Apr 17 2008
Work that Budget
Truth be told, I hate thinking about finances. Budgets, investments, retirement 401k’s, annuities, and college funds, OH MY! It all makes me cringe. I admire folks like Ryan, who are so on top of financial matters!
With Baby Champuru on the way, due to make her grand entrance in just about five months, facing the financial realities of being out on maternity leave without pay is a somewhat frightening prospect. Just getting to the point of being pregnant has taken much more effort and expense than most, having to undergo multiple procedures including surgeries and in vitro, depleting 95% of my paid leave and nearly $6000 in medical expenses. So, those of you who actually got pregnant by accident or with very little effort, be thankful! Some of us are not as fortunate.
By September, I expect to be pretty close to having zero sick/vacation leave hours since I have to take a few hours here and there every time I see the doctor. Some people are fortunate in that they have banked their leave for years and they’re able to take six months off for maternity with a steady paycheck. As for me, I will be on LWOP (leave without pay) and our financial situation will dictate how long I will be able to stay at home with the Snowflake.
Ever since I learned that I was pregnant, we have started paying off bills and saving aggressively. Honestly, I’m a spender by nature, not a saver. Nothing else has been able to motivate me to save with as much zeal as the prospect of bringing a little life into this world.
With the savings I am projecting, I should be able to stay home for over a year if we are extremely frugal. Six months if we want more leeway. I would love to be a stay-at-home mom for as long as possible (until the kid is 18 maybe?), but unless I can find a method of earning a modest income from home, I might find myself back at the office sooner rather than later.
As a result of a twitter comment I just made about working out my post-delivery budget being strained, a couple of friends mentioned TDI (temporary disability insurance). It’s something that I had heard about, but never inquired about. Apparently, TDI will give you up to 58% of your pay for six weeks for a normal delivery (eight weeks if you had a c-section). Every little bit counts and the extra 58% for a month and a half is better than nothing! (Thanks, @Roar and @rsuenaga for the info!)
We’re also thinking about starting a college fund for Baby Champuru. After a cursory search on Google, it looks like my initial thought about opening a Roth for that purpose isn’t the best option. Not a bad option, just not the best. I suppose that means more research will have to be done in the coming months. I just might turn into a financial guru yet! Okay, that might be reaching — but at least I’m trying to get smarter about these things for our family’s future.
A 30-something Christian girl, blissfully wedded to her perfect match (the yang to her yin) of 14 years. Living life in Hawaii, less than 5 miles from her hometown, a slave to her mortgage payment, but seeking balance in her pursuit of family, faith, recreation, and rest.
Donna,
College savings… best option is a 529; also think about a Coverdale Education account. See SavingForCollege.com for more info.
Yes, I am a financial Geek about as much as I am a computer Geek.
good luck with your savings for the next 5 months! 1 year? wow. you’re so good. I wish i could be a SAHM, but i’m so grateful i got to stay home for the 4 months i did. I would’ve done the LWOP till the end of the school year, but we can’t afford the mortgage without me. boo =( as for collegefund, i know Suze Orman advises to worry about your own retirement before your child’s college. They can always do school loans, but what can you do if you don’t have enough when you retire? Something to consider.
so have you started to buy any baby gear yet? fun stuff. =)
Donna,
Typically businesses will combine sick time, TDI, and vacation to give employees full pay until they exhaust the sick and vacation, so it’s possible you’d be able to draw a “full” paycheck for some time before it gets a lot smaller.
I say… Go for the TDI… That’s what I’ll be doing when I go on Maternity…. Whoah… That’s pretty soon for me!!
I just discovered that my Federal agency does not offer TDI, but they do have a leave sharing program that allows you to request donations of annual leave. I wonder if any of my co-workers would be gracious enough to donate some leave days to me? If not, I suppose it’s back to Plan A.
Ryan S.: Thanks for the leads on the college fund info. I’ll check those out!
mars: Darn those high Hawaii mortgages!
I watch those shows about flipping homes sometimes and see how much people pay for much larger homes in other parts of the country and just want to cry. For what we paid for our small townhouse, we could have bought a large single-family home on a large lot of land somewhere else in the country. Oh well, the price we pay to live in paradise, I guess. I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.
I read an article about concentrating on retirement before college savings, too. Makes a lot of sense. I figure if I can start small with the college savings, at least it’s better than nothing though. We’ll see how things work out with the finances in the months to come.
Nope, haven’t bought any baby gear yet. I want to get the baby’s room (currently our computer/workout room) cleaned first. That’s going to take MONTHS!
Robyn: Congratulations to you!
Can’t wait to see more updates on your blog about baby!
Donna,
You may be surprised. I have, over the years, donated about 40 hours of vacation time to various coworkers who were sick or had family members who were sick. I’m not alone; one of our nurses had to care for her daughter who was sick–I gave eight hours, one of the other nurses gave 40, and before you know it, she ended up with over 100 hours donated by friends (this is one of those Universal Bank of Goodwill kind of things)…
And guess what? We’ll have a post on how to deal with education costs for your kids on Uncommon-Cents.net rsn (like tomorrow).
As a new mom myself, I’m desperate for a way to stay home and have looked into opportunities. There are some legitimate work from home opportunities that you may want to explore if you don’t mind doing things like call center work for supplementary income once Snowflake is at an age that it’s possible. (Hint: Don’t count on that being for at least a few months; my baby is a month old and I’ve totally forgotten what sleep is.)
I work at home which is nothing new. I work at home* for money*, which is new to us, and my family is all working on adjusting. My“ office”, until we decide if we are either moving or adding on, is half of my closet and has no door. If I had to guess what the most important boundary to set is while working from a home office, I’ d guess a DOOR. My task load is getting more intense, which actually seems to be making it easier to fit within a M- F work week, though I appreciate the flex of being able to swap…
Donna,
You may already know this, but if you are a federal employee (I was before I retired) you can apply for advanced sick leave, which an agency can grant if they believe that you will return to work long enough to pay it back. It is risky as you don’t start building up a reserve until you pay it back. I know I granted it, or rather endorsed it forward to the decision maker, for several of my employees.
Best wishes,
Gary