are on child care leave instead. I don't understand why it's in the contract if they are going to punish you for exercising your rights to use it!

NYTino24 · August 2017

@kaitlinliz Aren't you in the US? Are you not eligible for FMLA? If so, I don't know how they can cut your hours. It states that you are entitled to return to an equivalent position.

"An equivalent position is one that is virtually identical to the employee's former position in terms of pay, benefits and working conditions. It must involve the same or substantially similar duties and responsibilities, which must entail substantially equivalent skill, effort, responsibility and authority."

EDIT: just saw your Ticker Change where you said you aren't eligible for FMLA. That stinks.

kaitlinliz · August 2017

@NYTino24 Yea unfortunately that's what happens when you find out right after starting that you're pregnant lol! I'll be there 8.5 months by the time in due.

We're gonna be looking at daycares soon since I'll most likely be going back while DH is away with the Reserve's. He got his official dates and I told them I'd be back 3 weeks prior to him returning if nothing changes (so I'll be home with baby for 3 weeks after he leaves, in addition to a few weeks where we'll both be home before that) but then he's required 90 days 3 hours from us which means he'll only be home on the weekends for 3 months after his 6 weeks gone.

The one good thing about all this is hell be making a lot more money while being gone and his current job will be paying him the difference in his pay and his reserve pay plus all the military benefits hell earn which will help baby.

dragonfly87-2 · August 2017

@NYTino24 I agree pregnancy discrimination is real and it's not fair to employees to have to deal with difficult employers. It's such a shitty situation all around usually. Your district seems to do some odd things for sure. I just know when a teacher tells me she is pregnant, I am both happy for her and simultaneously panicking because it is so hard to find coverage.

A teacher today just talked with me about her FMLA plans and asked if she could come back part-time around 10 weeks. This is something that we have done for admin because it's not hard to modify workload and schedules. However, we haven't done it for teachers because no one has requested it and it's a lot more difficult to find coverage. Finding long-term full day subs is one thing, finding someone to do part-time sub coverage...will be even more difficult. I want to be flexible, but it may not be feasible. Ugh...

NYTino24 · August 2017

@dragonfly87-2 I agree that is rough when finding someone to teach kids because consistency is so important!!

hillaryo14 · August 2017

I talked to one of our regular subs who might be my long term sub. I hope she does sub for me, I know my kiddos will be in good hands with her! I also set up a meeting with our HR rep to get the ball rolling on maternity leave. I have a good amount of state and local days (probably 20-25 days combined) saved up to use, and have short term disability, so I'm really glad I thought ahead when signing up for insurance last year. I will be so relieved once this is set up!

NYTino24 · August 2017

@hillaryo14 I wish our BOE would post the minutes from Tuesday already! They do everything so late this time of year and I know she met with the superintendent on Tuesday before the meeting... I want to know who she is!!! I hate how our district doesn't involve teachers in hiring of their replacements.

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