🕷️ Crawler Inspector

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Raw Queries and Responses

1. Shard Calculation

Query:

Response:

Calculated Shard: 147 (from laksa116)

2. Crawled Status Check

Query:

curl -X POST \
  'http://laksa147.int.ahrefs:8124/' \
  -H 'Content-Type: text/plain' \
  -H 'X-ClickHouse-Database: crawler3' \
  -H 'Authorization: Basic YXBpOg==' \
  -d 'SELECT getAhrefsURLFromUnparsed(src_unparsed) AS found_url, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(download_stamp), 0) AS crawl_time, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(props_url_first_seen), 0) AS first_indexed_time, download_http_code AS http_code, src_unparsed AS src_unparsed, src_root_hash AS src_root_hash, history_drop_reason AS history_drop_reason, meta_title AS meta_title, meta_descriptions AS meta_descriptions, attrs_boilerpipe_text AS attrs_boilerpipe_text, attrs_markdown AS attrs_markdown, attrs_readable_markdown AS attrs_readable_markdown, meta_canonical AS meta_canonical FROM crawler3.page_info_local FINAL PREWHERE (src_root_hash, src_unparsed) IN ((getAhrefsRootHashFromUnparsed(getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://www.parents.com/nine-month-plan-for-family-finances-pre-baby-5292849\')), getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://www.parents.com/nine-month-plan-for-family-finances-pre-baby-5292849\'))) FORMAT JSONEachRow'

Response:

{"found_url":"https:\/\/www.parents.com\/nine-month-plan-for-family-finances-pre-baby-5292849","crawl_time":1776520452,"first_indexed_time":1711555511,"http_code":200,"src_unparsed":"com,parents!www,\/nine-month-plan-for-family-finances-pre-baby-5292849 s443","src_root_hash":"11366054843429160947","history_drop_reason":null,"meta_title":"How to Prepare Family Finances Before Your Baby Arrives","meta_descriptions":["A month-by-month guide on how to prepare your finances before your baby arrives. Tracking your spending, creating a budget, buying life insurance, and continuing to save for retirement are all ways to make sure your finances are in check for when you become a parent."],"attrs_boilerpipe_text":"If you're an expectant parent, you have probably learned enough medical terminology to pass for a fledgling OB-GYN, grasping complexities such as alfa-fetoprotein levels and\nepidural anesthesiology\n. But studies indicate that you should be paying as much attention to the jargon of\nfinancial\nwell-being, such as arcane phrases like \"section 529 tax-advantaged college savings,\" for example, and \"spousal IRAs.\"\nAccording to a 2017 report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), a middle-class American married couple spends an average of $296,684—about $17,500 a year—on raising a child from birth to age 18. And that doesn't include the cost of college tuition, now averaging $54,880 a year at private schools and $26,820 at in-state public ones.\nCovering those costs will be a stretch for most. In fact, the 2016\nConsumer Finance Survey\nby the Federal Reserve indicates that nearly two-thirds of households with young children are saving no money at all for college or other child-related expenses.\nPhoto:\nGetty Images\nThose zero-digit savings begin to collide with the expanding cost of childrearing when a baby is about 6 months old, says Ruth Hayden, a St. Paul, Minnesota-based financial consultant and author of\nFor Richer, Not Poorer: The Money Book for Couples\n. \"Just when the baby is getting so cute and personable, a couple starts to fight over money issues,\" she tells\nParents\n.\nTo head off trouble, she and a team of other money experts (with 26 children and 18 grandchildren between them) helped us assemble a nine-month plan for nurturing your nest egg\nas your pregnancy progresses\n. The payoff? Research shows that, given the same income, people who commit to a financial plan save twice as much money as those who just wing it.\nThe warm, fuzzy upside: The more financial decisions you work out ahead of time, the more time and energy you'll have for fun with\nyour new baby\n.\nFirst Month\nThe sooner you start getting your finances in order the better. So, once you see those two lines on the pregnancy test, it's a great time to start planning for how to pay for the childrearing costs that will soon become a reality.\nCut down credit card debt.\nThe first trimester is the time for cleaning up your financial act, says\nJean Chatzky\n, financial editor of\nNBC\nToday\n. A good place to start is with credit cards. Balances in the thousands of dollars cost hundreds in annual interest—money you'll need for new expenses. They also hamper your growing family's ability to get loans for big-ticket items like a home or that minivan.\nConsider transferring your balance to a credit card with a lower interest rate. Visit\nBankrate\nto compare rates and fees; once you've switched, charge as little as possible until you've paid off your debt.\nTrack your spending.\nNext, you'll need to create a new budget. From there, keep track of all of your family's expenses (both big and small) to get a better picture of your monthly spending. You can keep receipts and take notes on your phone or in a spreadsheet. When the time comes to crunch the numbers (the third month), this careful tracking will help you determine your family's spending patterns so you can identify potential areas you might want to cut back on when the baby arrives.\nSecond Month\nDuring the second month of pregnancy, continue tracking your expenses. Also, be sure to make sure your beneficiaries are current.\nUpdate your beneficiaries.\nDouble-check for and delete any out-of-date beneficiaries on your company-sponsored life insurance and 401(k) plan, particularly if you were single when you started your job. \"Whenever there's a major lifestyle change, you need to look at those beneficiary statements,\" says Dee Lee, a certified financial planner with\nHarvard Financial Educators\n.\nYour parents, siblings, or even a previous partner may still be listed rather than your child.\nThird Month\nThis month, you'll want to check your credit rating and use all that spending information you've been collecting to create a formal budget.\nCheck up on your credit.\nEven if you pay your bills on time every month, errors can slip into your credit report. Save time and aggravation by correcting mistakes now, when your life is relatively sane. Having a strong credit score is important when you're a parent-to-be and potentially looking into big purchases such as a home or a car in the near future. Having a high credit score can help you lock in the best interest rate on a car loan or mortgage.\nYou can order your credit report from Equifax, Experian, or Transunion. By law, they may charge no more than $12 for a standard report. Be forewarned that applying for a free credit check from less reputable providers can be an invitation to identity theft. In addition, limit yourself to only one check per year—any more than that can hurt your rating.\nCrunch the numbers.\nNow it's time to get down to the last step of budget-making. Take all the numbers from the expenses you have tracked the past few months and put them in a spreadsheet or budget tracking app (if you haven't already). This will give you a full picture of your current expenses—before you give them a makeover to prepare for baby.\nYour goal is not to just break even, but to save money regularly, says Stephen Brobeck, executive director of the\nConsumer Federation of America\n(CFA), an advocacy and education organization in Washington, D.C. A\n2019 survey by Bankrate\nfound that one in five working Americans are not saving any money for retirement, an emergency fund, or other long-term financial goals.\nWhen creating your new budget, keep in mind your upcoming childrearing costs. According to a 2015 USDA report (the most recent data available), the average middle-income households can expect to spend about $1,056 a month to provide an infant with basics such as food, clothing, shelter, transportation, and childcare. If you take an extended leave from work (or switch to part-time hours) you'll face the financial double-whammy of covering these new expenses on an income that is suddenly smaller.\nCouples who can't seem to save their way to the recommended 10%-of-your-income mark may want to book an appointment with a certified financial planner, a pro trained to help clients set monetary goals. The\nFinancial Planning Association\nexplains certification and fees on its website. The CFA offers free consultations along with other budget guidance through its America Saves program.\nFourth Month\nIt's time to assess the finances of how you'll pay for your baby's expenses once they're born, and if applicable, how much time you'll take off from work.\nMake a friend in HR.\nGet a full briefing about maternity or paternity benefits from human resources. Federal law requires you to give at least 30 days notice when requesting time off under the Family and Medical Leave Act, which entitles any new parent who works for a company with at least 50 employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid, seniority-protected leave.\nYour employer must pay the usual portion of your healthcare benefits for the duration. In addition to any paid leave you might have, federal law also entitles birth mothers to short-term disability pay (typically six to eight weeks) if their company ordinarily pays disability benefits in other situations.\nPractice austerity.\nLast month you set a new budget; now you may be tempted to put it on hold and enjoy the good life until the baby comes. That would likely be a mistake.\n\"In the second trimester, you need to make sure you're putting something away,\" says Chatzky. Start by earmarking funds to offset the loss of income you expect from any unpaid maternity leave. \"Figure out what the gap will be and then try to make up for it beforehand,\" she says.\nIf you also plan to furnish a nursery from scratch—or purchase pricey\nbaby gear\n—set aside additional savings toward that goal. Put the amount you'll soon spend on the baby into short-term CDs or money-market accounts. You could have a tidy sum by your due date—if you begin today.\nFifth Month\nAs near and pass the mid-point of pregnancy, it's smart to start considering childcare options—and how you'll pay for them.\nDo the daycare shuffle.\nYour second trimester is a great time to evaluate childcare options—before your energy wanes and mobility becomes more complicated.\nChild Care Aware\noffers a free service that will link you with a local resource and referral agency. These nonprofit agencies keep close tabs on the types of childcare available in their region, including center-based and family care, and fees charged by local providers.\nTo get the most bang for your buck, check nannies' references. Confirm that daycare administrators have degrees in early childhood education and that staffers receive child development training—and that caregivers don't come and go with the seasons.\nSixth Month\nNow's the time to take care of nitty gritty items like life insurance and a will.\nBuy life insurance.\nMost expectant parents should insure themselves for at least six to eight times the amount of their gross annual salary to cover the anticipated dependent, says\nJames H. Hunt\n, a retired life insurance actuary for the CFA. Cash-value policies like whole life, variable life, and universal life are quite complicated and often a bad deal—especially when you can earn interest through other means, such as tax-deferred and tax-free investments like retirement accounts and college savings plans.\nInstead, Hunt advises parents to stick to term life, preferably 20 years or less. A 30-year-old woman in good health can buy $750,000 worth of coverage for about $300 a year. Compare insurance rates at\nwww.term4sale.com\n.\nWrite a will.\nThough you may be loathe to decide who would raise your child and manage their finances should both parents die, it's easier to\nwrite a will\nand choose a guardian before the baby is born. This way, you can focus solely on the baby when they arrive and not about writing a will. You can expect to pay between $500 and $1,000 on average to hire a lawyer to draft your will.\nSeventh Month\nNext up, consider starting a college fund for your baby.\nRegister at Upromise.\nEnough doom and gloom! The popular college savings program\nUpromise\n, with 3 million members and counting, lets you jump-start an education fund when you shop for basics like groceries and gas—and when you eat out at restaurants. Best of all, you don't need to list a beneficiary to open an account, so expectant parents can start saving for their future scholar before they've even settled on a baby name.\nTo sign up for the free service, visit www.upromise.com and register your credit cards. After that, a portion of what you charge to the cards (up to 5% at certain retailers, 10% at some restaurants) automatically goes to your child's account.\nLearn these numbers: 5-2-9.\nIf your new budget leaves any room for college savings, tax-advantaged 529 investment plans are too attractive to overlook since they allow you to accumulate anywhere from $300,000 to $500,000 per child (depending on the state) and not pay taxes on the earnings. The options can be overwhelming—all 50 states offer a plan, and you can currently pick and choose from about 67 investment strategies—but you'll have more time to go over them now than later, says Joseph F. Hurley, chief executive officer of\nwww.savingforcollege.com\nand author of\nThe Best Way to Save for College\n.\nYou can even open up an account now; most plans will give you up to six months to add a social security number when the baby is born. If you'd like family and friends to shower you with college money instead of booties and rattles, have them contribute to your child's college fund and put that cash straight into the 529 account.\nEighth Month\nFactor in friends' benevolence.\nRight now, some of your mom's friends are almost certainly crocheting yellow blankets in honor of your baby's arrival. Your pals are also busy organizing showers behind your back. People tend to be unbelievably generous when a child is born, so you may want to see what you receive before you buy any but the most basic baby goods.\nYou should also take a moment to open a safe-deposit box at your bank. Some people might send savings bonds to celebrate your baby's birth. You'll want to keep them—and the birth certificate—in a safe place. Common Series EE bonds and inflation-protected Series I bonds are great because you can cash them in tax-free to pay for education expenses.\nBut this provision works only if the bonds are in your name—not your baby's. Before you stash the goods in the vault, make a note of your bonds' vital statistics (series, denomination, issue date, and serial number). You can then track the earnings online using\nTreasury Direct\n.\nKeep your eye on retirement.\nWith nursery walls to paint and breathing exercises to practice, your third trimester is not the obvious time to be saving for retirement but it is an important goal to prioritize. Hayden advises parents who plan to stop working, even for only a few months, to vow to continue budgeting money toward their retirement.\nParents who stay out a year or more can pay into a special retirement plan known as a spousal IRA. The IRS allows a nonworking spouse to set aside up to $3,000 a year and to deduct the amount from the family's taxable income—even if the spouse funds a 401(k) plan at work.\nNinth Month & Beyond\nAs you near your due date, continue to stick to your budget and save as much as you can. You'll also want to take steps to get insurance coverage for your baby.\nGet insurance for your baby.\nMost health insurance companies allow new parents 30 days after delivery to add their newborn to their policy. Check with your carrier or human resources. In any case, it makes sense to start filling out the enrollment form now, leaving blanks for the baby's name and birth date. Assign your partner or other support person the task of adding those details and getting the paperwork to HR as soon as you and your baby come home from the hospital.\nAside from that, if you've followed our planner, the final month of your pregnancy is time for putting your feet up, both fiscally and literally. Relax, pour a cup of tea, and pat yourself on the back for preparing your family's finances for your new arrival.","attrs_markdown":"\n\n[Skip to content](https:\/\/www.parents.com\/nine-month-plan-for-family-finances-pre-baby-5292849#main)\n\n[Parents](https:\/\/www.parents.com\/)\n\n- Please fill out this field.\n- [Newsletters](https:\/\/www.parents.com\/nine-month-plan-for-family-finances-pre-baby-5292849)\n- [Sweepstakes](https:\/\/www.parents.com\/sweepstakes)\n\nPlease fill out this field.\n\n- [Starting a Family](https:\/\/www.parents.com\/starting-a-family-5282670)\n  Starting a Family\n  \n  - [Trying to Conceive](https:\/\/www.parents.com\/getting-pregnant\/trying-to-conceive\/)\n  - [Ovulation](https:\/\/www.parents.com\/getting-pregnant\/ovulation\/)\n  - [Ovulation Calculator](https:\/\/www.parents.com\/ovulation-calculator-8399023)\n  - [Infertility](https:\/\/www.parents.com\/getting-pregnant\/infertility\/)\n  - [View All](https:\/\/www.parents.com\/starting-a-family-5282670)\n- [Pregnancy](https:\/\/www.parents.com\/pregnancy-postpartum-5282488)\n  Pregnancy\n  \n  - 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(Paid Partnership)](https:\/\/www.parents.com\/featured\/premium\/likeamother?utm_source=editorial&utm_campaign=sitewidebanner&utm_content=parents)\n\n# A Nine-Month Plan for Getting Your Family's Finances in Order Pre-Baby\nGetting your finances ready is a key part of preparing for your baby's arrival. Here are the steps to take to set yourself up for financial stability.\n\nBy Becky Batcha and Hiranmayi Srinivasan\n\nUpdated on January 28, 2025\n\nIf you're an expectant parent, you have probably learned enough medical terminology to pass for a fledgling OB-GYN, grasping complexities such as alfa-fetoprotein levels and [epidural anesthesiology](https:\/\/www.parents.com\/pregnancy\/giving-birth\/epidural\/epidural-side-effects\/). But studies indicate that you should be paying as much attention to the jargon of *financial* well-being, such as arcane phrases like \"section 529 tax-advantaged college savings,\" for example, and \"spousal IRAs.\"\n\nAccording to a 2017 report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), a middle-class American married couple spends an average of \\$296,684—about \\$17,500 a year—on raising a child from birth to age 18. And that doesn't include the cost of college tuition, now averaging \\$54,880 a year at private schools and \\$26,820 at in-state public ones.\n\nCovering those costs will be a stretch for most. In fact, the 2016 [Consumer Finance Survey](https:\/\/www.federalreserve.gov\/publications\/files\/scf17.pdf) by the Federal Reserve indicates that nearly two-thirds of households with young children are saving no money at all for college or other child-related expenses.\n\n![An image of a person preparing a budget]()\n\n![An image of a person preparing a budget](https:\/\/www.parents.com\/thmb\/DBOctNhMYLgKE6pGTxLejTUlnp0=\/1500x0\/filters:no_upscale\$\$:max_bytes\$150000\$:strip_icc\$\$\/GettyImages-1289535724-2000-6440d0899d234fd0a09da0bee709cbde.jpg)\n\nPhoto:\n\nGetty Images\n\nThose zero-digit savings begin to collide with the expanding cost of childrearing when a baby is about 6 months old, says Ruth Hayden, a St. Paul, Minnesota-based financial consultant and author of *For Richer, Not Poorer: The Money Book for Couples*. \"Just when the baby is getting so cute and personable, a couple starts to fight over money issues,\" she tells *Parents*.\n\nTo head off trouble, she and a team of other money experts (with 26 children and 18 grandchildren between them) helped us assemble a nine-month plan for nurturing your nest egg [as your pregnancy progresses](https:\/\/www.parents.com\/pregnancy\/signs\/symptoms\/a-pregnancy-symptom-timeline\/). The payoff? Research shows that, given the same income, people who commit to a financial plan save twice as much money as those who just wing it.\n\nThe warm, fuzzy upside: The more financial decisions you work out ahead of time, the more time and energy you'll have for fun with [your new baby](https:\/\/www.parents.com\/baby\/care\/american-baby-how-tos\/newborn-baby-boot-camp\/).\n\n## First Month\nThe sooner you start getting your finances in order the better. So, once you see those two lines on the pregnancy test, it's a great time to start planning for how to pay for the childrearing costs that will soon become a reality.\n\n### Cut down credit card debt.\nThe first trimester is the time for cleaning up your financial act, says [Jean Chatzky](https:\/\/jeanchatzky.com\/), financial editor of *NBC* *Today*. A good place to start is with credit cards. Balances in the thousands of dollars cost hundreds in annual interest—money you'll need for new expenses. They also hamper your growing family's ability to get loans for big-ticket items like a home or that minivan.\n\nConsider transferring your balance to a credit card with a lower interest rate. Visit [Bankrate](http:\/\/www.bankrate.com\/) to compare rates and fees; once you've switched, charge as little as possible until you've paid off your debt.\n\n### Track your spending.\nNext, you'll need to create a new budget. From there, keep track of all of your family's expenses (both big and small) to get a better picture of your monthly spending. You can keep receipts and take notes on your phone or in a spreadsheet. When the time comes to crunch the numbers (the third month), this careful tracking will help you determine your family's spending patterns so you can identify potential areas you might want to cut back on when the baby arrives.\n\n## Second Month\nDuring the second month of pregnancy, continue tracking your expenses. Also, be sure to make sure your beneficiaries are current.\n\n### Update your beneficiaries.\nDouble-check for and delete any out-of-date beneficiaries on your company-sponsored life insurance and 401(k) plan, particularly if you were single when you started your job. \"Whenever there's a major lifestyle change, you need to look at those beneficiary statements,\" says Dee Lee, a certified financial planner with [Harvard Financial Educators](https:\/\/harvardfinancialeducators.com\/)*.* Your parents, siblings, or even a previous partner may still be listed rather than your child.\n\n[Money-Saving Strategies for Families](https:\/\/www.parents.com\/parenting\/money\/family-finances\/32-ways-to-save-money-when-you-have-a-baby\/)\n\n## Third Month\nThis month, you'll want to check your credit rating and use all that spending information you've been collecting to create a formal budget.\n\n### Check up on your credit.\nEven if you pay your bills on time every month, errors can slip into your credit report. Save time and aggravation by correcting mistakes now, when your life is relatively sane. Having a strong credit score is important when you're a parent-to-be and potentially looking into big purchases such as a home or a car in the near future. Having a high credit score can help you lock in the best interest rate on a car loan or mortgage.\n\nYou can order your credit report from Equifax, Experian, or Transunion. By law, they may charge no more than \\$12 for a standard report. Be forewarned that applying for a free credit check from less reputable providers can be an invitation to identity theft. In addition, limit yourself to only one check per year—any more than that can hurt your rating.\n\n### Crunch the numbers.\nNow it's time to get down to the last step of budget-making. Take all the numbers from the expenses you have tracked the past few months and put them in a spreadsheet or budget tracking app (if you haven't already). This will give you a full picture of your current expenses—before you give them a makeover to prepare for baby.\n\nYour goal is not to just break even, but to save money regularly, says Stephen Brobeck, executive director of the [Consumer Federation of America](https:\/\/consumerfed.org\/) (CFA), an advocacy and education organization in Washington, D.C. A [2019 survey by Bankrate](https:\/\/www.bankrate.com\/banking\/savings\/financial-security-march-2019\/) found that one in five working Americans are not saving any money for retirement, an emergency fund, or other long-term financial goals.\n\nWhen creating your new budget, keep in mind your upcoming childrearing costs. According to a 2015 USDA report (the most recent data available), the average middle-income households can expect to spend about \\$1,056 a month to provide an infant with basics such as food, clothing, shelter, transportation, and childcare. If you take an extended leave from work (or switch to part-time hours) you'll face the financial double-whammy of covering these new expenses on an income that is suddenly smaller.\n\nCouples who can't seem to save their way to the recommended 10%-of-your-income mark may want to book an appointment with a certified financial planner, a pro trained to help clients set monetary goals. The [Financial Planning Association](http:\/\/www.fpanet.org\/) explains certification and fees on its website. The CFA offers free consultations along with other budget guidance through its America Saves program.\n\n## Fourth Month\nIt's time to assess the finances of how you'll pay for your baby's expenses once they're born, and if applicable, how much time you'll take off from work.\n\n### Make a friend in HR.\nGet a full briefing about maternity or paternity benefits from human resources. Federal law requires you to give at least 30 days notice when requesting time off under the Family and Medical Leave Act, which entitles any new parent who works for a company with at least 50 employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid, seniority-protected leave.\n\nYour employer must pay the usual portion of your healthcare benefits for the duration. In addition to any paid leave you might have, federal law also entitles birth mothers to short-term disability pay (typically six to eight weeks) if their company ordinarily pays disability benefits in other situations.\n\n### Practice austerity.\nLast month you set a new budget; now you may be tempted to put it on hold and enjoy the good life until the baby comes. That would likely be a mistake.\n\n\"In the second trimester, you need to make sure you're putting something away,\" says Chatzky. Start by earmarking funds to offset the loss of income you expect from any unpaid maternity leave. \"Figure out what the gap will be and then try to make up for it beforehand,\" she says.\n\nIf you also plan to furnish a nursery from scratch—or purchase pricey [baby gear](https:\/\/www.parents.com\/baby\/gear\/registries-buying-guides\/baby-shopping-guide\/)—set aside additional savings toward that goal. Put the amount you'll soon spend on the baby into short-term CDs or money-market accounts. You could have a tidy sum by your due date—if you begin today.\n\n## Fifth Month\nAs near and pass the mid-point of pregnancy, it's smart to start considering childcare options—and how you'll pay for them.\n\n### Do the daycare shuffle.\nYour second trimester is a great time to evaluate childcare options—before your energy wanes and mobility becomes more complicated. [Child Care Aware](http:\/\/www.childcareaware.org\/) offers a free service that will link you with a local resource and referral agency. These nonprofit agencies keep close tabs on the types of childcare available in their region, including center-based and family care, and fees charged by local providers.\n\nTo get the most bang for your buck, check nannies' references. Confirm that daycare administrators have degrees in early childhood education and that staffers receive child development training—and that caregivers don't come and go with the seasons.\n\n[The Average Hourly Rate For a Babysitter in Every State](https:\/\/www.parents.com\/parenting\/money\/hourly-babysitting-rate-states\/)\n\n## Sixth Month\nNow's the time to take care of nitty gritty items like life insurance and a will.\n\n### Buy life insurance.\nMost expectant parents should insure themselves for at least six to eight times the amount of their gross annual salary to cover the anticipated dependent, says [James H. Hunt](https:\/\/consumerfed.org\/expert\/james-hunt\/), a retired life insurance actuary for the CFA. Cash-value policies like whole life, variable life, and universal life are quite complicated and often a bad deal—especially when you can earn interest through other means, such as tax-deferred and tax-free investments like retirement accounts and college savings plans.\n\nInstead, Hunt advises parents to stick to term life, preferably 20 years or less. A 30-year-old woman in good health can buy \\$750,000 worth of coverage for about \\$300 a year. Compare insurance rates at [www.term4sale.com](http:\/\/www.term4sale.com\/).\n\n### Write a will.\nThough you may be loathe to decide who would raise your child and manage their finances should both parents die, it's easier to [write a will](https:\/\/www.parents.com\/how-to-manage-family-finances-in-2024-8621901) and choose a guardian before the baby is born. This way, you can focus solely on the baby when they arrive and not about writing a will. You can expect to pay between \\$500 and \\$1,000 on average to hire a lawyer to draft your will.\n\n## Seventh Month\nNext up, consider starting a college fund for your baby.\n\n### Register at Upromise.\nEnough doom and gloom! The popular college savings program [Upromise](https:\/\/www.upromise.com\/), with 3 million members and counting, lets you jump-start an education fund when you shop for basics like groceries and gas—and when you eat out at restaurants. Best of all, you don't need to list a beneficiary to open an account, so expectant parents can start saving for their future scholar before they've even settled on a baby name.\n\nTo sign up for the free service, visit www.upromise.com and register your credit cards. After that, a portion of what you charge to the cards (up to 5% at certain retailers, 10% at some restaurants) automatically goes to your child's account.\n\n### Learn these numbers: 5-2-9.\nIf your new budget leaves any room for college savings, tax-advantaged 529 investment plans are too attractive to overlook since they allow you to accumulate anywhere from \\$300,000 to \\$500,000 per child (depending on the state) and not pay taxes on the earnings. The options can be overwhelming—all 50 states offer a plan, and you can currently pick and choose from about 67 investment strategies—but you'll have more time to go over them now than later, says Joseph F. Hurley, chief executive officer of [www.savingforcollege.com](http:\/\/www.savingforcollege.com\/) and author of [*The Best Way to Save for College*](https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Best-Way-Save-College-2015-2016-ebook\/dp\/B014QB8FDW\/ref=sr_1_1).\n\nYou can even open up an account now; most plans will give you up to six months to add a social security number when the baby is born. If you'd like family and friends to shower you with college money instead of booties and rattles, have them contribute to your child's college fund and put that cash straight into the 529 account.\n\n## Eighth Month\n### Factor in friends' benevolence.\nRight now, some of your mom's friends are almost certainly crocheting yellow blankets in honor of your baby's arrival. Your pals are also busy organizing showers behind your back. People tend to be unbelievably generous when a child is born, so you may want to see what you receive before you buy any but the most basic baby goods.\n\nYou should also take a moment to open a safe-deposit box at your bank. Some people might send savings bonds to celebrate your baby's birth. You'll want to keep them—and the birth certificate—in a safe place. Common Series EE bonds and inflation-protected Series I bonds are great because you can cash them in tax-free to pay for education expenses.\n\nBut this provision works only if the bonds are in your name—not your baby's. Before you stash the goods in the vault, make a note of your bonds' vital statistics (series, denomination, issue date, and serial number). You can then track the earnings online using [Treasury Direct](https:\/\/www.treasurydirect.gov\/BC\/SBCPrice).\n\n### Keep your eye on retirement.\nWith nursery walls to paint and breathing exercises to practice, your third trimester is not the obvious time to be saving for retirement but it is an important goal to prioritize. Hayden advises parents who plan to stop working, even for only a few months, to vow to continue budgeting money toward their retirement.\n\nParents who stay out a year or more can pay into a special retirement plan known as a spousal IRA. The IRS allows a nonworking spouse to set aside up to \\$3,000 a year and to deduct the amount from the family's taxable income—even if the spouse funds a 401(k) plan at work.\n\n## Ninth Month & Beyond\nAs you near your due date, continue to stick to your budget and save as much as you can. You'll also want to take steps to get insurance coverage for your baby.\n\n### Get insurance for your baby.\nMost health insurance companies allow new parents 30 days after delivery to add their newborn to their policy. Check with your carrier or human resources. In any case, it makes sense to start filling out the enrollment form now, leaving blanks for the baby's name and birth date. Assign your partner or other support person the task of adding those details and getting the paperwork to HR as soon as you and your baby come home from the hospital.\n\nAside from that, if you've followed our planner, the final month of your pregnancy is time for putting your feet up, both fiscally and literally. Relax, pour a cup of tea, and pat yourself on the back for preparing your family's finances for your new arrival.\n\n[Newborn Items You Don't Need to Buy](https:\/\/www.parents.com\/baby\/care\/baby-gear-you-dont-need-to-buy\/)\n\nWas this page helpful?\n\nThanks for your feedback\\!\n\nTell us why\\!\n\nOther\n\nRead more:\n\n- [Life With Kids](https:\/\/www.parents.com\/lifestyle-5282764)\n- [Family Finances](https:\/\/www.parents.com\/family-finances-5282243)\n\n## Related Articles\n[![An image of a newborn baby in the hospital.]() ![An image of a newborn baby in the hospital.](https:\/\/www.parents.com\/thmb\/hkNhPInnUVnEzcKXAdjoGPMm8ak=\/282x188\/filters:no_upscale\$\$:max_bytes\$150000\$:strip_icc\$\$\/GettyImages-579472824-2000-7555d0b83eb249228dc2b2c258c66603.jpg) Navigating Hospital Birth Costs: A Guide for Expecting Families](https:\/\/www.parents.com\/pregnancy\/considering-baby\/financing-family\/what-to-expect-hospital-birth-costs\/)\n\n[![An image of money on a colorful 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shoe](https:\/\/www.parents.com\/thmb\/jXbnbDOWuiBDgrTghir-lMXDC8o=\/282x188\/filters:no_upscale\$\$:max_bytes\$150000\$:strip_icc\$\$\/shutterstock_1066823654-49daca8b8d4a4cdf820ade100f39dc55.jpg) Your Pregnancy Checklist: How to Prepare for a Baby](https:\/\/www.parents.com\/pregnancy\/my-life\/preparing-for-baby\/your-pregnancy-checklist\/)\n\n[Parents](https:\/\/www.parents.com\/)\n\n[Newsletters](https:\/\/www.parents.com\/nine-month-plan-for-family-finances-pre-baby-5292849)\n\nFollow Us\n\n- [Starting a Family](https:\/\/www.parents.com\/starting-a-family-5282670)\n- [Pregnancy](https:\/\/www.parents.com\/pregnancy-postpartum-5282488)\n- [Baby Names](https:\/\/www.parents.com\/baby-names\/)\n- [Parenting](https:\/\/www.parents.com\/parenting\/)\n- [Life With Kids](https:\/\/www.parents.com\/lifestyle-5282764)\n- [Products & Gear](https:\/\/www.parents.com\/what-to-buy-7507577)\n- [News](https:\/\/www.parents.com\/news\/)\n\n- [About 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anesthesiology](https:\/\/www.parents.com\/pregnancy\/giving-birth\/epidural\/epidural-side-effects\/). But studies indicate that you should be paying as much attention to the jargon of *financial* well-being, such as arcane phrases like \"section 529 tax-advantaged college savings,\" for example, and \"spousal IRAs.\"\n\nAccording to a 2017 report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), a middle-class American married couple spends an average of \\$296,684—about \\$17,500 a year—on raising a child from birth to age 18. And that doesn't include the cost of college tuition, now averaging \\$54,880 a year at private schools and \\$26,820 at in-state public ones.\n\nCovering those costs will be a stretch for most. In fact, the 2016 [Consumer Finance Survey](https:\/\/www.federalreserve.gov\/publications\/files\/scf17.pdf) by the Federal Reserve indicates that nearly two-thirds of households with young children are saving no money at all for college or other child-related expenses.\n\nPhoto:\n\nGetty Images\n\nThose zero-digit savings begin to collide with the expanding cost of childrearing when a baby is about 6 months old, says Ruth Hayden, a St. Paul, Minnesota-based financial consultant and author of *For Richer, Not Poorer: The Money Book for Couples*. \"Just when the baby is getting so cute and personable, a couple starts to fight over money issues,\" she tells *Parents*.\n\nTo head off trouble, she and a team of other money experts (with 26 children and 18 grandchildren between them) helped us assemble a nine-month plan for nurturing your nest egg [as your pregnancy progresses](https:\/\/www.parents.com\/pregnancy\/signs\/symptoms\/a-pregnancy-symptom-timeline\/). The payoff? Research shows that, given the same income, people who commit to a financial plan save twice as much money as those who just wing it.\n\nThe warm, fuzzy upside: The more financial decisions you work out ahead of time, the more time and energy you'll have for fun with [your new baby](https:\/\/www.parents.com\/baby\/care\/american-baby-how-tos\/newborn-baby-boot-camp\/).\n\n## First Month\nThe sooner you start getting your finances in order the better. So, once you see those two lines on the pregnancy test, it's a great time to start planning for how to pay for the childrearing costs that will soon become a reality.\n\n### Cut down credit card debt.\nThe first trimester is the time for cleaning up your financial act, says [Jean Chatzky](https:\/\/jeanchatzky.com\/), financial editor of *NBC* *Today*. A good place to start is with credit cards. Balances in the thousands of dollars cost hundreds in annual interest—money you'll need for new expenses. They also hamper your growing family's ability to get loans for big-ticket items like a home or that minivan.\n\nConsider transferring your balance to a credit card with a lower interest rate. Visit [Bankrate](http:\/\/www.bankrate.com\/) to compare rates and fees; once you've switched, charge as little as possible until you've paid off your debt.\n\n### Track your spending.\nNext, you'll need to create a new budget. From there, keep track of all of your family's expenses (both big and small) to get a better picture of your monthly spending. You can keep receipts and take notes on your phone or in a spreadsheet. When the time comes to crunch the numbers (the third month), this careful tracking will help you determine your family's spending patterns so you can identify potential areas you might want to cut back on when the baby arrives.\n\n## Second Month\nDuring the second month of pregnancy, continue tracking your expenses. Also, be sure to make sure your beneficiaries are current.\n\n### Update your beneficiaries.\nDouble-check for and delete any out-of-date beneficiaries on your company-sponsored life insurance and 401(k) plan, particularly if you were single when you started your job. \"Whenever there's a major lifestyle change, you need to look at those beneficiary statements,\" says Dee Lee, a certified financial planner with [Harvard Financial Educators](https:\/\/harvardfinancialeducators.com\/)*.* Your parents, siblings, or even a previous partner may still be listed rather than your child.\n\n## Third Month\nThis month, you'll want to check your credit rating and use all that spending information you've been collecting to create a formal budget.\n\n### Check up on your credit.\nEven if you pay your bills on time every month, errors can slip into your credit report. Save time and aggravation by correcting mistakes now, when your life is relatively sane. Having a strong credit score is important when you're a parent-to-be and potentially looking into big purchases such as a home or a car in the near future. Having a high credit score can help you lock in the best interest rate on a car loan or mortgage.\n\nYou can order your credit report from Equifax, Experian, or Transunion. By law, they may charge no more than \\$12 for a standard report. Be forewarned that applying for a free credit check from less reputable providers can be an invitation to identity theft. In addition, limit yourself to only one check per year—any more than that can hurt your rating.\n\n### Crunch the numbers.\nNow it's time to get down to the last step of budget-making. Take all the numbers from the expenses you have tracked the past few months and put them in a spreadsheet or budget tracking app (if you haven't already). This will give you a full picture of your current expenses—before you give them a makeover to prepare for baby.\n\nYour goal is not to just break even, but to save money regularly, says Stephen Brobeck, executive director of the [Consumer Federation of America](https:\/\/consumerfed.org\/) (CFA), an advocacy and education organization in Washington, D.C. A [2019 survey by Bankrate](https:\/\/www.bankrate.com\/banking\/savings\/financial-security-march-2019\/) found that one in five working Americans are not saving any money for retirement, an emergency fund, or other long-term financial goals.\n\nWhen creating your new budget, keep in mind your upcoming childrearing costs. According to a 2015 USDA report (the most recent data available), the average middle-income households can expect to spend about \\$1,056 a month to provide an infant with basics such as food, clothing, shelter, transportation, and childcare. If you take an extended leave from work (or switch to part-time hours) you'll face the financial double-whammy of covering these new expenses on an income that is suddenly smaller.\n\nCouples who can't seem to save their way to the recommended 10%-of-your-income mark may want to book an appointment with a certified financial planner, a pro trained to help clients set monetary goals. The [Financial Planning Association](http:\/\/www.fpanet.org\/) explains certification and fees on its website. The CFA offers free consultations along with other budget guidance through its America Saves program.\n\n## Fourth Month\nIt's time to assess the finances of how you'll pay for your baby's expenses once they're born, and if applicable, how much time you'll take off from work.\n\n### Make a friend in HR.\nGet a full briefing about maternity or paternity benefits from human resources. Federal law requires you to give at least 30 days notice when requesting time off under the Family and Medical Leave Act, which entitles any new parent who works for a company with at least 50 employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid, seniority-protected leave.\n\nYour employer must pay the usual portion of your healthcare benefits for the duration. In addition to any paid leave you might have, federal law also entitles birth mothers to short-term disability pay (typically six to eight weeks) if their company ordinarily pays disability benefits in other situations.\n\n### Practice austerity.\nLast month you set a new budget; now you may be tempted to put it on hold and enjoy the good life until the baby comes. That would likely be a mistake.\n\n\"In the second trimester, you need to make sure you're putting something away,\" says Chatzky. Start by earmarking funds to offset the loss of income you expect from any unpaid maternity leave. \"Figure out what the gap will be and then try to make up for it beforehand,\" she says.\n\nIf you also plan to furnish a nursery from scratch—or purchase pricey [baby gear](https:\/\/www.parents.com\/baby\/gear\/registries-buying-guides\/baby-shopping-guide\/)—set aside additional savings toward that goal. Put the amount you'll soon spend on the baby into short-term CDs or money-market accounts. You could have a tidy sum by your due date—if you begin today.\n\n## Fifth Month\nAs near and pass the mid-point of pregnancy, it's smart to start considering childcare options—and how you'll pay for them.\n\n### Do the daycare shuffle.\nYour second trimester is a great time to evaluate childcare options—before your energy wanes and mobility becomes more complicated. [Child Care Aware](http:\/\/www.childcareaware.org\/) offers a free service that will link you with a local resource and referral agency. These nonprofit agencies keep close tabs on the types of childcare available in their region, including center-based and family care, and fees charged by local providers.\n\nTo get the most bang for your buck, check nannies' references. Confirm that daycare administrators have degrees in early childhood education and that staffers receive child development training—and that caregivers don't come and go with the seasons.\n\n## Sixth Month\nNow's the time to take care of nitty gritty items like life insurance and a will.\n\n### Buy life insurance.\nMost expectant parents should insure themselves for at least six to eight times the amount of their gross annual salary to cover the anticipated dependent, says [James H. Hunt](https:\/\/consumerfed.org\/expert\/james-hunt\/), a retired life insurance actuary for the CFA. Cash-value policies like whole life, variable life, and universal life are quite complicated and often a bad deal—especially when you can earn interest through other means, such as tax-deferred and tax-free investments like retirement accounts and college savings plans.\n\nInstead, Hunt advises parents to stick to term life, preferably 20 years or less. A 30-year-old woman in good health can buy \\$750,000 worth of coverage for about \\$300 a year. Compare insurance rates at [www.term4sale.com](http:\/\/www.term4sale.com\/).\n\n### Write a will.\nThough you may be loathe to decide who would raise your child and manage their finances should both parents die, it's easier to [write a will](https:\/\/www.parents.com\/how-to-manage-family-finances-in-2024-8621901) and choose a guardian before the baby is born. This way, you can focus solely on the baby when they arrive and not about writing a will. You can expect to pay between \\$500 and \\$1,000 on average to hire a lawyer to draft your will.\n\n## Seventh Month\nNext up, consider starting a college fund for your baby.\n\n### Register at Upromise.\nEnough doom and gloom! The popular college savings program [Upromise](https:\/\/www.upromise.com\/), with 3 million members and counting, lets you jump-start an education fund when you shop for basics like groceries and gas—and when you eat out at restaurants. Best of all, you don't need to list a beneficiary to open an account, so expectant parents can start saving for their future scholar before they've even settled on a baby name.\n\nTo sign up for the free service, visit www.upromise.com and register your credit cards. After that, a portion of what you charge to the cards (up to 5% at certain retailers, 10% at some restaurants) automatically goes to your child's account.\n\n### Learn these numbers: 5-2-9.\nIf your new budget leaves any room for college savings, tax-advantaged 529 investment plans are too attractive to overlook since they allow you to accumulate anywhere from \\$300,000 to \\$500,000 per child (depending on the state) and not pay taxes on the earnings. The options can be overwhelming—all 50 states offer a plan, and you can currently pick and choose from about 67 investment strategies—but you'll have more time to go over them now than later, says Joseph F. Hurley, chief executive officer of [www.savingforcollege.com](http:\/\/www.savingforcollege.com\/) and author of [*The Best Way to Save for College*](https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Best-Way-Save-College-2015-2016-ebook\/dp\/B014QB8FDW\/ref=sr_1_1).\n\nYou can even open up an account now; most plans will give you up to six months to add a social security number when the baby is born. If you'd like family and friends to shower you with college money instead of booties and rattles, have them contribute to your child's college fund and put that cash straight into the 529 account.\n\n## Eighth Month\n### Factor in friends' benevolence.\nRight now, some of your mom's friends are almost certainly crocheting yellow blankets in honor of your baby's arrival. Your pals are also busy organizing showers behind your back. People tend to be unbelievably generous when a child is born, so you may want to see what you receive before you buy any but the most basic baby goods.\n\nYou should also take a moment to open a safe-deposit box at your bank. Some people might send savings bonds to celebrate your baby's birth. You'll want to keep them—and the birth certificate—in a safe place. Common Series EE bonds and inflation-protected Series I bonds are great because you can cash them in tax-free to pay for education expenses.\n\nBut this provision works only if the bonds are in your name—not your baby's. Before you stash the goods in the vault, make a note of your bonds' vital statistics (series, denomination, issue date, and serial number). You can then track the earnings online using [Treasury Direct](https:\/\/www.treasurydirect.gov\/BC\/SBCPrice).\n\n### Keep your eye on retirement.\nWith nursery walls to paint and breathing exercises to practice, your third trimester is not the obvious time to be saving for retirement but it is an important goal to prioritize. Hayden advises parents who plan to stop working, even for only a few months, to vow to continue budgeting money toward their retirement.\n\nParents who stay out a year or more can pay into a special retirement plan known as a spousal IRA. The IRS allows a nonworking spouse to set aside up to \\$3,000 a year and to deduct the amount from the family's taxable income—even if the spouse funds a 401(k) plan at work.\n\n## Ninth Month & Beyond\nAs you near your due date, continue to stick to your budget and save as much as you can. You'll also want to take steps to get insurance coverage for your baby.\n\n### Get insurance for your baby.\nMost health insurance companies allow new parents 30 days after delivery to add their newborn to their policy. Check with your carrier or human resources. In any case, it makes sense to start filling out the enrollment form now, leaving blanks for the baby's name and birth date. Assign your partner or other support person the task of adding those details and getting the paperwork to HR as soon as you and your baby come home from the hospital.\n\nAside from that, if you've followed our planner, the final month of your pregnancy is time for putting your feet up, both fiscally and literally. Relax, pour a cup of tea, and pat yourself on the back for preparing your family's finances for your new arrival.","meta_canonical":null}

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Meta Title	How to Prepare Family Finances Before Your Baby Arrives
Meta Description	A month-by-month guide on how to prepare your finances before your baby arrives. Tracking your spending, creating a budget, buying life insurance, and continuing to save for retirement are all ways to make sure your finances are in check for when you become a parent.
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Boilerpipe Text	If you're an expectant parent, you have probably learned enough medical terminology to pass for a fledgling OB-GYN, grasping complexities such as alfa-fetoprotein levels and epidural anesthesiology . But studies indicate that you should be paying as much attention to the jargon of financial well-being, such as arcane phrases like "section 529 tax-advantaged college savings," for example, and "spousal IRAs." According to a 2017 report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), a middle-class American married couple spends an average of $296,684—about $17,500 a year—on raising a child from birth to age 18. And that doesn't include the cost of college tuition, now averaging $54,880 a year at private schools and $26,820 at in-state public ones. Covering those costs will be a stretch for most. In fact, the 2016 Consumer Finance Survey by the Federal Reserve indicates that nearly two-thirds of households with young children are saving no money at all for college or other child-related expenses. Photo: Getty Images Those zero-digit savings begin to collide with the expanding cost of childrearing when a baby is about 6 months old, says Ruth Hayden, a St. Paul, Minnesota-based financial consultant and author of For Richer, Not Poorer: The Money Book for Couples . "Just when the baby is getting so cute and personable, a couple starts to fight over money issues," she tells Parents . To head off trouble, she and a team of other money experts (with 26 children and 18 grandchildren between them) helped us assemble a nine-month plan for nurturing your nest egg as your pregnancy progresses . The payoff? Research shows that, given the same income, people who commit to a financial plan save twice as much money as those who just wing it. The warm, fuzzy upside: The more financial decisions you work out ahead of time, the more time and energy you'll have for fun with your new baby . First Month The sooner you start getting your finances in order the better. So, once you see those two lines on the pregnancy test, it's a great time to start planning for how to pay for the childrearing costs that will soon become a reality. Cut down credit card debt. The first trimester is the time for cleaning up your financial act, says Jean Chatzky , financial editor of NBC Today . A good place to start is with credit cards. Balances in the thousands of dollars cost hundreds in annual interest—money you'll need for new expenses. They also hamper your growing family's ability to get loans for big-ticket items like a home or that minivan. Consider transferring your balance to a credit card with a lower interest rate. Visit Bankrate to compare rates and fees; once you've switched, charge as little as possible until you've paid off your debt. Track your spending. Next, you'll need to create a new budget. From there, keep track of all of your family's expenses (both big and small) to get a better picture of your monthly spending. You can keep receipts and take notes on your phone or in a spreadsheet. When the time comes to crunch the numbers (the third month), this careful tracking will help you determine your family's spending patterns so you can identify potential areas you might want to cut back on when the baby arrives. Second Month During the second month of pregnancy, continue tracking your expenses. Also, be sure to make sure your beneficiaries are current. Update your beneficiaries. Double-check for and delete any out-of-date beneficiaries on your company-sponsored life insurance and 401(k) plan, particularly if you were single when you started your job. "Whenever there's a major lifestyle change, you need to look at those beneficiary statements," says Dee Lee, a certified financial planner with Harvard Financial Educators . Your parents, siblings, or even a previous partner may still be listed rather than your child. Third Month This month, you'll want to check your credit rating and use all that spending information you've been collecting to create a formal budget. Check up on your credit. Even if you pay your bills on time every month, errors can slip into your credit report. Save time and aggravation by correcting mistakes now, when your life is relatively sane. Having a strong credit score is important when you're a parent-to-be and potentially looking into big purchases such as a home or a car in the near future. Having a high credit score can help you lock in the best interest rate on a car loan or mortgage. You can order your credit report from Equifax, Experian, or Transunion. By law, they may charge no more than $12 for a standard report. Be forewarned that applying for a free credit check from less reputable providers can be an invitation to identity theft. In addition, limit yourself to only one check per year—any more than that can hurt your rating. Crunch the numbers. Now it's time to get down to the last step of budget-making. Take all the numbers from the expenses you have tracked the past few months and put them in a spreadsheet or budget tracking app (if you haven't already). This will give you a full picture of your current expenses—before you give them a makeover to prepare for baby. Your goal is not to just break even, but to save money regularly, says Stephen Brobeck, executive director of the Consumer Federation of America (CFA), an advocacy and education organization in Washington, D.C. A 2019 survey by Bankrate found that one in five working Americans are not saving any money for retirement, an emergency fund, or other long-term financial goals. When creating your new budget, keep in mind your upcoming childrearing costs. According to a 2015 USDA report (the most recent data available), the average middle-income households can expect to spend about $1,056 a month to provide an infant with basics such as food, clothing, shelter, transportation, and childcare. If you take an extended leave from work (or switch to part-time hours) you'll face the financial double-whammy of covering these new expenses on an income that is suddenly smaller. Couples who can't seem to save their way to the recommended 10%-of-your-income mark may want to book an appointment with a certified financial planner, a pro trained to help clients set monetary goals. The Financial Planning Association explains certification and fees on its website. The CFA offers free consultations along with other budget guidance through its America Saves program. Fourth Month It's time to assess the finances of how you'll pay for your baby's expenses once they're born, and if applicable, how much time you'll take off from work. Make a friend in HR. Get a full briefing about maternity or paternity benefits from human resources. Federal law requires you to give at least 30 days notice when requesting time off under the Family and Medical Leave Act, which entitles any new parent who works for a company with at least 50 employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid, seniority-protected leave. Your employer must pay the usual portion of your healthcare benefits for the duration. In addition to any paid leave you might have, federal law also entitles birth mothers to short-term disability pay (typically six to eight weeks) if their company ordinarily pays disability benefits in other situations. Practice austerity. Last month you set a new budget; now you may be tempted to put it on hold and enjoy the good life until the baby comes. That would likely be a mistake. "In the second trimester, you need to make sure you're putting something away," says Chatzky. Start by earmarking funds to offset the loss of income you expect from any unpaid maternity leave. "Figure out what the gap will be and then try to make up for it beforehand," she says. If you also plan to furnish a nursery from scratch—or purchase pricey baby gear —set aside additional savings toward that goal. Put the amount you'll soon spend on the baby into short-term CDs or money-market accounts. You could have a tidy sum by your due date—if you begin today. Fifth Month As near and pass the mid-point of pregnancy, it's smart to start considering childcare options—and how you'll pay for them. Do the daycare shuffle. Your second trimester is a great time to evaluate childcare options—before your energy wanes and mobility becomes more complicated. Child Care Aware offers a free service that will link you with a local resource and referral agency. These nonprofit agencies keep close tabs on the types of childcare available in their region, including center-based and family care, and fees charged by local providers. To get the most bang for your buck, check nannies' references. Confirm that daycare administrators have degrees in early childhood education and that staffers receive child development training—and that caregivers don't come and go with the seasons. Sixth Month Now's the time to take care of nitty gritty items like life insurance and a will. Buy life insurance. Most expectant parents should insure themselves for at least six to eight times the amount of their gross annual salary to cover the anticipated dependent, says James H. Hunt , a retired life insurance actuary for the CFA. Cash-value policies like whole life, variable life, and universal life are quite complicated and often a bad deal—especially when you can earn interest through other means, such as tax-deferred and tax-free investments like retirement accounts and college savings plans. Instead, Hunt advises parents to stick to term life, preferably 20 years or less. A 30-year-old woman in good health can buy $750,000 worth of coverage for about $300 a year. Compare insurance rates at www.term4sale.com . Write a will. Though you may be loathe to decide who would raise your child and manage their finances should both parents die, it's easier to write a will and choose a guardian before the baby is born. This way, you can focus solely on the baby when they arrive and not about writing a will. You can expect to pay between $500 and $1,000 on average to hire a lawyer to draft your will. Seventh Month Next up, consider starting a college fund for your baby. Register at Upromise. Enough doom and gloom! The popular college savings program Upromise , with 3 million members and counting, lets you jump-start an education fund when you shop for basics like groceries and gas—and when you eat out at restaurants. Best of all, you don't need to list a beneficiary to open an account, so expectant parents can start saving for their future scholar before they've even settled on a baby name. To sign up for the free service, visit www.upromise.com and register your credit cards. After that, a portion of what you charge to the cards (up to 5% at certain retailers, 10% at some restaurants) automatically goes to your child's account. Learn these numbers: 5-2-9. If your new budget leaves any room for college savings, tax-advantaged 529 investment plans are too attractive to overlook since they allow you to accumulate anywhere from $300,000 to $500,000 per child (depending on the state) and not pay taxes on the earnings. The options can be overwhelming—all 50 states offer a plan, and you can currently pick and choose from about 67 investment strategies—but you'll have more time to go over them now than later, says Joseph F. Hurley, chief executive officer of www.savingforcollege.com and author of The Best Way to Save for College . You can even open up an account now; most plans will give you up to six months to add a social security number when the baby is born. If you'd like family and friends to shower you with college money instead of booties and rattles, have them contribute to your child's college fund and put that cash straight into the 529 account. Eighth Month Factor in friends' benevolence. Right now, some of your mom's friends are almost certainly crocheting yellow blankets in honor of your baby's arrival. Your pals are also busy organizing showers behind your back. People tend to be unbelievably generous when a child is born, so you may want to see what you receive before you buy any but the most basic baby goods. You should also take a moment to open a safe-deposit box at your bank. Some people might send savings bonds to celebrate your baby's birth. You'll want to keep them—and the birth certificate—in a safe place. Common Series EE bonds and inflation-protected Series I bonds are great because you can cash them in tax-free to pay for education expenses. But this provision works only if the bonds are in your name—not your baby's. Before you stash the goods in the vault, make a note of your bonds' vital statistics (series, denomination, issue date, and serial number). You can then track the earnings online using Treasury Direct . Keep your eye on retirement. With nursery walls to paint and breathing exercises to practice, your third trimester is not the obvious time to be saving for retirement but it is an important goal to prioritize. Hayden advises parents who plan to stop working, even for only a few months, to vow to continue budgeting money toward their retirement. Parents who stay out a year or more can pay into a special retirement plan known as a spousal IRA. The IRS allows a nonworking spouse to set aside up to $3,000 a year and to deduct the amount from the family's taxable income—even if the spouse funds a 401(k) plan at work. Ninth Month & Beyond As you near your due date, continue to stick to your budget and save as much as you can. You'll also want to take steps to get insurance coverage for your baby. Get insurance for your baby. Most health insurance companies allow new parents 30 days after delivery to add their newborn to their policy. Check with your carrier or human resources. In any case, it makes sense to start filling out the enrollment form now, leaving blanks for the baby's name and birth date. Assign your partner or other support person the task of adding those details and getting the paperwork to HR as soon as you and your baby come home from the hospital. Aside from that, if you've followed our planner, the final month of your pregnancy is time for putting your feet up, both fiscally and literally. Relax, pour a cup of tea, and pat yourself on the back for preparing your family's finances for your new arrival.
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(Paid Partnership)](https://www.parents.com/featured/premium/likeamother?utm_source=editorial&utm_campaign=sitewidebanner&utm_content=parents) # A Nine-Month Plan for Getting Your Family's Finances in Order Pre-Baby Getting your finances ready is a key part of preparing for your baby's arrival. Here are the steps to take to set yourself up for financial stability. By Becky Batcha and Hiranmayi Srinivasan Updated on January 28, 2025 If you're an expectant parent, you have probably learned enough medical terminology to pass for a fledgling OB-GYN, grasping complexities such as alfa-fetoprotein levels and [epidural anesthesiology](https://www.parents.com/pregnancy/giving-birth/epidural/epidural-side-effects/). But studies indicate that you should be paying as much attention to the jargon of financial well-being, such as arcane phrases like "section 529 tax-advantaged college savings," for example, and "spousal IRAs." According to a 2017 report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), a middle-class American married couple spends an average of \$296,684—about \$17,500 a year—on raising a child from birth to age 18. And that doesn't include the cost of college tuition, now averaging \$54,880 a year at private schools and \$26,820 at in-state public ones. Covering those costs will be a stretch for most. In fact, the 2016 [Consumer Finance Survey](https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/files/scf17.pdf) by the Federal Reserve indicates that nearly two-thirds of households with young children are saving no money at all for college or other child-related expenses. ![An image of a person preparing a budget]() ![An image of a person preparing a budget](https://www.parents.com/thmb/DBOctNhMYLgKE6pGTxLejTUlnp0=/1500x0/filters:no_upscale:max_bytes$150000$:strip_icc/GettyImages-1289535724-2000-6440d0899d234fd0a09da0bee709cbde.jpg) Photo: Getty Images Those zero-digit savings begin to collide with the expanding cost of childrearing when a baby is about 6 months old, says Ruth Hayden, a St. Paul, Minnesota-based financial consultant and author of For Richer, Not Poorer: The Money Book for Couples. "Just when the baby is getting so cute and personable, a couple starts to fight over money issues," she tells Parents. To head off trouble, she and a team of other money experts (with 26 children and 18 grandchildren between them) helped us assemble a nine-month plan for nurturing your nest egg [as your pregnancy progresses](https://www.parents.com/pregnancy/signs/symptoms/a-pregnancy-symptom-timeline/). The payoff? Research shows that, given the same income, people who commit to a financial plan save twice as much money as those who just wing it. The warm, fuzzy upside: The more financial decisions you work out ahead of time, the more time and energy you'll have for fun with [your new baby](https://www.parents.com/baby/care/american-baby-how-tos/newborn-baby-boot-camp/). ## First Month The sooner you start getting your finances in order the better. So, once you see those two lines on the pregnancy test, it's a great time to start planning for how to pay for the childrearing costs that will soon become a reality. ### Cut down credit card debt. The first trimester is the time for cleaning up your financial act, says [Jean Chatzky](https://jeanchatzky.com/), financial editor of NBC Today. A good place to start is with credit cards. Balances in the thousands of dollars cost hundreds in annual interest—money you'll need for new expenses. They also hamper your growing family's ability to get loans for big-ticket items like a home or that minivan. Consider transferring your balance to a credit card with a lower interest rate. Visit [Bankrate](http://www.bankrate.com/) to compare rates and fees; once you've switched, charge as little as possible until you've paid off your debt. ### Track your spending. Next, you'll need to create a new budget. From there, keep track of all of your family's expenses (both big and small) to get a better picture of your monthly spending. You can keep receipts and take notes on your phone or in a spreadsheet. When the time comes to crunch the numbers (the third month), this careful tracking will help you determine your family's spending patterns so you can identify potential areas you might want to cut back on when the baby arrives. ## Second Month During the second month of pregnancy, continue tracking your expenses. Also, be sure to make sure your beneficiaries are current. ### Update your beneficiaries. Double-check for and delete any out-of-date beneficiaries on your company-sponsored life insurance and 401(k) plan, particularly if you were single when you started your job. "Whenever there's a major lifestyle change, you need to look at those beneficiary statements," says Dee Lee, a certified financial planner with [Harvard Financial Educators](https://harvardfinancialeducators.com/). Your parents, siblings, or even a previous partner may still be listed rather than your child. [Money-Saving Strategies for Families](https://www.parents.com/parenting/money/family-finances/32-ways-to-save-money-when-you-have-a-baby/) ## Third Month This month, you'll want to check your credit rating and use all that spending information you've been collecting to create a formal budget. ### Check up on your credit. Even if you pay your bills on time every month, errors can slip into your credit report. Save time and aggravation by correcting mistakes now, when your life is relatively sane. Having a strong credit score is important when you're a parent-to-be and potentially looking into big purchases such as a home or a car in the near future. Having a high credit score can help you lock in the best interest rate on a car loan or mortgage. You can order your credit report from Equifax, Experian, or Transunion. By law, they may charge no more than \$12 for a standard report. Be forewarned that applying for a free credit check from less reputable providers can be an invitation to identity theft. In addition, limit yourself to only one check per year—any more than that can hurt your rating. ### Crunch the numbers. Now it's time to get down to the last step of budget-making. Take all the numbers from the expenses you have tracked the past few months and put them in a spreadsheet or budget tracking app (if you haven't already). This will give you a full picture of your current expenses—before you give them a makeover to prepare for baby. Your goal is not to just break even, but to save money regularly, says Stephen Brobeck, executive director of the [Consumer Federation of America](https://consumerfed.org/) (CFA), an advocacy and education organization in Washington, D.C. A [2019 survey by Bankrate](https://www.bankrate.com/banking/savings/financial-security-march-2019/) found that one in five working Americans are not saving any money for retirement, an emergency fund, or other long-term financial goals. When creating your new budget, keep in mind your upcoming childrearing costs. According to a 2015 USDA report (the most recent data available), the average middle-income households can expect to spend about \$1,056 a month to provide an infant with basics such as food, clothing, shelter, transportation, and childcare. If you take an extended leave from work (or switch to part-time hours) you'll face the financial double-whammy of covering these new expenses on an income that is suddenly smaller. Couples who can't seem to save their way to the recommended 10%-of-your-income mark may want to book an appointment with a certified financial planner, a pro trained to help clients set monetary goals. The [Financial Planning Association](http://www.fpanet.org/) explains certification and fees on its website. The CFA offers free consultations along with other budget guidance through its America Saves program. ## Fourth Month It's time to assess the finances of how you'll pay for your baby's expenses once they're born, and if applicable, how much time you'll take off from work. ### Make a friend in HR. Get a full briefing about maternity or paternity benefits from human resources. Federal law requires you to give at least 30 days notice when requesting time off under the Family and Medical Leave Act, which entitles any new parent who works for a company with at least 50 employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid, seniority-protected leave. Your employer must pay the usual portion of your healthcare benefits for the duration. In addition to any paid leave you might have, federal law also entitles birth mothers to short-term disability pay (typically six to eight weeks) if their company ordinarily pays disability benefits in other situations. ### Practice austerity. Last month you set a new budget; now you may be tempted to put it on hold and enjoy the good life until the baby comes. That would likely be a mistake. "In the second trimester, you need to make sure you're putting something away," says Chatzky. Start by earmarking funds to offset the loss of income you expect from any unpaid maternity leave. "Figure out what the gap will be and then try to make up for it beforehand," she says. If you also plan to furnish a nursery from scratch—or purchase pricey [baby gear](https://www.parents.com/baby/gear/registries-buying-guides/baby-shopping-guide/)—set aside additional savings toward that goal. Put the amount you'll soon spend on the baby into short-term CDs or money-market accounts. You could have a tidy sum by your due date—if you begin today. ## Fifth Month As near and pass the mid-point of pregnancy, it's smart to start considering childcare options—and how you'll pay for them. ### Do the daycare shuffle. Your second trimester is a great time to evaluate childcare options—before your energy wanes and mobility becomes more complicated. [Child Care Aware](http://www.childcareaware.org/) offers a free service that will link you with a local resource and referral agency. These nonprofit agencies keep close tabs on the types of childcare available in their region, including center-based and family care, and fees charged by local providers. To get the most bang for your buck, check nannies' references. Confirm that daycare administrators have degrees in early childhood education and that staffers receive child development training—and that caregivers don't come and go with the seasons. [The Average Hourly Rate For a Babysitter in Every State](https://www.parents.com/parenting/money/hourly-babysitting-rate-states/) ## Sixth Month Now's the time to take care of nitty gritty items like life insurance and a will. ### Buy life insurance. Most expectant parents should insure themselves for at least six to eight times the amount of their gross annual salary to cover the anticipated dependent, says [James H. Hunt](https://consumerfed.org/expert/james-hunt/), a retired life insurance actuary for the CFA. Cash-value policies like whole life, variable life, and universal life are quite complicated and often a bad deal—especially when you can earn interest through other means, such as tax-deferred and tax-free investments like retirement accounts and college savings plans. Instead, Hunt advises parents to stick to term life, preferably 20 years or less. A 30-year-old woman in good health can buy \$750,000 worth of coverage for about \$300 a year. Compare insurance rates at [www.term4sale.com](http://www.term4sale.com/). ### Write a will. Though you may be loathe to decide who would raise your child and manage their finances should both parents die, it's easier to [write a will](https://www.parents.com/how-to-manage-family-finances-in-2024-8621901) and choose a guardian before the baby is born. This way, you can focus solely on the baby when they arrive and not about writing a will. You can expect to pay between \$500 and \$1,000 on average to hire a lawyer to draft your will. ## Seventh Month Next up, consider starting a college fund for your baby. ### Register at Upromise. Enough doom and gloom! The popular college savings program [Upromise](https://www.upromise.com/), with 3 million members and counting, lets you jump-start an education fund when you shop for basics like groceries and gas—and when you eat out at restaurants. Best of all, you don't need to list a beneficiary to open an account, so expectant parents can start saving for their future scholar before they've even settled on a baby name. To sign up for the free service, visit www.upromise.com and register your credit cards. After that, a portion of what you charge to the cards (up to 5% at certain retailers, 10% at some restaurants) automatically goes to your child's account. ### Learn these numbers: 5-2-9. If your new budget leaves any room for college savings, tax-advantaged 529 investment plans are too attractive to overlook since they allow you to accumulate anywhere from \$300,000 to \$500,000 per child (depending on the state) and not pay taxes on the earnings. The options can be overwhelming—all 50 states offer a plan, and you can currently pick and choose from about 67 investment strategies—but you'll have more time to go over them now than later, says Joseph F. Hurley, chief executive officer of [www.savingforcollege.com](http://www.savingforcollege.com/) and author of [The Best Way to Save for College](https://www.amazon.com/Best-Way-Save-College-2015-2016-ebook/dp/B014QB8FDW/ref=sr_1_1). You can even open up an account now; most plans will give you up to six months to add a social security number when the baby is born. If you'd like family and friends to shower you with college money instead of booties and rattles, have them contribute to your child's college fund and put that cash straight into the 529 account. ## Eighth Month ### Factor in friends' benevolence. Right now, some of your mom's friends are almost certainly crocheting yellow blankets in honor of your baby's arrival. Your pals are also busy organizing showers behind your back. People tend to be unbelievably generous when a child is born, so you may want to see what you receive before you buy any but the most basic baby goods. You should also take a moment to open a safe-deposit box at your bank. Some people might send savings bonds to celebrate your baby's birth. You'll want to keep them—and the birth certificate—in a safe place. Common Series EE bonds and inflation-protected Series I bonds are great because you can cash them in tax-free to pay for education expenses. But this provision works only if the bonds are in your name—not your baby's. Before you stash the goods in the vault, make a note of your bonds' vital statistics (series, denomination, issue date, and serial number). You can then track the earnings online using [Treasury Direct](https://www.treasurydirect.gov/BC/SBCPrice). ### Keep your eye on retirement. With nursery walls to paint and breathing exercises to practice, your third trimester is not the obvious time to be saving for retirement but it is an important goal to prioritize. Hayden advises parents who plan to stop working, even for only a few months, to vow to continue budgeting money toward their retirement. Parents who stay out a year or more can pay into a special retirement plan known as a spousal IRA. The IRS allows a nonworking spouse to set aside up to \$3,000 a year and to deduct the amount from the family's taxable income—even if the spouse funds a 401(k) plan at work. ## Ninth Month & Beyond As you near your due date, continue to stick to your budget and save as much as you can. You'll also want to take steps to get insurance coverage for your baby. ### Get insurance for your baby. Most health insurance companies allow new parents 30 days after delivery to add their newborn to their policy. Check with your carrier or human resources. In any case, it makes sense to start filling out the enrollment form now, leaving blanks for the baby's name and birth date. Assign your partner or other support person the task of adding those details and getting the paperwork to HR as soon as you and your baby come home from the hospital. Aside from that, if you've followed our planner, the final month of your pregnancy is time for putting your feet up, both fiscally and literally. Relax, pour a cup of tea, and pat yourself on the back for preparing your family's finances for your new arrival. [Newborn Items You Don't Need to Buy](https://www.parents.com/baby/care/baby-gear-you-dont-need-to-buy/) Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback\! Tell us why\! 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Readable Markdown	If you're an expectant parent, you have probably learned enough medical terminology to pass for a fledgling OB-GYN, grasping complexities such as alfa-fetoprotein levels and [epidural anesthesiology](https://www.parents.com/pregnancy/giving-birth/epidural/epidural-side-effects/). But studies indicate that you should be paying as much attention to the jargon of financial well-being, such as arcane phrases like "section 529 tax-advantaged college savings," for example, and "spousal IRAs." According to a 2017 report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), a middle-class American married couple spends an average of \$296,684—about \$17,500 a year—on raising a child from birth to age 18. And that doesn't include the cost of college tuition, now averaging \$54,880 a year at private schools and \$26,820 at in-state public ones. Covering those costs will be a stretch for most. In fact, the 2016 [Consumer Finance Survey](https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/files/scf17.pdf) by the Federal Reserve indicates that nearly two-thirds of households with young children are saving no money at all for college or other child-related expenses. Photo: Getty Images Those zero-digit savings begin to collide with the expanding cost of childrearing when a baby is about 6 months old, says Ruth Hayden, a St. Paul, Minnesota-based financial consultant and author of For Richer, Not Poorer: The Money Book for Couples. "Just when the baby is getting so cute and personable, a couple starts to fight over money issues," she tells Parents. To head off trouble, she and a team of other money experts (with 26 children and 18 grandchildren between them) helped us assemble a nine-month plan for nurturing your nest egg [as your pregnancy progresses](https://www.parents.com/pregnancy/signs/symptoms/a-pregnancy-symptom-timeline/). The payoff? Research shows that, given the same income, people who commit to a financial plan save twice as much money as those who just wing it. The warm, fuzzy upside: The more financial decisions you work out ahead of time, the more time and energy you'll have for fun with [your new baby](https://www.parents.com/baby/care/american-baby-how-tos/newborn-baby-boot-camp/). ## First Month The sooner you start getting your finances in order the better. So, once you see those two lines on the pregnancy test, it's a great time to start planning for how to pay for the childrearing costs that will soon become a reality. ### Cut down credit card debt. The first trimester is the time for cleaning up your financial act, says [Jean Chatzky](https://jeanchatzky.com/), financial editor of NBC Today. A good place to start is with credit cards. Balances in the thousands of dollars cost hundreds in annual interest—money you'll need for new expenses. They also hamper your growing family's ability to get loans for big-ticket items like a home or that minivan. Consider transferring your balance to a credit card with a lower interest rate. Visit [Bankrate](http://www.bankrate.com/) to compare rates and fees; once you've switched, charge as little as possible until you've paid off your debt. ### Track your spending. Next, you'll need to create a new budget. From there, keep track of all of your family's expenses (both big and small) to get a better picture of your monthly spending. You can keep receipts and take notes on your phone or in a spreadsheet. When the time comes to crunch the numbers (the third month), this careful tracking will help you determine your family's spending patterns so you can identify potential areas you might want to cut back on when the baby arrives. ## Second Month During the second month of pregnancy, continue tracking your expenses. Also, be sure to make sure your beneficiaries are current. ### Update your beneficiaries. Double-check for and delete any out-of-date beneficiaries on your company-sponsored life insurance and 401(k) plan, particularly if you were single when you started your job. "Whenever there's a major lifestyle change, you need to look at those beneficiary statements," says Dee Lee, a certified financial planner with [Harvard Financial Educators](https://harvardfinancialeducators.com/). Your parents, siblings, or even a previous partner may still be listed rather than your child. ## Third Month This month, you'll want to check your credit rating and use all that spending information you've been collecting to create a formal budget. ### Check up on your credit. Even if you pay your bills on time every month, errors can slip into your credit report. Save time and aggravation by correcting mistakes now, when your life is relatively sane. Having a strong credit score is important when you're a parent-to-be and potentially looking into big purchases such as a home or a car in the near future. Having a high credit score can help you lock in the best interest rate on a car loan or mortgage. You can order your credit report from Equifax, Experian, or Transunion. By law, they may charge no more than \$12 for a standard report. Be forewarned that applying for a free credit check from less reputable providers can be an invitation to identity theft. In addition, limit yourself to only one check per year—any more than that can hurt your rating. ### Crunch the numbers. Now it's time to get down to the last step of budget-making. Take all the numbers from the expenses you have tracked the past few months and put them in a spreadsheet or budget tracking app (if you haven't already). This will give you a full picture of your current expenses—before you give them a makeover to prepare for baby. Your goal is not to just break even, but to save money regularly, says Stephen Brobeck, executive director of the [Consumer Federation of America](https://consumerfed.org/) (CFA), an advocacy and education organization in Washington, D.C. A [2019 survey by Bankrate](https://www.bankrate.com/banking/savings/financial-security-march-2019/) found that one in five working Americans are not saving any money for retirement, an emergency fund, or other long-term financial goals. When creating your new budget, keep in mind your upcoming childrearing costs. According to a 2015 USDA report (the most recent data available), the average middle-income households can expect to spend about \$1,056 a month to provide an infant with basics such as food, clothing, shelter, transportation, and childcare. If you take an extended leave from work (or switch to part-time hours) you'll face the financial double-whammy of covering these new expenses on an income that is suddenly smaller. Couples who can't seem to save their way to the recommended 10%-of-your-income mark may want to book an appointment with a certified financial planner, a pro trained to help clients set monetary goals. The [Financial Planning Association](http://www.fpanet.org/) explains certification and fees on its website. The CFA offers free consultations along with other budget guidance through its America Saves program. ## Fourth Month It's time to assess the finances of how you'll pay for your baby's expenses once they're born, and if applicable, how much time you'll take off from work. ### Make a friend in HR. Get a full briefing about maternity or paternity benefits from human resources. Federal law requires you to give at least 30 days notice when requesting time off under the Family and Medical Leave Act, which entitles any new parent who works for a company with at least 50 employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid, seniority-protected leave. Your employer must pay the usual portion of your healthcare benefits for the duration. In addition to any paid leave you might have, federal law also entitles birth mothers to short-term disability pay (typically six to eight weeks) if their company ordinarily pays disability benefits in other situations. ### Practice austerity. Last month you set a new budget; now you may be tempted to put it on hold and enjoy the good life until the baby comes. That would likely be a mistake. "In the second trimester, you need to make sure you're putting something away," says Chatzky. Start by earmarking funds to offset the loss of income you expect from any unpaid maternity leave. "Figure out what the gap will be and then try to make up for it beforehand," she says. If you also plan to furnish a nursery from scratch—or purchase pricey [baby gear](https://www.parents.com/baby/gear/registries-buying-guides/baby-shopping-guide/)—set aside additional savings toward that goal. Put the amount you'll soon spend on the baby into short-term CDs or money-market accounts. You could have a tidy sum by your due date—if you begin today. ## Fifth Month As near and pass the mid-point of pregnancy, it's smart to start considering childcare options—and how you'll pay for them. ### Do the daycare shuffle. Your second trimester is a great time to evaluate childcare options—before your energy wanes and mobility becomes more complicated. [Child Care Aware](http://www.childcareaware.org/) offers a free service that will link you with a local resource and referral agency. These nonprofit agencies keep close tabs on the types of childcare available in their region, including center-based and family care, and fees charged by local providers. To get the most bang for your buck, check nannies' references. Confirm that daycare administrators have degrees in early childhood education and that staffers receive child development training—and that caregivers don't come and go with the seasons. ## Sixth Month Now's the time to take care of nitty gritty items like life insurance and a will. ### Buy life insurance. Most expectant parents should insure themselves for at least six to eight times the amount of their gross annual salary to cover the anticipated dependent, says [James H. Hunt](https://consumerfed.org/expert/james-hunt/), a retired life insurance actuary for the CFA. Cash-value policies like whole life, variable life, and universal life are quite complicated and often a bad deal—especially when you can earn interest through other means, such as tax-deferred and tax-free investments like retirement accounts and college savings plans. Instead, Hunt advises parents to stick to term life, preferably 20 years or less. A 30-year-old woman in good health can buy \$750,000 worth of coverage for about \$300 a year. Compare insurance rates at [www.term4sale.com](http://www.term4sale.com/). ### Write a will. Though you may be loathe to decide who would raise your child and manage their finances should both parents die, it's easier to [write a will](https://www.parents.com/how-to-manage-family-finances-in-2024-8621901) and choose a guardian before the baby is born. This way, you can focus solely on the baby when they arrive and not about writing a will. You can expect to pay between \$500 and \$1,000 on average to hire a lawyer to draft your will. ## Seventh Month Next up, consider starting a college fund for your baby. ### Register at Upromise. Enough doom and gloom! The popular college savings program [Upromise](https://www.upromise.com/), with 3 million members and counting, lets you jump-start an education fund when you shop for basics like groceries and gas—and when you eat out at restaurants. Best of all, you don't need to list a beneficiary to open an account, so expectant parents can start saving for their future scholar before they've even settled on a baby name. To sign up for the free service, visit www.upromise.com and register your credit cards. After that, a portion of what you charge to the cards (up to 5% at certain retailers, 10% at some restaurants) automatically goes to your child's account. ### Learn these numbers: 5-2-9. If your new budget leaves any room for college savings, tax-advantaged 529 investment plans are too attractive to overlook since they allow you to accumulate anywhere from \$300,000 to \$500,000 per child (depending on the state) and not pay taxes on the earnings. The options can be overwhelming—all 50 states offer a plan, and you can currently pick and choose from about 67 investment strategies—but you'll have more time to go over them now than later, says Joseph F. Hurley, chief executive officer of [www.savingforcollege.com](http://www.savingforcollege.com/) and author of [The Best Way to Save for College](https://www.amazon.com/Best-Way-Save-College-2015-2016-ebook/dp/B014QB8FDW/ref=sr_1_1). You can even open up an account now; most plans will give you up to six months to add a social security number when the baby is born. If you'd like family and friends to shower you with college money instead of booties and rattles, have them contribute to your child's college fund and put that cash straight into the 529 account. ## Eighth Month ### Factor in friends' benevolence. Right now, some of your mom's friends are almost certainly crocheting yellow blankets in honor of your baby's arrival. Your pals are also busy organizing showers behind your back. People tend to be unbelievably generous when a child is born, so you may want to see what you receive before you buy any but the most basic baby goods. You should also take a moment to open a safe-deposit box at your bank. Some people might send savings bonds to celebrate your baby's birth. You'll want to keep them—and the birth certificate—in a safe place. Common Series EE bonds and inflation-protected Series I bonds are great because you can cash them in tax-free to pay for education expenses. But this provision works only if the bonds are in your name—not your baby's. Before you stash the goods in the vault, make a note of your bonds' vital statistics (series, denomination, issue date, and serial number). You can then track the earnings online using [Treasury Direct](https://www.treasurydirect.gov/BC/SBCPrice). ### Keep your eye on retirement. With nursery walls to paint and breathing exercises to practice, your third trimester is not the obvious time to be saving for retirement but it is an important goal to prioritize. Hayden advises parents who plan to stop working, even for only a few months, to vow to continue budgeting money toward their retirement. Parents who stay out a year or more can pay into a special retirement plan known as a spousal IRA. The IRS allows a nonworking spouse to set aside up to \$3,000 a year and to deduct the amount from the family's taxable income—even if the spouse funds a 401(k) plan at work. ## Ninth Month & Beyond As you near your due date, continue to stick to your budget and save as much as you can. You'll also want to take steps to get insurance coverage for your baby. ### Get insurance for your baby. Most health insurance companies allow new parents 30 days after delivery to add their newborn to their policy. Check with your carrier or human resources. In any case, it makes sense to start filling out the enrollment form now, leaving blanks for the baby's name and birth date. Assign your partner or other support person the task of adding those details and getting the paperwork to HR as soon as you and your baby come home from the hospital. Aside from that, if you've followed our planner, the final month of your pregnancy is time for putting your feet up, both fiscally and literally. Relax, pour a cup of tea, and pat yourself on the back for preparing your family's finances for your new arrival.
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