Planning for a Baby Financially

Hi Everyone,

My DF (23) and I (24) are getting married in mid April, and have decided that we want to start a family soon after we come back from our honeymoon in mid May. YAY!
We purchased our first beautiful home a couple of years ago which we love. We obviously have a mortgage though and together with the added expenses of a baby (when we do have one) and me leaving work once we do have a baby it will be a stretch financially. We have worked it all out and we will be able to survive on just DF income, but it will be tight! We have no idea about what type of payments we could be eligible to get from the government (IRD) when we have a baby, or if we will entitled to anything at all? We have savings and are “saving” for a baby so we will be fine when we do have a baby, but just want to know if anyone out there knows what we could be entitled to. I have checked the IRD website, but it really does confuse me. I know I get 14 weeks paid parental leave, but it’s all very blurry as to what we could be entitled to after that finishes.

Any knowledge anyone has on this subject i would love to hear, thank you and sorry for the novel of a post

Sara xx

I love that IRD have those calculators on their website. Such a brilliant site. Take advantage of them to give yourself an idea of what you could be eligible for, then when you've got everything sorted (ie. up the duff), maybe go into WINZ and talk to someone.

Going by the calculator emmap posted, DH & I will be eligible for $62 a week. Better than nothing.

With those calculations make sure you overestimate what your income will be. If you get a payrise or anything like that and you have been paid more than you are actually entitled to you will get a lovely bill at the end of the finanical year. But if you overestimate you will get less in regular payments but you get a nice payment at the end of the financial year to make up what you should have got.

I agree with kebakat re OVER estimating your income. So may people get it wrong and then wonder why they owe money. Also remember to estimate it for the financial year (April to March) NOT an annual year.

We also did a 'baby savings' as well so when we got extra bills or surprise car expenses etc we were able to use that.

All the best for your wedding and good luck TTC

also look at www.workingforfamilies.govt.nz which talks about child care and accomodation supplement

Awww, boo that totally sucks nzpiper!

As a general rule I work ours out like:
My Income + $5k
DH income + $5k
That way it allows for any bonuses, commissions and or salary increases. Chances of getting any or all of them are slim but then that way they owe us rather than vise versa!

I think some people in some situations are, Smiles - not sure what they are, though, I think for most of the part you're right.

Although, with that much coming in unless you had pretty huge outgoings, you should be cool.

Yea... Auckland house prices are nasty.

Glad you understand jano1...I know it's easy for people to think that if you're earning over the threshold $74k then why would you need a govt payout. But for us Auckland-dwellers (who pay extravagant mortgages) it'll still be difficult to live on one income.