Becoming a parent is one of the most demanding yet fulfilling experiences of life. When you become a parent, money becomes your second most important priority after the kid. During the pregnancy and post pregnancy, there are several expenses that might affect your normal budget

Hence, it is essential to have a robust financial plan in place to comfortably meet all the expenses after you welcome your kid in the family.

Pregnancy Related Expenses

Even before you conceive a child, you might have to spend on medical expenses for required tests and checkups. Making the house baby-proof, setting up a baby room, buying baby clothes/ toys, and more will attract substantial expenses. It is advisable to create a small fund where you can accumulate a certain amount in a few months to cover these expenses.

You will also have to factor hospitalization expenses during the birth of baby. Here, you can buy a health insurance that covers the maternity expenses. A comprehensive maternity policy will cover normal and C-section deliveries, hospitalization expenses, vaccination charges, and more.

However, infertility treatment expense, pre-existing disease affecting pregnancy, and other conditions are not covered under the insurance. Read the list of inclusion in the policy carefully before buying  policy.

Post Pregnancy Expense

As per current expenses benchmark, it normally takes around Rs 6.2 lakh to raise a child from birth to the time they turn 4. And it roughly takes around Rs 67.4 lakh to raise a kid from conception to graduate school.

However, these figures are indicative and we haven't factored inflation. Your expenses might also go up or down depending upon your financial well-being and family background. Majority of the expenses are related to health and others being clothes, toys, and education.

What should women do?

As per Assocham report, around 25% first-time mothers quit jobs after pregnancy to raise their child. And many of these mothers never come back to working due to several apprehensions including discrimination. However, some women rejoin work after their kids start attending school.

Loss of income post-pregnancy is a serious issue. Hence, women along with their partners must be prepared for a scenario where they might have to live on a single source of income.

However, single mothers who are not able to join work after pregnancy may have to depend on multiple passive incomes including interests from deposits, part-time jobs, rental income, and family assistance.

Hence, it is advisable that women should invest some part of their income every month in SIPs to build a healthy corpus. They can start investing in this fund even before marriage and once married, their partners can also contribute to the fund.

Baby's Milestone

You should start investing for your kid's different milestones. Like admission in the first school, first birthday, college admission, and wedding expenses. Invest judiciously in short term and long term instruments to get the required money whenever your need it.

Hope these tips will help you in raising your kid without any financial burden.