 Expecting
Money: The Essential Financial Plan
for New and Growing Families
Excerpted and promoted by the New York Daily News, MarketWatch,
MSNEncarta, and Pregnancy & Newborn
No
matter how much you earn, own, or owe, having children will dramatically
alter your financial picture. Whether you’re thinking of
expanding your family, are pregnant now, or have recently had
a baby, Expecting Money: the Essential Financial Plan
for New and Growing Families will help you prepare for
the economic demands of parenthood. From setting a financial start
line to developing a comprehensive new budget, you can build lasting
security with the techniques outlined in this guidebook that is
designed specifically for the most important time in anyone's
life – beginning a family.
Packed
with valuable information, practical worksheets, and enlightening
anecdotes, Expecting Money covers such key topics
as:
- Prioritizing
baby and maternity costs to obtain desired items and reduce
waste
- Identifying
and refining money values to spend and save effectively
- Crucial
financial issues to discuss with a partner and how to resolve
differences
- How
single parents can overcome pressing economic concerns
- Employee
benefits, and legal issues for pregnant and new-parent employees
- Managing
fertility treatments and adoption expenses
- Determining
if going from two paychecks to one makes sense
- Finding
the best childcare options for baby and budget
- Income
opportunities, from alternative schedules to creative employment
choices
- Planning
for education, homeownership, family vacations, and other long-term
goals
“Starred
review” from Publisher’s Weekly
Sandberg writes, “When I became pregnant with my daughter
Lillian, I was caught off-guard by how little I – someone
who has been in the personal finance field for over a decade –
knew about the monetary aspects of pregnancy and new parenthood.”
This book is Sandberg's response to that uncertainty, a compilation
of the advice that she craved for herself. Sandberg opens with
familiar chapters like “The Meaning of Money” and
“The Dangers of Debt” that prepare readers for an
uncluttered financial picture going into familyhood. The different
needs of different families are addressed in chapters like “On
the Double: Partner Issues” and “On Your Own: Single
Solutions.” Most valuable of all, Sandberg costs out what
new parents need to spend on the average (U.S.) baby's clothing,
child care and other basic needs, even going so far as to compare
the costs for different birthing options. Later she compares types
of day care and analyzes different ways of meeting long-term needs.
These concrete details are what make this book most valuable and
helpful for new parents who need real numbers and facts to plan
out their family's financial future. |
