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Oh Baby Baby (the cost of having a baby) · She's On The Money

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: She's on the Money.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: She's on the Money.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Millennials Who Want Financial Freedom. My name is Georgia King.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: I'm a copywriter and journalism student, and sitting across from
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: me is the ever fabulous financial advisor Victoria Devine.
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: We've gone back to compliments like this, you must be
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: in such a good mood, I am, and you know
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: why because today we're talking about babies and budgets.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Because, as it turns out, starting a family is actually
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: really really to use the G. King parlance, but it's
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: only something we really seem to talk about when we're
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: actually planning on making a baby, or when we find
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: out we're pregnant. Be that intentional or non intentional. So
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: if you are feeling a little out of the loop
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: when it comes to the cost of kids, rest assured
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: that this episode will set you up with all you
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: need to know. But it's not just you and I
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: on the show today.
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: It is not my friend. I am actually so excited
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: for this episode. I have been hustling this one up
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: for honestly the better part of eighteen months, which is
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: slightly embarrassing now that I vocalize that. But today we
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: are going to be joined by financial advisor and real
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: life mum Beck Pritchard, who is one a very good
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: friend of mine, but also too a friend of mine
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: who tracked every single cent of her first pregnancy, to
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: have a chat about how we can nail our finances
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: at these very magical but also very expensive stage of life,
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: which I am so excited to learn more about.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: Well, that's the thing. It's going to be so helpful
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: having someone sitting in here with us who's actually been
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: through it and who was documented every cent, as you said.
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: And she's pregnant again, which is very exciting. So she's
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: up to so she's going to be having Bubba number
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: two soon and she, again, in typical Rebecca Pritchard's style,
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: has tracked every single cent that she's been spending. So
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: I think this will be the woman such a good
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: episode for us because we're not just throwing some stats around,
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: which sometimes we have to, but sorry, we have brought
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: to the table not only a financial adviser to help you,
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: but a real life mum who tracked everything.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: She ticks all the boxes, she really does. But before
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: we do get to the lovely Beck we are gonna
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: stick to some stats because that's what I.
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: Love you, right, I know.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: Now, so Victoria talk us through it. Just how expensive
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: is it to have a baby in Australia.
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: Speno? Really speno.
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: J That's what I suspected. Yeah, that's that's the crux
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: of it. But people tend to really underestimate the expense
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: of having a baby, which is no surprise. But according
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: to the Australian Institute of Family.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: Studies that seems legit.
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: Seems legit.
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: The first child costs between three thousand and thirteen thousand
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: dollars to have in the first year, which is probably
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: more than people would.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Have expected babies to cost. I think, well, I would
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: have thought so the so small.
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: Yeah they are so small, but so speno.
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: But then then it turns out we do tend to
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: look after our kids financially for the most part until
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: they're eighteen, so those little bundles of joy they don't
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: come cheap. The jury is actually out on how much
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: it costs to raise a child in Australia. In various
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: studies cite different amounts, but in twenty eighteen, research from
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: the Australian Institute of Family Studies the legitkui So talked
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: about before found that it costs eighty eight hundred and
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: forty dollars a year to raise a kid, which equates
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: to about one hundred and fifty nine thousand dollars over
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: eighteen years, and an older report from the University of
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: Canberra they found that a kid can cost between thirteen
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: and thirty thousand dollars a year, which becomes two hundred
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: and thirty seven thousand to five hundred and forty eight
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: thousand over eighteen years.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: Good lord, it is they eating gold?
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: I think eating gold.
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, but I've also heard stats be thrown around that
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: a kid will cost you a million dollars until they're eighteen.
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: Albeit I couldn't find serious research on that, so I
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: didn't want to bring out I've just heard it, and
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: it's one of those things where I can see what
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: that is. We're talking base level here. We're not talking
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: kids who have private educations and go to extracurricular activities.
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: And do ballet and tennis and piano lessons.
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: Like we're talking this is what it costs on average
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: to have a kid, And I'm pretty sure the research
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: only takes into account like one extracurricular activity for a
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: child each week.
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: Wow.
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: So as much as that's quite normal, that doesn't include
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: if you're making the decision to send your child to.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: A Catholic school or a private school.
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: Or you know, get them to do other things on
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: the weekend. So that's pretty impressive.
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: I think.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: Jeez, I'm thinking back to everything that I did in
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: high school and primary school, and I just want to
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: take this moment to shout out, Mum.
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: Shout out and Dan Eric divine, Oh my god, because
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: I rolled ballet, tennis, piano off the tongue so quickly,
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: because yours truly was blessed enough to be I would
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: say forced into doing those things at the time. Like
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: I know that everyone says, oh my gosh, she was
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: so lucky. I was, But do you know how often
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: I would cry before piano lessons because my parents wanted
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: me to be quote smart. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I adored it,
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: and I'm really really grateful for it now. But at
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: the same time, that was in line with their values
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: and I love it and I wish i'd kept it up.
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: But it's one of those things where you go, yeah,
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: well that would have been expensive. Yeah, because they sent
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: me and my sister to all of those things too.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: A young Alex Devine, i'ld ivory beast. Are you ready?
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: Are you ready for some dirt on Lexi lo Yeah? Yeah,
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: just what I called it, And I think everybody in
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: the show should start referring.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: To us that as well. So I did ballet.
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: I don't think that comes as a surprise.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: That's very you. But she did karate, No she didn't.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: You do you have photos of that?
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: I'm sure I could find. Let's share them with the group.
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: Everyone needs to see.
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: Sorry, Alex, no, sorry, So enough about Lexi Lou. Today
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: we are going to be addressing pregnancy and the first
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: couple of years of starting a new family and having
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: a baby, rather than talking about that eighteen year time span, because,
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: to be honest, that is a little bit far in
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: advance whilst we invest in, say for the long term,
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: I think this episode really is nutting out what those
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: first few years, yeah, are going to cost you, because
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: after that they really do differ. So we're talking like,
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: what do you need to take into consideration if you're
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: having a baby and if you're not planning one soon,
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: which I'm a seeming a lot of our listeners, aren't.
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: I do think it's really important for you to still
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: know because the more educated we are, the more powerful
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: we are. And if you're planning on having a child,
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: how much you're going to have to save and invest
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: for the long term before that happens, so that that
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: process is really comfortable for you.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, all right now, Vie, we did speak about the
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: private system versus the public system in and earlier She's
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: on the Money episode, and we are like, really want
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: to preface this. We are so lucky in Australia that
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: we have access to such an incredible public system, but
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: can you explain what the differences actually are between the
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: two and what the financial difference looks like.
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: That's actually a really good thing to bring up, because
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: we are so so lucky Georgia to live in Australia,
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: and I think that I have always been really what
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: have I been.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: Confused? No? I just thought that's actually.
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: Really important to bring up Georgia because we aren't actually
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: so lucky with the public system here in Australia. And
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: it wasn't until very recently that I actually understood what
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: that meant in comparison to being overseas.
• 7:22
  Speaker 4: Did you know that in.
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: America to have a baby and you don't have insurance,
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: which is apparently incredibly expensive in the US and not
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: a given like you have to have employment and then
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: you get insurance with it. It's crazy, like their whole
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: system is marked up, and I don't love it for them.
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: But did you know it's eleven thousand dollars on average
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: out of pocket just to go to the hospital. We're
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: not talking really, yeah, we're not talking. Hey, this is
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: how much are costed by this stuff? Like your hospital
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: bills eleven thousand dollars out of pocket and a lot
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: of people in America going too personal death for that. Yeah,
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: what that's crazy And to think that we've got it
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: for free, just so lucky. So we are so lucky
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: in Australia to have a great public system, but a
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: lot of people actually do choose to be privately insured.
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: So what does that mean. It means a lot of things.
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: There are so many appointments, check ups and so on
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: that need to happen in the nine months before you
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: give birth. In terms of the difference when it comes
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: to public and private. In the private system, you'll be
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: able to arrange an appointment straight away with an obstetrician
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: in either a public or private hospital. But in the
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: public system, you're going to need to go to your
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: GP first, who then refers you on to a hospital
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: so that you can see midwife and go through that process.
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: So it's not a bad thing. It is just a
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: differencene process. And then in the private system you'll continue
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: to see the same midwife or obstetrician at all of
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: your appointments, or in the public system you're going to
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: be allocated to a group of midwives and whoever that obstetrician.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: Is on that day.
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: Now, for those of you playing along at home, if
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: you don't know what an obstetrician is, because I didn't
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: for the longest, it is the doctor that assists you
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: to give birth. So there are midwives and there are
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: duelers and all of this other stuff that surrounds pregnancy.
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: But the obstetrician is the baby doctor.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: So that is Nina proud Man for anyone that yeah, offspring,
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: That's how.
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: I know it is, And I'm not Nina proud Man. Sadly, sadly,
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: I know, maybe I should have. Maybe I'll go back
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: and get a new career. Please, do you reckon i'd
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: be a good doctor.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you'd be thorough. Yeah, I think you'd get it done.
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: All right.
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: Well, maybe in another life I'll become a doctor. I'll
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: put it past Millie's talk. So back to talking about
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: public versus private. In the public system, you'll go to
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: a public hospital for all of your appointments, and the
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: hospital will provide you with the time of your appointment,
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: whereas in the private system you can have more choice
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: about timing and when to book it and essentially wear
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: which is nice to have the flexibility when you have
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: the baby. The key difference is that in the public
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: system you're likely to be in a public room, whereas
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: in the private system you'll have a private room. And
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: in the private system you'll also get to choose your obstetrician,
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: So you like, technically you could probably choose Nina.
• 9:54
  Speaker 4: I reckon that would be you could choose Nina. You
• 9:56
  Speaker 4: would choose Nina prick.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: Oh really does ah? Oh did you just really? I'll
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: put a spoiler note in the show notes.
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and that was actually really rude. But okay, uh,
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: you can choose. So back to this Georgia. When you're
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: in the private system, you can choose your obstetrician and
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: they're usually the one that is there on the day
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: of the birth. And in the public system, again it's
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: back to that team. So there will be a team
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: and whoever's on or rusted on that day, we'll be
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: delivering that baby. It's kind of cool because I'm sure
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: that it's all fine in the end after the baby,
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: whether you're in the public or the private system, you'll
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: be checked up on postpartum to make sure that you're
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: doing well and the baby's doing well. In both public
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: and private, so same same, Obviously your aftercare is really important.
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: Private you're probably going to stay in hospital for at
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: least three days. But in the public system, for a
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: completely uncomplicated birth, which we all wish for, you actually
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: could be home that same day.
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: Georgia, Ah, is that a pranky? Do you want a praying?
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: I thought you're there for like months?
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: No, no, no, but like it used to be used
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: to a minimum of two weeks or whatever. No, you
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: could be home the same day.
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: So that's obviously very different for a c section or
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: an emergency birth or whatever's going on, if there are
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: any complications at all, But if you have a bread
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: and butter birth, you could end out back home that
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: same day. I mean, I don't hate that because I'm
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: someone who likes my own bed and being at home
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: and I would.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: Really like crave that, so I get it.
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: But also I feel like maybe I'd want to spend
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: a little bit of time with some nurses and ye
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: have breastfeed and what that actually means, because I've never
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: done those things before.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: So it's exactly right.
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: Definitely worthy of consideration. Also important that private does provide
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: more in terms of education and therapy, but again not
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: everybody needs that and not everybody values that, so that's
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: really important.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: So that's a really good rundown of private versus public.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: But what are the costs? Like, what's the cost difference here?
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: So if you go public, a birth covered by men
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: is pretty much free. You could have some odd costs
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: like signing costs that particular hospitals or random other costs,
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: but the crux of it, it's meant to be free.
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: In Australia. If you go private, though, Medicare and your
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: insurer will pay most of those fees. That's exactly what
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: you're paying private health insurance for. Arguably, you need to
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: remember that you still are paying a lot of money
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: per month in private health insurance before you even consider
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: getting pregnant, my friends, make sure that you check that
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: your private health insurance has maternity cover on it, because
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: some of them don't, and if you're anything like me,
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: you might have turned off maternity cover because you have
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: no intention of having a baby in the near future
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: and it might need to be turned back on, and
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: a really good point around that is making sure that
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: you know the limitation period. Also worthy of note that
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: if you need meds that aren't a part of the PDS,
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: you're going to need to pay for them out of pocket,
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: and you might get a percentage back if you're private.
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: Sometimes you do, sometimes you don't. And ultrasounds and blood
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: work aren't covered by Medicare, which is crazy. But bulk
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: billing options are usually available if you ask for them,
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: and that's one of my hot tips. Ask for bulk
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: billing always right and then fun fact, according to the
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: Health Insurra Boopa, out of pocket costs as a private
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: patient for a completely uncomplicated birth can actually range between
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: seventeen hundred and seven three hundred dollars for a private hospital,
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: and it's only slightly less for public which baffles me
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: because that's so broad, Like, why don't we have more
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: specific data?
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: Well, I think we need to work on getting some together,
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: don't we.
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: Can you imagine if we got the Shees on the
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: Morning community together to do like the biggest family studies
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: research in Australia?
• 13:36
  Speaker 4: How cool?
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: Would that would be very cool? And I think we'd
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: have a few very keen participants in the community. I
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: don't even know what I right now, I don't even
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: know what I want to ask.
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: Can you imagine if people were willing to actually let
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: us quiz them and ask them what did you pay?
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: Maybe we could all take a leaf out of the
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: Becker Pritchard's book and we could document every single cost
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: of what our pregnancies are and what postpartum looks like.
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, I'm so pervy. But everybody's money stories
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: documented huge.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: Oh I love it. All. Right, let's move on. Let's
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: move on. But just on that though, before we do
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: move on the opposite of what I said, Sorry, I'm
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: happy to take part in that for you in twenty
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: years when I have a child.
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: It's not going to be twenty years. We all say that.
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: We all say that, but you'll be planning a baby
• 14:18
  Speaker 4: in like five months. I bet five months. Absolutely not anyway.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: So the point of your previous little fact there was
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: that birth is expensive in the public or the private system.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: It's speno. So how do we keep the costs down?
• 14:34
  Speaker 4: Bit? Okay?
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: So there are a few ways.
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: One, we could make sure that we are taking every
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: option into consideration and reviewing it, not just going with
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: the first option. We could have a chat with our
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: obstetrician or GP beforehand about the costs that we could
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: anticipate and ask them, Okay, cool, who bolk bills?
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: Who doesn't?
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: How do I keep the costs down? You can go
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: down the path of shared care and op for a
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: doctor who bol bills. Back to what I was saying before,
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: and you could consider being a private patient in a
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: public hospital, which is also an option that not a
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: lot of people know about it.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so you just get a few more benefits there.
• 15:08
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you do.
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: And it's definitely worthy of understanding that because if you
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: have private health insurance, that doesn't automatically mean that you'll have.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: A private birth.
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: You might go all right, well, I have this insurance,
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: but I actually don't want to cough up how much
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: it cost to give birth in a private hospital, and
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: you can actually elect to be a private patient in
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: a public hospital, which is significantly cheaper.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: And that is actually a very cool fact. All right,
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: moving on here the obviously, planning a family is a
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: huge luxury, and given the nature of pregnancy, we can't
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: always plan for it. It can be quite unexpected.
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: And sometimes when we are planning for it, it doesn't
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: even exactly right.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: It's exactly right.
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: So if you.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: Fall into the former camp and you have become pregnant
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: without really planning for it, would you recommend a trip
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: to the financial advisor?
• 15:56
  Speaker 4: Look?
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: Look, I always recommend getting advice comes to finances, because
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: more often than not, we are far too emotional about
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: these decisions. I did some research, g because your stat skirl,
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: and I want to come to the table with as
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: many stats as you do. A twenty nineteen research from
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: AMP found that parents worry more about money in the
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: lead up to having a baby than any other time,
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: and that planning for a baby causes greater financial stress
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: than actually having a child. We is seventy one percent
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: of those expecting a baby in the next twelve months
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: experiencing financial stress that's a high number, Georgia, compared to
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: only forty five percent of those who actually.
• 16:34
  Speaker 4: Have a child, So it's way more stressful pre plenty
• 16:37
  Speaker 4: than and then you're like, oh, this isn't as bad
• 16:39
  Speaker 4: as I thought.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: It was going to be crazy crazy.
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: The study also found that only twenty eight percent of
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: people felt financially secure the year before having a baby,
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: and then it improved to fifty four percent the year after.
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: So I would read between the lines there and say,
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: a baby is a little bit.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: Of a kick up the bottom.
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: To get your financial life in order and make sure
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: that you are actually making good financial decisions. And I'm
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: not surprised by that at all, and I think it's
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: also worthy of note. If you are feeling really overwhelmed,
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: my friend, take some deep breaths. My advice is to
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: literally cut down as much of your discretionary spending as
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: possible and figure out your budget and cash flow as
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: soon as possible, because you can assess where you're at
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: and circling all the way back to the start of
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: this question that you asked me, Yes, Georgia financial advisor
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: is definitely a great option if you're feeling completely lost,
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: but at the same time, like you are so powerful
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: and you have all the resources in the world, like
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: you can absolutely do some prep on your own before
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: the baby to help lift ourselves out of that stressful feeling.
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: And I'm really excited that Rebecca is coming up next
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: so that we can have maybe some of her good
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: ideas and things that she implemented.
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: Exactly right, we will be heading to a very short
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: break right now, though, before we do, bring in Beck
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: Pritchard to talk to us about exactly how much she's
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: spent on her newborn, including the expenses she did not
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: see coming and the ones that in hindsight she wouldn't
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: reckon wasting your money on. So do not go anywhere.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: Please remember, gorgeous people, that conversations like this one do
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: take place twenty four seven on our Facebook page, so
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: please do join us. If you're not into Facebook, I
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: get it. We're also on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, we have
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: a newsletter, and I feel bad for saying I hate Facebook,
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: because it is where we connect with all of you.
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: So today, as we promised, we have dragged Rebecca Prichard
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: into the studio. Beck, thank you so much for joining us.
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: Thank you for having me hardly came in kicking and screaming,
• 18:49
  Speaker 4: no you didn't.
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: We even bribed you with a chai latte, which I
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: think is I would come for that. I would definitely
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: turn up. Now, I won't get you to do.
• 18:57
  Speaker 4: The awkward Hey, beck who are you?
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: What do you do? The community already know that you're
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: a beckup Richard. You're a financial advisor, general legend and
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: also mum of one point five? Is that fair to say?
• 19:09
  Speaker 4: I feel like it's closed point now?
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just about there.
• 19:13
  Speaker 4: How many weeks it could be the next month?
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: That is so exciting?
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: And she's super glowy, which is kind of rude. I
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: think like unrealistic expectations for pregnancy as far as I'm concerned.
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: But Beck, you and I have spoken about this embarrassingly
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: for about eighteen months now. I would say, getting you
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: on the pod to talk about having a baby and
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: the costs because you wrote this epic blog post. Do
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: you want to tell my community what that blog post
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: was and potentially give me permission to reshare it?
• 19:44
  Speaker 4: Absolutely so. As a financial advisor, I was having these
• 19:47
  Speaker 4: conversations about what a cost to have a baby and
• 19:51
  Speaker 4: what are some of the things that you need to consider.
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: And I was looking for data and I was just like,
• 19:56
  Speaker 4: where is this information? And I couldn't find it, And
• 19:59
  Speaker 4: so I thought, stuff this when I felt pregnant, and
• 20:02
  Speaker 4: I started documenting my own experience every single dollar they
• 20:05
  Speaker 4: came out of my because of course I had a
• 20:08
  Speaker 4: nominated bank account for this purpose, and it was fascinating.
• 20:12
  Speaker 4: I just loved the information. It was a really good
• 20:15
  Speaker 4: accountability tool as well. But beyond that, I've had so
• 20:19
  Speaker 4: much feedback that it was exactly what a lot of
• 20:21
  Speaker 4: families needed to have at least a starting point when
• 20:25
  Speaker 4: thinking about the numbers behind this, would it.
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: Be fair to say that you didn't just write down
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: clot cost X like you were nitty gritty down to
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: from memory like diff lamb and how many pilates classes
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: you went to.
• 20:39
  Speaker 4: So over the course of my first pregnancy, I spent
• 20:41
  Speaker 4: about four hundred dollars on my lanter alone. God bless heartburn.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: And yeah, it's interesting, it's just hundred dollars.
• 20:50
  Speaker 4: Hold up, hold up, that's a lot of money. Yeah,
• 20:53
  Speaker 4: and that's buying value packs as well. But they were
• 20:57
  Speaker 4: their things. Because you think about high level clos perhaps
• 21:00
  Speaker 4: you're thinking about public versus private, But it's all the
• 21:02
  Speaker 4: little ancillary things that add up and probably add a
• 21:06
  Speaker 4: couple of thousand dollars in and I found they were
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: the ones that were really really interesting. So it was
• 21:13
  Speaker 4: really good to cross reference that and you know, going
• 21:15
  Speaker 4: through it again this time around to actually go, Okay, yes,
• 21:18
  Speaker 4: they're the big milestone payments that you need to make,
• 21:22
  Speaker 4: but also don't forget this and this and this and
• 21:24
  Speaker 4: this that needs to go in there along the way.
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: Given you're such a planner, which I believe, I'm a
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: little bit envious of your planning, Like obviously I love
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: a good budget in cash flow, but I believe that
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: you're taking it to the next level.
• 21:35
  Speaker 4: If I'm honest, I'll try. Was it more expensive than
• 21:38
  Speaker 4: you thought it was going to be? Was it cheaper?
• 21:39
  Speaker 4: Was it on par?
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: Like I know you would have financially prepared for this,
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: So were you surprised by anything.
• 21:46
  Speaker 4: Yes, it was more expensive than I thought in some areas.
• 21:50
  Speaker 4: And I had to have a constant awareness of where
• 21:55
  Speaker 4: I was making decisions, So it wasn't around you make
• 21:58
  Speaker 4: a couple of decisions and then you just with that.
• 22:00
  Speaker 4: You had to constantly reassess and so that was a
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: learning curve as well, and there were things that I
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: thought I'd be able to spend more on, but because
• 22:10
  Speaker 4: something else popped up along the way, it was like, okay, no,
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: you need to make some adjustments.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: Now.
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: That was interesting, that's pretty cool. What was what was
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: your biggest baby money win? Is that bad to say,
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: but like, I'm real pervy and we love the money
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: win or confession in this community. So what was your
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: biggest baby money win?
• 22:28
  Speaker 4: I think it was spending the money on reusable items.
• 22:32
  Speaker 4: So I have these bamboo Lua reusable wipes that are
• 22:36
  Speaker 4: just divine. And did she just use my name in
• 22:41
  Speaker 4: relation to a baby wipe? Yakay cool. I'm growing up.
• 22:44
  Speaker 4: I'm turning thirty soon, Like I need to get used
• 22:47
  Speaker 4: to this language. And you know, at first glance, it's like, oh,
• 22:51
  Speaker 4: you've just spent forty five dollars on ten baby wipes.
• 22:54
  Speaker 4: That's outrageous, or breastpads or something like that. But then
• 22:59
  Speaker 4: you get the money back.
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: And because they're spano, like, you go to the supermarket
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: and baby wipes are like what, they don't feel expensive
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: at the same time you're paying six dollars, but you're
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: constantly buying me exactly, and that's every single week for
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: and how long are baby's in nappies for nowadays? Long enough,
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: long enough, long enough to justify it, like I've got
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: no clue, Like, look at, I have no idea, you're
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: not in nappies anymore.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: So that's pretty good.
• 23:24
  Speaker 4: Gee now, yeah, I like that. The other thing, though,
• 23:26
  Speaker 4: can I have more than one? You can have as
• 23:28
  Speaker 4: many as you like. One of the best things that
• 23:30
  Speaker 4: we spent money on, which would be so random, is
• 23:34
  Speaker 4: you know, my husband and I had a good look
• 23:35
  Speaker 4: at our lifestyle and thought, you know, as a couple
• 23:38
  Speaker 4: before children, where do we have limitations? Where do we
• 23:42
  Speaker 4: sort of hit the edges on a few things? And
• 23:44
  Speaker 4: I bought him some extra pairs of jocks because otherwise
• 23:49
  Speaker 4: we had to do the washing every week, right, it
• 23:52
  Speaker 4: had to be done on a Sunday, otherwise he'd be
• 23:54
  Speaker 4: Monday morning like I've got nothing to wear. And so
• 23:56
  Speaker 4: to buy a few extra sets for the rotation, I
• 23:59
  Speaker 4: like meant that we didn't have these restrictions at a
• 24:04
  Speaker 4: time when our minds were elsewhere. So I really probably
• 24:07
  Speaker 4: less conventional baby planning, but that's still baby planning. But
• 24:12
  Speaker 4: a hot tip and great value for money.
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: All right, I'm actually shook and that makes so much sense,
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: Like it genuinely makes so much sense.
• 24:23
  Speaker 4: And to be honest, even for me, like maybe maybe
• 24:26
  Speaker 4: you don't even need to throw a baby in that,
• 24:28
  Speaker 4: just get yourself. However, many nickers or socks or whatever
• 24:30
  Speaker 4: it is that causes a little bit of like rigidity.
• 24:34
  Speaker 4: Is that the word? It isn't?
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: Now in your lifestyle? Can I ask about confessions? What
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: were your biggest baby money confessions? Like what did you
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: spend the most on that was a little bit bougie
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: or naughty or you know, unexpected.
• 24:51
  Speaker 4: I don't think anything was naughty. I stand by every
• 24:54
  Speaker 4: dollar that I spent. I did spend over one thousand
• 24:58
  Speaker 4: dollars on private Polarti sessions because being able to feel
• 25:04
  Speaker 4: strong and move my body was really important. And as
• 25:08
  Speaker 4: my pregnancy went went on, you know, I certainly felt
• 25:11
  Speaker 4: less and less confident without sort of one to one supervision.
• 25:14
  Speaker 4: So that wasn't cheap, but it definitely was worth it.
• 25:18
  Speaker 4: But it was absolutely worth it. This time around, I've
• 25:20
  Speaker 4: decided to go for clinical plarty, so I'm under the
• 25:23
  Speaker 4: supervision of a visio rather than a PTA. Probably works
• 25:26
  Speaker 4: out to be about the same in terms of cost,
• 25:29
  Speaker 4: but they're definitely not naughty.
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: That's no, that's absolutely not naughty, Like naughty would be like, oh,
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: I spent ten thousand dollars on a prem by accident,
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: and I just feel like you're not the right person
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: to be asking for that sessions if I'm honest.
• 25:42
  Speaker 4: No, Look, if that's about as dirty as I'm going
• 25:45
  Speaker 4: to get with my confession. You went to pilates. Oh no,
• 25:49
  Speaker 4: I had accupuncture solely for the purpose of It was
• 25:52
  Speaker 4: in the list of top five things that bring on labor. Yeah,
• 25:56
  Speaker 4: and you're ready, You're like, I would like to be
• 25:59
  Speaker 4: labor now. Thanks you. Sadly it was acupuncture, chili, and
• 26:03
  Speaker 4: go have sex with your husband. So, oh you puntry.
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: I have a question for you back. What were the
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: things that surprised you in terms of like, like how
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: much does a pram cost? How much does a what
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: are some other baby things a baby seat, car carrier?
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, Like, what what are those
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: things that really stood out to you as being disgustingly
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: expensive that you just had.
• 26:25
  Speaker 4: To cop There are a number of things that are
• 26:29
  Speaker 4: linked to a certain amount of time for your child's life,
• 26:32
  Speaker 4: so a capsule or a car seat is very much
• 26:35
  Speaker 4: linked to their age. So you're spending maybe five hundred
• 26:38
  Speaker 4: dollars three to five hundred on a capsule and it's
• 26:41
  Speaker 4: for six months. If your baby is of an average size,
• 26:46
  Speaker 4: you know, a bascinette again should be six months. But
• 26:48
  Speaker 4: my son was tall, and so by four and a
• 26:50
  Speaker 4: half months you'd grown out of it. And I was like, oh,
• 26:52
  Speaker 4: my very long boy, Oh my goodness, what I've paid
• 26:56
  Speaker 4: for this thing? And where is my six months of
• 26:58
  Speaker 4: usage shrink of this? And so there's a number of
• 27:03
  Speaker 4: things like that that you can't know at the time
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: of purchase how long you're actually going to get out
• 27:08
  Speaker 4: of them. I'm hoping this baby is small just so
• 27:10
  Speaker 4: I get some more longevity out of some of those items.
• 27:14
  Speaker 4: But it's probably not dissimilar to any furniture Homewar's major purchase.
• 27:20
  Speaker 4: You can really spend what you want to spend. There
• 27:23
  Speaker 4: is a thriving secondhand marketplace in Australia because you don't
• 27:28
  Speaker 4: use things for very long, so there is so much
• 27:31
  Speaker 4: opportunity for that, which is absolutely something that I recommend
• 27:35
  Speaker 4: everyone look at. And then there are other things we
• 27:39
  Speaker 4: go if you figure out what's really important to you
• 27:43
  Speaker 4: then spend the money. So for instance, I have a
• 27:46
  Speaker 4: second hand change table and COT times two now, but
• 27:50
  Speaker 4: I have a two thousand dollars PRAM and I feel
• 27:53
  Speaker 4: like that was a great allocation of resources And what
• 27:56
  Speaker 4: is something So for.
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: Me, I'm all about this hand marketplace like I love.
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: Everybody in our community knows I love Facebook marketplace.
• 28:05
  Speaker 4: Love a good money in But what are.
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: Things that I shouldn't be purchasing secondhand when it comes
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: to babies.
• 28:11
  Speaker 4: Anything that's got a clear safety rating, So things like
• 28:15
  Speaker 4: car seats or capsules, arguably prams, they're the things that
• 28:21
  Speaker 4: you want to make sure that they're in date, they've
• 28:22
  Speaker 4: got the right stickers on them. But really it's up
• 28:27
  Speaker 4: to you.
• 28:28
  Speaker 3: Is there anything that you would have done differently had
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: you had your time again? I know you're going round
• 28:33
  Speaker 3: two now, which is super exciting. Are there things that
• 28:37
  Speaker 3: you feel like you bought and didn't need, or things
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: that you wish you'd bought in different sequences or maybe
• 28:43
  Speaker 3: not at all, or maybe have bought earlier.
• 28:46
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a good question. And I really when I
• 28:49
  Speaker 4: fell pregnant this time around, I went back and I
• 28:52
  Speaker 4: reread what I spent money on and I sort of
• 28:55
  Speaker 4: challenged a lot of the things in there, and it
• 28:58
  Speaker 4: was actually quite a feel good experience to go back
• 29:00
  Speaker 4: and go, no, no, that that.
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: All looks really robust.
• 29:04
  Speaker 4: The interesting part of this time around was sort of
• 29:07
  Speaker 4: falling pregnant in the back end of twenty twenty and
• 29:10
  Speaker 4: some of the considerations like, for instance, I wasn't doing
• 29:14
  Speaker 4: politis because you could sort of weren't allowed, you couldn't
• 29:17
  Speaker 4: leave the house, and you know, having you know, I
• 29:22
  Speaker 4: went through the private system first time around. This time around,
• 29:27
  Speaker 4: I've actually been even more reassured about the value of
• 29:30
  Speaker 4: that because because of COVID, you know, I've really extrapolated
• 29:34
  Speaker 4: even more value from having that contact and the continuity
• 29:38
  Speaker 4: of care. So I didn't like the eyelashes that I
• 29:42
  Speaker 4: got extended the first time. I've I feel, no, I'm
• 29:47
  Speaker 4: absolutely getting them done this time, just like getting a
• 29:49
  Speaker 4: different but I'm getting someone different and a different application
• 29:53
  Speaker 4: of that that's really important. But I think that speaks
• 29:57
  Speaker 4: to my level of dissatisfaction for my first pregnancy if
• 30:00
  Speaker 4: that is what I'm picking out. Yeah, okay, well then
• 30:02
  Speaker 4: I'm starting from advice because I have a great lash
• 30:07
  Speaker 4: technician and like I'll be a set for life, absolutely,
• 30:12
  Speaker 4: And so people look back and they're like, oh, you
• 30:14
  Speaker 4: spend so much money having kids, But just like planning
• 30:17
  Speaker 4: a wedding and going on a holiday, if you're clever
• 30:21
  Speaker 4: and intentional around it, you don't have to feel bad
• 30:24
  Speaker 4: about it. I feel fabulous. We spent nearly twenty thousand
• 30:27
  Speaker 4: dollars when our sun was born, and I don't have
• 30:31
  Speaker 4: any regret over that, whereas I know there's a lot
• 30:34
  Speaker 4: of people who do because they're just shelling it out
• 30:38
  Speaker 4: and that everything you did was planned and formulated and
• 30:42
  Speaker 4: had considition behind it, and I.
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: Really like that you touched on something before that you're
• 30:47
  Speaker 3: going through the private system, and I would love to
• 30:50
  Speaker 3: know firsthand. Obviously I've done a bit of research and
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: I can pragmatically see the differences, But to you as
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: a mum, what is the difference between public versus private
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: and why have you chosen to go private?
• 31:02
  Speaker 4: Again? There's a number of practical, emotional, ancillary benefits associated
• 31:10
  Speaker 4: with the two different systems, and I should point out
• 31:12
  Speaker 4: we're starting from a base. The public system in Australia
• 31:16
  Speaker 4: is fantastic.
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: We ranted on about that ye Starr podcast before we
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: let you in the studio.
• 31:21
  Speaker 4: I'm glad that that has been covered in depth. For me,
• 31:26
  Speaker 4: having started with my first pregnancy was a miscarriage. Going
• 31:29
  Speaker 4: through my second pregnancy, which is where we brought our
• 31:32
  Speaker 4: son into the world, having continuity of care, having the
• 31:36
  Speaker 4: same care who actually took me through that miscarriage was
• 31:40
  Speaker 4: worth thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars. And so
• 31:44
  Speaker 4: I mean ironically that obstitution was on call the night
• 31:47
  Speaker 4: that I went into labor, so she delivered our son.
• 31:51
  Speaker 4: So that is an incredible piece of value for fast
• 31:56
  Speaker 4: to extrapolate. I think it speaks to your risk preferences,
• 32:00
  Speaker 4: your tolerances. It also speaks for me. I just liked it,
• 32:05
  Speaker 4: you know it, you know really just you just feel good,
• 32:08
  Speaker 4: just feel more comfortable sometimes, you know, buying something from
• 32:12
  Speaker 4: Maya feels better than it does from buying it from Kmart.
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: And for this element.
• 32:17
  Speaker 4: Of my life, that's I wanted to know that I
• 32:20
  Speaker 4: was going top of the line. Yeah, and I really
• 32:24
  Speaker 4: like that because I think I own that. Yeah.
• 32:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And I think it really speaks to just values
• 32:28
  Speaker 3: and that's what we spoke about earlier in the pod.
• 32:30
  Speaker 4: And it's just about okay, Like it is a choice.
• 32:33
  Speaker 3: Yes, if you look at it financially, public is going
• 32:36
  Speaker 3: to be cheaper, but there's so much other value in it,
• 32:39
  Speaker 3: and I don't want to discredit that because it's about
• 32:41
  Speaker 3: your comfort. It's about how comfortable you are and confident
• 32:44
  Speaker 3: you are going into that process, and I think that's
• 32:47
  Speaker 3: only a decision that you can make. Yeah, and if
• 32:49
  Speaker 3: you're faced with not being able to make that decision
• 32:51
  Speaker 3: because private might be out of your control or out
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: of your budget completely, I think it's also to say
• 32:57
  Speaker 3: it's not actually something you need. It is definitely a luxury.
• 33:00
  Speaker 3: It is definitely something that you choose. And our public
• 33:03
  Speaker 3: system is incredible anyway, so it's kind of like we're
• 33:06
  Speaker 3: starting from an incredible basis. It's going to meet all
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: the needs that you have. But if you want something
• 33:11
  Speaker 3: more and you're paying for private health, well go for it.
• 33:14
  Speaker 4: My friends, absolutely, And I would consider myself to be
• 33:16
  Speaker 4: a fairly well research person on the transition experience of
• 33:23
  Speaker 4: becoming a mother, the different ways that you can do it,
• 33:26
  Speaker 4: from home births to birth centers to hospitals to that
• 33:32
  Speaker 4: transformative experience, and I'm a big advocate for the ways
• 33:36
  Speaker 4: that women can bring their babies into the world, and
• 33:40
  Speaker 4: I felt like in the private system you had a
• 33:42
  Speaker 4: lot more of a platform to advocate for yourself compared
• 33:46
  Speaker 4: to being perhaps a bit of a price taker or
• 33:51
  Speaker 4: at the mercy of a system.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: That is the reality is in Australia.
• 33:54
  Speaker 4: It's also very clinical, very medical, and certainly for my
• 33:59
  Speaker 4: first pregnancy, even more so for this this second one
• 34:03
  Speaker 4: or first child, second child, I knew what I wanted
• 34:06
  Speaker 4: and I wanted to feel comfortable that I would have
• 34:09
  Speaker 4: a voice to advocate for that.
• 34:11
  Speaker 3: I think that's really powerful as well. And knowing you
• 34:15
  Speaker 3: and knowing how research you are, you definitely are wealth
• 34:18
  Speaker 3: of knowledge when it comes to that, and you know,
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: researching this, I actually thought that a home birth was
• 34:24
  Speaker 3: something you did by accident, like you didn't get that's like, yeah,
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: I had my But it turns out people plan that,
• 34:31
  Speaker 3: like they actually.
• 34:32
  Speaker 4: Plan to give birth absolutely and you know, considering risk profiles.
• 34:37
  Speaker 4: And because I had an emergency seas up for my son.
• 34:41
  Speaker 4: If it wasn't for that, I reckon I would have
• 34:43
  Speaker 4: really entertained that idea. My husband would have been horrified,
• 34:48
  Speaker 4: but it's something that I would have considered even a
• 34:50
  Speaker 4: private midwife. Most people don't know that that is an option,
• 34:53
  Speaker 4: and there's a tremendous value or having a dueler. There's
• 34:57
  Speaker 4: there's a number of support systems that really speaks to
• 35:00
  Speaker 4: the value of doing your own research, being financially prepared
• 35:03
  Speaker 4: for this so that you can actually have the experience
• 35:06
  Speaker 4: you want, not getting to pregnancy thinking about what you
• 35:10
  Speaker 4: want and then going, oh, crap, I can't afford that,
• 35:12
  Speaker 4: or I haven't allocated money for that, or now I
• 35:14
  Speaker 4: have to not get the PRAM I want because I
• 35:16
  Speaker 4: want to invest in support. We should never be making.
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: Trade offs like that one hundred percent. So, touching on
• 35:23
  Speaker 3: saving and planning, how far in advance were you and
• 35:26
  Speaker 3: your husband saving for a baby. At what point did
• 35:29
  Speaker 3: this become a part of your budget.
• 35:30
  Speaker 4: And cash flow? Yep, so probably a year or two out,
• 35:35
  Speaker 4: because we're also believers in not having more cash than
• 35:38
  Speaker 4: we need to. Then there was there's always a ramp
• 35:42
  Speaker 4: up period when it's real, right, So we had the
• 35:45
  Speaker 4: bulk of what we needed to and then we felt pregnant,
• 35:49
  Speaker 4: and then we had a miscarriage, which is really expensive.
• 35:53
  Speaker 4: It's something that I'm a being believer in putting that
• 35:55
  Speaker 4: message out there.
• 35:57
  Speaker 3: How much was your miscarriage? How much did that end
• 36:00
  Speaker 3: up costing you?
• 36:01
  Speaker 4: So essentially you pay up to what you would have
• 36:03
  Speaker 4: otherwise paid for a healthy pregnancy to that point. So
• 36:06
  Speaker 4: depending on how far you've progressed, it can really impact
• 36:10
  Speaker 4: the cost. So I had a miscarriage at eight weeks
• 36:13
  Speaker 4: and all in all was just under one thousand dollars
• 36:16
  Speaker 4: of that's a lot of money plus emotional or impact
• 36:21
  Speaker 4: plus you know potentially if you had any time off work,
• 36:25
  Speaker 4: if you were unpaid during that point in time. So yeah,
• 36:29
  Speaker 4: it's a bizarre one. So when we talk about saying
• 36:32
  Speaker 4: we spent almost twenty thousand dollars to have our sun,
• 36:34
  Speaker 4: that includes one thousand dollars of essentially a false start
• 36:38
  Speaker 4: that most people probably don't factor into their considerations, let
• 36:43
  Speaker 4: alone you might have several miscarriages, and a lot.
• 36:47
  Speaker 3: Of people do, and it's not spoken about enough that
• 36:50
  Speaker 3: this happens so much more regularly than you know people
• 36:53
  Speaker 3: talk about. And that's really sad because it is so
• 36:56
  Speaker 3: common and we should be supporting each other through this.
• 36:59
  Speaker 3: Like I've got girlfriends who have had multiple miscarriages, and
• 37:02
  Speaker 3: that's not something that they speak about, which is sad
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: because it still.
• 37:06
  Speaker 4: Was real and it was still with something you went through.
• 37:08
  Speaker 3: And to be honest, I'm grateful that I know because
• 37:12
  Speaker 3: coming into this process hopefully in the next couple of
• 37:14
  Speaker 3: years for myself, like I'm glad to know that I'm
• 37:17
  Speaker 3: not alone if that ever happens. And I think that
• 37:19
  Speaker 3: that is more powerful than even just having resources, because
• 37:23
  Speaker 3: you can google it says one in four women will
• 37:25
  Speaker 3: experience a miscarriage, or it's one in for pregnancies I'm sorry,
• 37:28
  Speaker 3: not just women, And that's a crazy number to think
• 37:32
  Speaker 3: how little we discuss this topic openly and honestly and
• 37:35
  Speaker 3: say well, this is what it costs, this.
• 37:37
  Speaker 4: Is how it works. And that's not including actually any
• 37:40
  Speaker 4: mental health support, like paid mental health support around that,
• 37:44
  Speaker 4: so it absolutely could be more than that. And that's
• 37:47
  Speaker 4: also not including any reproductive or fertility support, which can
• 37:52
  Speaker 4: you know write from vitamins through to IVF that can really.
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: Check up the cost.
• 37:58
  Speaker 4: But essentially twelve to eighteen months of cash flow savings
• 38:04
  Speaker 4: which got us reasonably close then we had a viable pregnancy,
• 38:10
  Speaker 4: we were often running, started spending and then went oh,
• 38:13
  Speaker 4: actually we don't have enough. This is unfolding at a
• 38:16
  Speaker 4: different rate, and so we had to do a bit
• 38:19
  Speaker 4: of a top up. So far, this current pregnancy is
• 38:23
  Speaker 4: actually going reasonably close to what we thought so far.
• 38:28
  Speaker 4: I think we're about ten grand down with a month
• 38:31
  Speaker 4: to go.
• 38:32
  Speaker 3: So what are you spending on this pregnancy and what
• 38:35
  Speaker 3: is able to be reused from last pregnancy?
• 38:38
  Speaker 4: So I've factored in about twelve and a half is
• 38:41
  Speaker 4: what I'm expecting this. That's the economies of scale. Those
• 38:44
  Speaker 4: costs to be about four or five thousand dollars cheaper
• 38:49
  Speaker 4: than the last one. Thank you, second child. And the
• 38:52
  Speaker 4: reality is most of that is going towards medical expenses
• 38:57
  Speaker 4: or caring for me.
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 39:00
  Speaker 4: So the capital costs of the PRAM and the car
• 39:04
  Speaker 4: seat and the capsule, they're great, They're done.
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: I guess poor.
• 39:08
  Speaker 4: Planning, great planning, whichever way you want to look at it.
• 39:11
  Speaker 4: Our children will be quite close together, so there are
• 39:13
  Speaker 4: certain things that we have had to double up on,
• 39:15
  Speaker 4: Like we have two cots. We have two change tables
• 39:17
  Speaker 4: because our son won't have grown out of them before
• 39:21
  Speaker 4: before this bub needs them. So there is a little
• 39:23
  Speaker 4: bit of overlap. But in the scheme of things, most
• 39:27
  Speaker 4: of the costs are associated with either buying some new
• 39:31
  Speaker 4: bamboo valtor wipes because we need lots of those. There's
• 39:35
  Speaker 4: now two dirty bottoms yeap well, and the ones from
• 39:39
  Speaker 4: my son absolutely had it, but the rest of it
• 39:43
  Speaker 4: is stuff that we consumed essentially.
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: Beck, I wanted to ask you about the saving process,
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: So saving in the lead up to having the baby
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: and now tips for saving when you actually have had
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: the child.
• 39:58
  Speaker 4: What would you say? They're so I'm a massive advocate
• 40:01
  Speaker 4: for a separate bank account. You know, if you've got
• 40:03
  Speaker 4: any goal that's in the next couple of years, it
• 40:06
  Speaker 4: needs its own bank account. It needs to be clearly labeled.
• 40:08
  Speaker 4: So we had the family account. It was actually an
• 40:11
  Speaker 4: offset against our mortgage, which was fabulous, and we were
• 40:15
  Speaker 4: periodically saving into that baby over a number of months
• 40:20
  Speaker 4: leading up to it. We then, actually my husband and
• 40:23
  Speaker 4: I had always had individual spending accounts, and we set
• 40:26
  Speaker 4: up a third account, so I had a transaction ACCRD
• 40:31
  Speaker 4: for once well, one to use during pregnancy, but also
• 40:36
  Speaker 4: for the ongoing costs associated with children, because it doesn't
• 40:39
  Speaker 4: stop when really when you're having having the baby, it continues,
• 40:45
  Speaker 4: and so that's been really useful to have it on
• 40:47
  Speaker 4: an ongoing basis, so that we're not having to make
• 40:50
  Speaker 4: personal spending trade offs be like oh, who's getting the
• 40:53
  Speaker 4: nappies or who's doing this. It also allows me to
• 40:57
  Speaker 4: think ahead and like bolk purchase things about trying to
• 41:00
  Speaker 4: squeeze it into your own personal exactly.
• 41:04
  Speaker 3: So that's something that my partner and I do. We
• 41:06
  Speaker 3: have our own spending accounts, but then we also have
• 41:08
  Speaker 3: joint savings and join everything else. So that's changed by
• 41:12
  Speaker 3: having one account for baby related expenses now and still
• 41:16
  Speaker 3: your personal Is that what you'd recommend to your clients too, Like,
• 41:19
  Speaker 3: is that a way that is just working for you
• 41:21
  Speaker 3: or have you seen that working with your clients?
• 41:23
  Speaker 4: Like? How does that? More often than not? That is
• 41:27
  Speaker 4: the preferred approach for a number of my clients. If
• 41:29
  Speaker 4: you have an established track record of being able to
• 41:32
  Speaker 4: manage joint spending already, you can probably make it work.
• 41:35
  Speaker 4: But certainly if you've been used to having a bit
• 41:38
  Speaker 4: of autonomy or independence or that's just how you like
• 41:41
  Speaker 4: to manage things, then having a separate account. I've actually
• 41:45
  Speaker 4: seen this separate account work really well for pets as well,
• 41:48
  Speaker 4: just those things that are really communal expenses that also
• 41:53
  Speaker 4: need to be done. Yeah, it's like let's be pragmatic.
• 41:57
  Speaker 4: Let's call a spade a spade on this, and that
• 42:01
  Speaker 4: covers everything from you know, early days that was covering ubers,
• 42:07
  Speaker 4: uber eats and paying for parking for hospital visits through
• 42:12
  Speaker 4: to four zero three zero two zero sized clothing through
• 42:16
  Speaker 4: to I still don't nappies are on sale. I no
• 42:19
  Speaker 4: idea that's for me. I bought a thousand nappies the
• 42:22
  Speaker 4: other day, a thousand in the first two sizes like
• 42:26
  Speaker 4: a newborn, and so it was the next size up.
• 42:29
  Speaker 4: That's a lot of nappy, I know, but I'm set
• 42:31
  Speaker 4: for a couple of months. Now it's done, it's tucked away.
• 42:36
  Speaker 4: And yeah, if I had to tuck that into my
• 42:38
  Speaker 4: personal spending, I'd be buying them in blocks of thirty
• 42:40
  Speaker 4: because that would be all I could wrangle.
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: Whereas I know I've got a great deal.
• 42:43
  Speaker 4: I'm just envious that she has enough space in her
• 42:46
  Speaker 4: house for a thousand. You should see what I did
• 42:48
  Speaker 4: with my granola supplies. So that was one thing that
• 42:50
  Speaker 4: I did last time. I've done this. So I love
• 42:55
  Speaker 4: to make my own granola. And you know, buying not
• 43:00
  Speaker 4: some grains can be quite expensive if you don't have
• 43:02
  Speaker 4: a good supply. I have a great supplier, but I
• 43:04
  Speaker 4: have to go to a market. Yeah, And so I
• 43:07
  Speaker 4: asked him if I could bold purchase last time. And
• 43:10
  Speaker 4: so I have kilos I just picked it up the
• 43:14
  Speaker 4: other day, of oats and chia and limb seeds and almonds,
• 43:19
  Speaker 4: and so I've got basically supplies to make six months
• 43:22
  Speaker 4: of granola, but at a fraction of the cost. Because
• 43:25
  Speaker 4: that genius, she's a genius important to me.
• 43:29
  Speaker 3: This is not even the first time I've heard about
• 43:30
  Speaker 3: Rebecca's granola, so good? Are you willing to share that
• 43:33
  Speaker 3: recipe with our community? Can we put that in the newsletter.
• 43:36
  Speaker 4: I'll send you a photo of my I'm very excited
• 43:39
  Speaker 4: my linen press at the moment because it looks I'm
• 43:42
  Speaker 4: actually sad to sort of amortize that those supplies over
• 43:45
  Speaker 4: the next months, because it just looks so beautiful looking
• 43:49
  Speaker 4: at it, between my nappy supplies and and this this granola. Oh,
• 43:53
  Speaker 4: it to work a lot. She would have been set
• 43:55
  Speaker 4: through COVID, honestly. But also, if there's an apocalypse come
• 43:58
  Speaker 4: to my house, you will be well for.
• 44:01
  Speaker 3: I'm not surprised, honestly, I'm really not. So Back to
• 44:05
  Speaker 3: questions about budgeting and saving because this is she's on
• 44:09
  Speaker 3: the money, not she's.
• 44:10
  Speaker 4: On the granola.
• 44:12
  Speaker 3: How would I attribute different budgets to different areas of spending.
• 44:16
  Speaker 3: So we know that there's prems, but we also know
• 44:18
  Speaker 3: medical expenses like are they different accounts or is it
• 44:20
  Speaker 3: one kind of slush fund or how do you run that?
• 44:22
  Speaker 4: Look, I believe doing a bit of a back of
• 44:24
  Speaker 4: the envelope calculation is important, but have a good think
• 44:28
  Speaker 4: upfront about what is important to you. So medical expenses
• 44:33
  Speaker 4: are one large and certainly if you go private, large
• 44:36
  Speaker 4: and chunky and not negotiable. Yeah, but they are also
• 44:42
  Speaker 4: different from say personal care. So there's nothing like being
• 44:46
  Speaker 4: pregnant to be told by other people external people like
• 44:50
  Speaker 4: you should go get a massage. You know, this is
• 44:52
  Speaker 4: the time to look after yourself. But you can really
• 44:56
  Speaker 4: drop a heap of money in personal care.
• 44:59
  Speaker 3: Quotation sign gate pregnant and if someone says skeedama, so
• 45:01
  Speaker 3: I should be like, oh.
• 45:02
  Speaker 4: You've twisted my arm.
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: I'll do it every day.
• 45:05
  Speaker 4: But thinking personal care can mean a number of things.
• 45:07
  Speaker 4: It could be the clinical pilates, it could be a PTE,
• 45:12
  Speaker 4: it could be the acupuncture. It could be the fact
• 45:15
  Speaker 4: that you actually have no choice but to see Cairo
• 45:17
  Speaker 4: because your back is just battling so much. It could
• 45:21
  Speaker 4: be getting your eyelashes done. So personal care can be
• 45:24
  Speaker 4: a number of different things, And depending on your health
• 45:26
  Speaker 4: going into the pregnancy and how your body holds up
• 45:29
  Speaker 4: and your mind holds up during pregnancy, it might be
• 45:35
  Speaker 4: entirely discretionary or it might be non negotiable. So that's
• 45:38
  Speaker 4: a whole different section opposed to paying for an obstric Yeah. Absolutely.
• 45:43
  Speaker 4: Then we've got things like the startup capital associated with
• 45:47
  Speaker 4: the hardware that you need to get, so the prim
• 45:50
  Speaker 4: the stuff. Then we've got a baby paraphernalia category of
• 45:56
  Speaker 4: I don't know, let's call it nesting. So creating the
• 46:00
  Speaker 4: space that is beautiful is functional, which is different. I
• 46:03
  Speaker 4: would argue to the basics buying a cop like you
• 46:07
  Speaker 4: have to have somewhere for the baby to sleep. But
• 46:11
  Speaker 4: I think we all when we visualize interest, we're thinking
• 46:15
  Speaker 4: about these beautifully instagrammable rooms with some sort of crochet
• 46:22
  Speaker 4: throw over, a beautiful rocking chair, and so that thought
• 46:26
  Speaker 4: you just got that, Like I thought that was just
• 46:28
  Speaker 4: like how you had to do it, And so thinking
• 46:30
  Speaker 4: about how important that is to you, what it looks
• 46:33
  Speaker 4: like how you want to spend it. So do you
• 46:36
  Speaker 4: want to have you know, locally made, sustainably sourced versions.
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: Of all of that?
• 46:44
  Speaker 4: Are you happy to have the look? But it's actually
• 46:46
  Speaker 4: from you know, a mass produced supplier. Oh what insert
• 46:54
  Speaker 4: your favorite discount chain in there, and thinking about what
• 46:58
  Speaker 4: you want what you want that to look life like.
• 47:00
  Speaker 4: For instance, I spent three hundred dollars on plants for
• 47:03
  Speaker 4: my son's nursery because I was that would absolutely be
• 47:06
  Speaker 4: that is really important to me because it adds oxygen
• 47:08
  Speaker 4: space blah blah blah. I like that. She justified it too,
• 47:12
  Speaker 4: my friend. You don't need to justify plants. We just
• 47:14
  Speaker 4: buy plants. Plants make people happy. And then you can
• 47:17
  Speaker 4: even you know, consider the category of baby's clothing, right,
• 47:24
  Speaker 4: so that is absolutely an area that you can be like,
• 47:27
  Speaker 4: oh but it's so eaty bitty and I want to
• 47:29
  Speaker 4: get at this and I want to do that, and
• 47:31
  Speaker 4: some people that's really important and they want, you know, again,
• 47:36
  Speaker 4: locally handmade, some people want designers. Some people are perfectly
• 47:41
  Speaker 4: happy with seconds. So you can spend literally nothing to
• 47:45
  Speaker 4: through two thousands of dollars on just baby clothes that
• 47:50
  Speaker 4: you know, the first two sizes, four zeros and three
• 47:53
  Speaker 4: zeros are both designed to get you from zero to
• 47:55
  Speaker 4: three months. But I could actually have a baby who's
• 47:58
  Speaker 4: born at four kilos and just bypasses those first five
• 48:01
  Speaker 4: hundred nappies that I've already purchased for them. And so
• 48:05
  Speaker 4: we have to think about these different things, and so
• 48:08
  Speaker 4: I guess understanding the different categories that are relevant, that
• 48:12
  Speaker 4: there are several categories that are relevant thinking about what
• 48:15
  Speaker 4: is important to you and how you want to allocate
• 48:21
  Speaker 4: your resources, because we have finite resources, and if you
• 48:24
  Speaker 4: don't keep an eye on this, there are it is
• 48:27
  Speaker 4: very easy to be dropping twenty five thirty thousand dollars
• 48:32
  Speaker 4: and not being aware of it. And this is before
• 48:35
  Speaker 4: we talk about the financial implications of one or both
• 48:39
  Speaker 4: parents being out of the workforce.
• 48:41
  Speaker 3: And that's the next question that I actually had for you.
• 48:45
  Speaker 3: How do you plan for that? I know you are
• 48:48
  Speaker 3: a bit like me and that you adore your job
• 48:50
  Speaker 3: and could not wait to get back to it. So
• 48:52
  Speaker 3: you were not the type of person that were like,
• 48:54
  Speaker 3: oh kay, cool, like I'll see how much Matt Lee
• 48:56
  Speaker 3: if I could get I think from memory, you were like,
• 48:59
  Speaker 3: how little can I get?
• 49:00
  Speaker 4: Away with tak me through.
• 49:02
  Speaker 3: That decision and how you made the decision to be
• 49:05
  Speaker 3: you know, who was a stay home parent. Was there
• 49:07
  Speaker 3: a stay at home parent, did you have support?
• 49:09
  Speaker 4: How do we look at that? It's a really tough
• 49:13
  Speaker 4: one and I really challenge all women more often than men,
• 49:18
  Speaker 4: but all people in general to really think about what
• 49:23
  Speaker 4: they want and why they want it and not go
• 49:25
  Speaker 4: through the default settings, because unfortunately, in Australia, default settings
• 49:30
  Speaker 4: are women you will have twelve months off work.
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: Men you will have one to two weeks.
• 49:36
  Speaker 4: That is I don't believe acceptable for a number of
• 49:41
  Speaker 4: different reasons on both sides of the spectrum. So I
• 49:45
  Speaker 4: really challenged myself my husband to think about what we
• 49:49
  Speaker 4: wanted and why we wanted it. We had a good
• 49:54
  Speaker 4: awareness of our budget, so we knew that any length
• 49:57
  Speaker 4: of time that one or both of us were out
• 49:59
  Speaker 4: of the work what that would cost, and we essentially
• 50:02
  Speaker 4: had to have the cash available to be afloat, you know,
• 50:09
  Speaker 4: cash flow us through that period of time. I was
• 50:13
  Speaker 4: eligible for the government paid parental leave, so we could
• 50:16
  Speaker 4: sort of back solve a little bit of like, Okay,
• 50:19
  Speaker 4: we know that six months is going to cost us this,
• 50:21
  Speaker 4: but we're going to get X from that?
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: What does that mean?
• 50:25
  Speaker 4: Funnily enough, I actually had returned to work before Centralink
• 50:28
  Speaker 4: process my payment, so it was well, it was a
• 50:31
  Speaker 4: good lesson to say, like you, you can't rely on that.
• 50:35
  Speaker 4: Like you, also, you need your family money, You need
• 50:37
  Speaker 4: your money to get you through that period time. You
• 50:39
  Speaker 4: also need a buffer because things happened, so we had
• 50:42
  Speaker 4: to deplete our buffer whilst waiting. It was like a
• 50:46
  Speaker 4: return to work bonus for me once I once I
• 50:48
  Speaker 4: actually got paid it in a nice How long was
• 50:50
  Speaker 4: that before it actually processed? So I went back to work.
• 50:55
  Speaker 4: Jeffy was four and a half months, so it was
• 50:58
  Speaker 4: like within a week or two of that. Knowing your numbers,
• 51:02
  Speaker 4: knowing the cash flow implications, knowing what you're entitled to,
• 51:05
  Speaker 4: knowing what your partner is entitled to is really important
• 51:09
  Speaker 4: as well, so that you can actually do the numbers
• 51:11
  Speaker 4: and go, Okay, this is what we need, this is
• 51:14
  Speaker 4: what we need for our startup capital to have the baby,
• 51:16
  Speaker 4: this is what we need to get through the period
• 51:19
  Speaker 4: of parental leave. And then sticking to it. Oh my goodness,
• 51:24
  Speaker 4: what a revolutionary concept. No, don't don't stick to budgets
• 51:27
  Speaker 4: that would be so silly, but making sure you flow
• 51:31
  Speaker 4: on from that so that again I would describe it.
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: You know, when you're traveling.
• 51:37
  Speaker 4: And you've already spent a fair bit of money and
• 51:40
  Speaker 4: you're like, but I'm never going to be in Spain again.
• 51:42
  Speaker 4: Of course I'll go get that helicopter ride. There's all
• 51:45
  Speaker 4: of that feeling when you've pregnant, when you've got a newborn,
• 51:49
  Speaker 4: when you're stressed, when you're emotional, when you're in love,
• 51:52
  Speaker 4: like it's a roller coaster, and so if you're not
• 51:55
  Speaker 4: in tune with your money, it's very very easy. And
• 51:59
  Speaker 4: I would hate to think that there are people who
• 52:01
  Speaker 4: are now having to return to work a month earlier
• 52:04
  Speaker 4: than they would like to, or that they're ready to
• 52:06
  Speaker 4: because they can't afford not to.
• 52:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And I think that that's the place that we
• 52:10
  Speaker 3: want to put our listeners in, and that's just to
• 52:13
  Speaker 3: empower them with choice and knowing what they can reach
• 52:15
  Speaker 3: out to and how they can make that happen. Something
• 52:18
  Speaker 3: that I found really powerful and a lot of my
• 52:20
  Speaker 3: clients do and I'm sure yours do too, is they
• 52:23
  Speaker 3: bank up their annual leave. So if you're a partner,
• 52:27
  Speaker 3: I know that paternity leave is often not nearly as luxurious.
• 52:31
  Speaker 3: I think that's the wrong word, but we're going with
• 52:33
  Speaker 3: it as maternity leave. So I've got a couple of
• 52:36
  Speaker 3: clients who are essentially banking up there either long service
• 52:40
  Speaker 3: leave or their annual leave over a period of time
• 52:44
  Speaker 3: so that they can use that when a baby arrives.
• 52:46
  Speaker 3: Is that something that your clients are doing. Is that
• 52:48
  Speaker 3: something you did? How would you recommend dad's move forward
• 52:52
  Speaker 3: to be more hands on?
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 52:53
  Speaker 4: Absolutely, And this is why I understand your entitlements. Whether
• 52:58
  Speaker 4: it's actually the government paid parental leave for oh, it's
• 53:02
  Speaker 4: the most god awful name. It's like dad and partner
• 53:05
  Speaker 4: pay get in the bin. It's pretty gross, and it's
• 53:08
  Speaker 4: two weeks right compared to the ateen's also getting the bin.
• 53:11
  Speaker 4: So really really reinforces some of those political time So
• 53:16
  Speaker 4: nice exactly, So understanding what you're entitled to, what you
• 53:20
  Speaker 4: may have access to, but also finding a way to
• 53:24
  Speaker 4: sort of flex your muscles within those environments. So, for instance,
• 53:28
  Speaker 4: my husband, his employer policy was like five minutes of
• 53:31
  Speaker 4: paid leave, so Jesus as a secondary care. But we
• 53:36
  Speaker 4: got a letter from my obstetrician to say, Rebecca's recovering
• 53:39
  Speaker 4: from an emergency cesarean miss P is actually the primary
• 53:43
  Speaker 4: care during that point in time, But it's around and
• 53:46
  Speaker 4: you've got to use what resources that you've got, and
• 53:48
  Speaker 4: you know, again we're looking through it. We actually just
• 53:50
  Speaker 4: had this conversation with HR or his HR, and it's like, oh,
• 53:54
  Speaker 4: it has to be when your partner returns to work ago.
• 53:57
  Speaker 4: That's actually not written in your employment policy. I read
• 54:00
  Speaker 4: the policy.
• 54:01
  Speaker 3: It says who's the primary error, and we're saying it's him.
• 54:05
  Speaker 4: So respect our decisions exactly. My job postpartum is to
• 54:08
  Speaker 4: look after myself one hundred percent. And so you know,
• 54:14
  Speaker 4: it's and people might be looking at this and going, oh, semantics,
• 54:17
  Speaker 4: but it's but those semantics are really important. Those semantics
• 54:20
  Speaker 4: are important.
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: They also set the.
• 54:22
  Speaker 4: Tone for responsibilities for all kinds of interesting discussions within
• 54:28
  Speaker 4: the relationship. Let alone the financial implications of getting an
• 54:32
  Speaker 4: additional two weeks of paid leave or six weeks of
• 54:34
  Speaker 4: paid leave, which could be the difference between you buying
• 54:38
  Speaker 4: that prem or not, or you flying your mother down
• 54:42
  Speaker 4: from interstates so she can help you, or whatever it
• 54:45
  Speaker 4: might be.
• 54:46
  Speaker 3: It actually makes me feel a little bit gross thinking
• 54:50
  Speaker 3: that my partner's employer would say, well, what does your
• 54:53
  Speaker 3: wife do? What's she doing while you're off? Like, I'm sorry,
• 54:57
  Speaker 3: what has that got to do with anything? Why do
• 54:59
  Speaker 3: they need to know my whereabouts to make a decision
• 55:02
  Speaker 3: on their employment? Like you, you didn't interview me when I
• 55:05
  Speaker 3: came on board. So I think it's so backwards. It
• 55:08
  Speaker 3: is so backwards, and it really frustrates me. But I
• 55:10
  Speaker 3: think that's where you said like they're semantics.
• 55:13
  Speaker 4: No they're not.
• 55:13
  Speaker 3: They're actually pretty big details because we're talking about investing
• 55:16
  Speaker 3: in our families and spending time together and having that
• 55:19
  Speaker 3: quality family time with as little stress as possible, and
• 55:23
  Speaker 3: those things just make you stress more than necessary more
• 55:26
  Speaker 3: often than not.
• 55:27
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and having a good handle on this. So like,
• 55:30
  Speaker 4: for instance, again I said this about a wedding a
• 55:33
  Speaker 4: few years ago, having a wedding, having a baby, They
• 55:36
  Speaker 4: actually don't need to be financially stressful events. They are
• 55:39
  Speaker 4: incredibly stressful or emotional or they're all those they're already
• 55:44
  Speaker 4: all of these things, but the financial stress is entirely preventable.
• 55:49
  Speaker 4: If you get your a into g and you are
• 55:52
  Speaker 4: taking a considered approach like this, it's not a given.
• 55:56
  Speaker 4: You don't have to stress about money when it comes
• 55:58
  Speaker 4: to having a family, not at the start, not during it,
• 56:01
  Speaker 4: not afterwards, Like you can do this without worrying about money. Well,
• 56:05
  Speaker 4: one thing you and I were talking about earlier that
• 56:08
  Speaker 4: we haven't covered off here is is the fact that
• 56:11
  Speaker 4: we don't always feel pregnant when we want. No, it's unpredictable.
• 56:15
  Speaker 4: It's a really unpredictable thing. And so you know, financially,
• 56:19
  Speaker 4: I say, you have to assume that you're going to
• 56:21
  Speaker 4: get pregnant straight away, right like you have to have
• 56:24
  Speaker 4: your ducks lined up, because there's a fine literally a
• 56:28
  Speaker 4: finite period of time after you fall pregnant before the
• 56:31
  Speaker 4: baby comes, and therefore you only have limited additional capacity
• 56:35
  Speaker 4: to save or adjust whatever you need to. But we
• 56:40
  Speaker 4: also have to marry up this entirely contradictory perspective, which
• 56:44
  Speaker 4: is also that it could take a lot longer than expected,
• 56:48
  Speaker 4: and that can be really challenging to hold those two
• 56:51
  Speaker 4: completely conflicting viewpoints at the same time, but they're both
• 56:55
  Speaker 4: really important to hold. And so, for instance, you may
• 56:59
  Speaker 4: have additional time to save because it took longer than expected,
• 57:02
  Speaker 4: but also because it took longer than expected, you might
• 57:05
  Speaker 4: have additional costs associated with that. You've got more time
• 57:10
  Speaker 4: to think about things, You've got more time to think
• 57:12
  Speaker 4: about what you want or what you need. So that's
• 57:15
  Speaker 4: a really interesting dynamic to throw into the mix as well,
• 57:18
  Speaker 4: and particularly for people like us who would love.
• 57:21
  Speaker 3: To plank if things aren't in line and in line
• 57:26
  Speaker 3: with my plan. And this is not a process that
• 57:29
  Speaker 3: I'm looking forward to going through. Yes, I'm looking forward
• 57:31
  Speaker 3: to having a baby at some point in my future,
• 57:34
  Speaker 3: but I am not looking forward to the animosity that surrounds.
• 57:37
  Speaker 4: Am I pregnant? Am I not pregnant?
• 57:39
  Speaker 3: Like I've got girlfriends going through this at the moment,
• 57:41
  Speaker 3: and I've got one girlfriend who's been trying for more
• 57:43
  Speaker 3: than twelve months, and I just look at it and go,
• 57:45
  Speaker 3: oh my gosh, I'd be losing my mind.
• 57:47
  Speaker 4: Like I just like knowing what a sure thing is,
• 57:50
  Speaker 4: but that if it works, if it takes longer than
• 57:53
  Speaker 4: you expected, maybe you now need to invest more money
• 57:56
  Speaker 4: into mental health support because that's stressful. It's really stressful.
• 58:02
  Speaker 4: There's so many trade offs and other considerations going through
• 58:07
  Speaker 4: this exactly.
• 58:08
  Speaker 3: And if you have to go down the route of
• 58:10
  Speaker 3: fertility specialists in IVF and that all adds up, and
• 58:14
  Speaker 3: then it's a decision that a lot of people don't
• 58:16
  Speaker 3: realize they're going.
• 58:17
  Speaker 4: To have to make. I mean, what are some of
• 58:19
  Speaker 4: the other things to consider whether you're if you are
• 58:22
  Speaker 4: going down the private road. So, some private health insurers
• 58:25
  Speaker 4: will want you to serve a twelve month waiting period
• 58:27
  Speaker 4: before they will pay the benefits. For some insurers, it's
• 58:30
  Speaker 4: twelve months from the date your policy went into to
• 58:34
  Speaker 4: play to when you're fall pregnant. Others it's twelve months
• 58:37
  Speaker 4: from when your policy went into play to when you
• 58:39
  Speaker 4: have the baby. So understanding that and private health insurance,
• 58:43
  Speaker 4: let's be frank not cheap. And so if you know
• 58:47
  Speaker 4: that distinction, you potentially could be starting to try and
• 58:50
  Speaker 4: full pregnant four months after you've upgraded your cover rather
• 58:54
  Speaker 4: than waiting a full twelve month, and.
• 58:55
  Speaker 3: They could shoot yourself in the foot because it's more
• 58:57
  Speaker 3: expensive you've been paying for it to then find out
• 58:59
  Speaker 3: you can't even utilize it.
• 59:01
  Speaker 4: Or the inverse that you've been paying for it for
• 59:03
  Speaker 4: an extra couple like eight months that you didn't need
• 59:06
  Speaker 4: and there's a couple of thousand dollars that you've thrown
• 59:08
  Speaker 4: out the window just for just for the fun of it,
• 59:11
  Speaker 4: and so making sure you understand some of those distinctions
• 59:14
  Speaker 4: can be very very.
• 59:15
  Speaker 3: Useful about I'm going to start wrapping this chat up
• 59:18
  Speaker 3: because we've been talking to you for ages and we
• 59:20
  Speaker 3: don't want to take out too much of your time.
• 59:22
  Speaker 3: But one last question is, how would you recommend our
• 59:26
  Speaker 3: listeners who might be expecting, or are planning or are
• 59:29
  Speaker 3: hoping to start a family in the near future prepare
• 59:32
  Speaker 3: financially for their baby, Like, what is your one hot tip?
• 59:37
  Speaker 4: Oh, one hot tip. That's a really tough one. You
• 59:39
  Speaker 4: need cash. You will likely need insurance, so whether that's
• 59:44
  Speaker 4: private insurance, whether that's income protection insurance protection, insurance is
• 59:48
  Speaker 4: given life insurance, Like, you need to think about both
• 59:52
  Speaker 4: sides of those things. If you think this might be
• 59:56
  Speaker 4: on the cards for you, you can't think about it
• 59:58
  Speaker 4: too early. If you have the money and it sits
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 4: says for a little bit and that's the worst case
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 4: that that's great. So get thinking about it, get organized,
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 4: get the money ready because that's a bit you can control,
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 4: and then go have.
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 3: Some great sex and also make some granola priorities. Right,
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 3: I really like that. Thank you so so much for
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 3: joining us today. I'm very grateful if you wanting to
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 3: share all of this info with our community. I actually
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 3: can't wait for this to be in there is because
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 3: it is actually so much more powerful than I ever imagined.
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: And also we will put that blog with the full
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: breakdown of everything that Beck spent over her journey in
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: the show notes today and in the Facebook group later on.
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 3: And if she'll let me, I'll put it on our
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 3: I'll put it on our blog, We'll put it everywhere.
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 4: Well, we'll ask, we'll spam it. And if you give
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 4: me about two or three months, you'll get the follow
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 4: up blog, which is we get the follow up blog
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 4: too about what it'll look like. The second term around
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 4: content is Evan. Thanks so much, Beck, Thanks Amy.
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 3: Just before we head off, we'd like to acknowledge and
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 3: pay respect to Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people's,
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 3: the traditional custodians of the lands, the waterways and the
• 1:01:12
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• 1:01:16
  Speaker 3: caring for the land which we are able to learn.
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 3: We pay our respects to elders past and present, and
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 3: we share our friendship and our kindness.
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: And remember guys, that the advice shared on She's on
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: the Money is general in nature and does not consider
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: your individual circumstances. She's on the Money exists pulling for
• 1:01:32
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• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: an investment or a financial decision, and we promise Victoria
• 1:01:40
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• 1:01:47
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• 1:01:50
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• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: team of Ryan Beck and Jess for putting together today's show.
• 1:01:57
  Speaker 3: They're Gerindos, led Jerindos, legend a Renos. Anyway, if you've
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 3: stuck around this long, thanks for the chats.
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 4: We will see you next week.
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: Bye guys,