Where'd All
the Money Go?76%
of expectant parents say they feel financially prepared for
having a baby ‑- but 41% of new parents admit that, in
hindsight, they were not as financially prepared as they
thought.
Why the huge discrepancy? It turns out
there's a major financial roadblock that expectant parents
often fail to account for: hospital bills. One in four new
parents ended up spending more than $2,000 on out-of-pocket
costs for services associated with a normal delivery ‑- costs
that they thought would be covered by insurance. On average,
expectant parents are allotting just $776 to cover
out-of-pocket delivery costs.
Call your insurance
company to find out exactly what will be covered for your
delivery. And make sure you have the right idea about
postdelivery costs too: Log on to the Internet to see what you
could be paying for day care, a crib, a car seat, a stroller
‑- even baby wipes, formula and diapers (at eight a day for
newborns, they add up fast!). Then tally up what your costs
will likely be, factoring in your family's lost income due to
maternity and paternity leave. But don't forget ‑- you'll have
new savings, too, since you'll be going out a lot less once
the baby arrives! "New parents don't spend on personal
indulgences the way they used to," says Brette McWhorter
Sember, author of Your Practical Pregnancy Planner.
"These savings bring some balance to the enormous new costs."
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