The Best Way To Prepare For Starting A Family

There might come a time in your life when you feel like you’re ready to become a parent. Whether you’re doing it alone or with a partner, it’s an exciting decision to make and something that will change your life forever. However, it’s also an expensive decision to make and one that could leave you more stressed out and poorer than before, especially if it results in a bad credit NZ loan. We’ve all heard horror stories about unexpected birth complications that run up massive hospital bills and sleepless nights spent with a colicky baby. Most people will need to keep working after they become parents, which means your time and energy will also be under pressure. 

All this means is that the more prepared you are for it, the better. While you can always rely on a bad credit loan in NZ to save the day, here are a few tips to get your finances in order and prevent unexpected costs after your little one joins you.

• Get Healthy, Get Tested

The better health you and your partner are in, the better your chances of pregnancy. This means eating balanced meals, ensuring you don’t have any underlying chronic or inherited conditions, and working out often. Not only will this result in a more comfortable pregnancy, but it will also mean your chances of having a healthy child is much higher. If you can access testing, this can also come in handy to give you a better idea of possible issues that won’t harm your child in the long term but could require ongoing medical treatment. For example, a cleft palate is a common condition many kids are born with that isn’t fatal but will require immediate treatment to prevent future complications.

• Register Your Baby Shower – Or Skip It Altogether

Most new parents will have a baby shower, and by creating a registry, you can ensure you get what you need and not several duplicates of things you don’t. Be sure to plan this early so that your family, friends and co-workers can attend and select the right gift for you. Alternatively, you could set up an account where people can anonymously gift you with cash transfers to spend as you please at a specific retailer. 

An alternative to this is that you can forgo gifts and instead ask for contributions of time or household assistance after birth. This will mean you have someone cooking for you and helping you do household tasks, keeping you from spending on takeaway, delivery services and hired help when you should be keeping spending to a minimum. 

• Know What Should Be New 

For the most part, a lot of what you need for a new child can be purchased second-hand. Scrolling through community sales groups on Facebook or flea markets is a great way to find affordably priced second-hand items such as baby clothing and simple toys (which you can machine wash for hygiene purposes). It’s important to remember that your new child will likely outgrow these items in the blink of an eye, which means that you don’t need to pay an arm and a leg for them. 

There are certain things that you should purchase new – such as any item related to breastfeeding, bottles or pumping. If you want to buy an object like a high chair, car seat or mattress it’s critical you get as much information as you can about the purchase to make sure it’s both safe and compatible. For example, you could purchase a second-hand car seat if it was manufactured last year, but a stroller made more than five years ago might not be as advanced and functional as a recent one. 

• Start Saving

If you’ve gone through your life without saving money, you might have done so because any repercussions would only impact you personally. Now that you have another person to think about it would be worth your while to start as soon as possible. Look at a long, fixed-term savings account and begin to put away money every month. You can also explore other investment options if they’re available to you, and every time you find yourself with unexpected cash, you can add this amount to your savings. The key is to ignore this lump sum until your child enters school or university. 

Still worried that you’ll plan all the above and encounter an emergency? Life happens, so no need to worry about it. Remember a bad credit loan in NZ will cover you in a fix, and with the fixed interest, you won’t have to worry about the amount growing when you pay it back.