Having your first child is obviously a huge, life changing event that will impact everything that comes after (not to make you panic!), and while you are waiting for the baby to arrive there are probably a lot of plans you are making to help provide the best possible life for your new arrival. Aside from immediate concerns about having your house and your overall lifestyle ready to accommodate a baby, waiting for your first child to be born is often a time when you start to think more about the long term future and how well equipped you are financially to provide security for your growing family.
If you are thinking about what kind of financial changes it may be beneficial to make at this time, read on as we discuss two areas where you may want to start putting your money.
College Funds
It may seem strange to think about college opportunities for a child who hasn’t even been born yet, and there are naturally a lot of uncertainties – maybe he or she won’t even end up going to college because other opportunities arise, or they may be a star athlete who gets a full scholarship! However, just about all parents would like to think they can make sure a college education is at least an option for their child, and the earlier you start to save the less you’ll have to put in each month and the more money you’ll have in 18 years or so when the time comes! There are lots of options for college funds in terms of savings products, and of course, if your child doesn’t end up using the money for college, it will still be there to give them a good start in life or to be spent on other important things.
Life Insurance
It is when that first child is on the way that most people begin to think of life insurance as a must have, rather than a nice to have. Until you have someone truly financially dependent on you, it can be hard to see exactly what benefit you are getting from putting away money each month that will never be seen again in your lifetime! So, now is the time to start comparing life insurance term products and policies to find one that suits you.
In terms of who needs to be insured, in most families, both parents should get insured, even if one is planning to stay at home with the baby. This is so that if anything should happen to the stay at home parent, the working parent will have options in terms of paying for childcare or giving up work themselves. Pregnant women in most cases are treated no differently when taking out an insurance policy than the same woman were she not pregnant, so there is no benefit to waiting until the baby is born to choose a policy.
By thinking about what you would like to do to make sure you have done what you can to ensure a financially secure and stress free future for you and your child now, you can calculate how much you can afford to put into these areas and into other savings before the busy time when your baby first comes!
This post was written by Benjamin Mark; he works as a life insurance agent at TermLife.com, a well-established company providing term life insurance policies to clients. He’s an enthusiastic blogger and enjoys playing baseball in his free time.