Getting Ready
Financial Checklist: Before your child arrives
Planning for your child's arrival can seem overwhelming. Try out this checklist for
ideas on how to prepare.
Review your financial priorities
Look at your goals for the next five years. This will help you identify
your priorities for saving. For example, do you need to move to a larger
home or save for a trip to visit the baby’s grandparents?
Identify lower
priority items
where you can
cut costs. To free
up money for new
expenses such as
diapers, baby gear
and child care.
Think about how
your priorities
may affect your
household
income in the
future. For
example, if one
parent plans to
Photo Credit: FreeImages.com-Edaterina Boym-Medler
stay home, you will
be able to avoid
child-care costs, but you may lose some of your household income.
Think about putting any government benefit you get for your child,
such as the Canadian Child Benefit, into a savings plan (like a
Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP)). It will be one less
decision to make once your baby arrives. See pages 15-20 for more info
on saving and investing.
Update your budget to take into account your financial priorities.
Compare your income against all of your expenses. If your expenses are
greater than your income, review your expenses to see where you can cut
out items so that you’ll have more money to pay for child-related
expenses. A budget worksheet is available online at: https://cba.ca/
Assets/CBA/Documents/Files/Article%20Category/PDF/
cba_budgetworksheet_en.pdf
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