Being financially stable is one thing that is essential when there is a baby on the way as there is no getting away from the fact that raising a child up to the age of 18 is going to cost a great deal of money. But what else should be on your check list?
Having adequate health insurance is a necessity from the baby’s conception. While for the majority of cases pregnancies are trouble free, there may be times when medical help is needed on the run up to the birth, during the birth itself and after.
The birth of the baby is going to come with costs and these should be worked out and a plan in place for covering the costs well before the birth of the baby. The costs may or may not be covered in the health insurance. The cheapest option for the birth is to have a home birth with a midwife in attendance. However, generally insurance companies will not stand to the cost of a midwife. The hospital birth is the most expensive but insurance companies will usually cover it. The typical home birth may cost on average around $3500 and a hospital birth can cost around $20,000 with the insurance company perhaps covering about $14,000 of it.
After the birth of the baby you will then have to work out costs for caring for the baby. Things you need to take into account include whether the baby is breast fed or bottle fed as formula for babies is very expensive. Baby food is another expense and you might want to consider making your own with a blender from the food that you would eat, where applicable of course.
After this you might want to take into account starting a college fund as it is never too early to start one. You may also want to start an emergency fund to account for emergencies.
So the above are the basics of what you need to do financially to get ready to welcome your new bundle of joy into the world and take him or her through until they are old enough to fly the nest.
