Work Life Balance
Mamas on Bedrest: 3 Steps to Combatting Money Fear
December 12th, 2011
“To combat Money Fear you must be truthful about where you are so that you can figure out where you need to go.“
~Manisha Thakor
Manisha Thakor is, in her own words,
A personal finance expert, author, and passionate advocate for global women’s economic empowerment.
She has her MBA from Harvard and did her undergraduate work at Wellesley College. She is a chartered financial analyst and is a financial fellow and guest lecturer in finance at Wellesley College.
I first had the opportunity to hear Manisha Thakor speak a few weeks ago when I tuned into a teleconference called Money Peace. It was put on by one of my favorite entrepreneurs, Christine Arylo. Arylo gathered 4 women money experts to discuss how to get control of your finances and how to release the fear around finances. It was a really awesome teleconference. (I have included the link to the page. I’m not sure if you can still listen, but you can get some great information!).
While the entire teleconference was inspiring and informative, Manisha’s words really struck me. She stated, quite truthfully, that people are often so engulfed in fear, they can’t even begin to take the necessary steps to untangle themselves from their own messes (and I’m paraphrasing here!). She is so right! Sometimes our finances seem so overpowering that we can’t even see how or where to make amends. Well, Manisha to the rescue. She offers these 3 steps to start on the path to financial awareness and eventually to freedom from financial fear.
- Know your credit score. Today, it is very easy to access your credit score from the three leading credit reporting companies-Equifax, Esperian and TransUnion.
So often when women are put on bed rest, their whole lives get thrown up in the air. What tends to fall the hardest are their personal finances. So many people are financially strapped these days that one little blip-and bed rest is not a little blip!- and things are thrown all out of whack.
But things don’t have to stay whacked. After the initial shock, take these three steps; find out your credit score, assess your net worth and see how much you are saving. You may not be as bad off as you think or the picture may be as dismal as you are thinking. Regardless of the case, you now have a starting point from which to make changes. You may want to contact a financial planner to see how to make changes. If you can’t afford one, I would at least recommend that you peruse Manisha’s site and read her blog. She has a lot of great information readily available for free.
Finally, don’t panic. You will make it through. Sometimes our greatest leaps are made when we first climb to a standing position from a hard fall. If this is your hard fall, don’t despair. Nowhere to go but up now. Dust yourself off and prepare to fly!
How are you financing your bed rest? Please share your tips below so that other mamas can benefit. Be sure to subscribe to our blog. The RSS subscribe is the orange circle in the upper right hand corner of our webpage. Connect with us on Twitter (@mamasonbedrest) and on our Facebook Page.
Mamas on Bedrest: Babies or Bankruptcy?
December 9th, 2011They are e-mails that just break my heart.
“I have just learned that I am pregnant with triplets and have been put on bed rest for the remainder of my pregnancy. This is a huge financial blow as we were living paycheck to paycheck when I was working and barely making it. We didn’t plan this pregnancy, and we knew that it would be a financial stretch. But Triplets??? I am completely overwhelmed! I have no idea how we’ll make it.”
At a time when this mama to be should be experiencing great joy, she is instead overwhelmed and quite possibly panicked. More and more I see couples delaying childbearing or abandoning the families of their dreams due to finances. But sometimes, as the above e-mail illustrates, life just throws you a curve.
While the decision to have a child is a very personal one, in the United States, without paid family leave, its becoming a luxury. That’s not to say that people aren’t having babies. But more and more, having a child is an additional burden that many couples are woefully unprepared for. Now granted, triplets are not common and are almost always a surprise to the parents to be. But something like bed rest is common (and increasingly more with women waiting later to have children, fertility issues, etc..) yet it catches most couples unaware and unprepared. So what should a couple do when a pregnancy presents unexpected circumstances that create a financial burden?
First and foremost, take a deep breath. Okay, have your meltdown first, then take a deep breath. Surely things seem overwhelmingly bleak, but you can survive. Hundreds to thousands of couples have weathered complicated pregnancies, multiple pregnancies, bed rest, complicated labors and deliveries, NICU babies and survived. Truth be told, many couples have been devastated financially. But others have actually survived the storm. How? Here are 3 steps to take to get a realistic assessment of your finances as you approach your pregnancy.
- Make a list of all your monthly income, every dime you receive.
- Make a list of all your monthly expenses. As much as possible, list everything that you spend money on from bills, to gas, to gifts to “that morning latte”.
- Make a list of all of your outstanding debt; mortgage, car notes, school loans, credit card debt and the like.
Once you make these lists, you’ll have a clearer picture of how much money you make, how much money you owe and how much money you spend. The task then becomes separating the essentials from the non-essentials. Rent/mortgage is an essential. Daily lattes or lunch out is not. Where can you trim? Couples will have to look at everything and make some tough decisions. I can recall one couple who was having financial difficulties when mama went on bed rest. For them, one solution was to move back in with parents. Was it their first choice? Most certainly not! But they saved a lot of money on rent and utilities and also, since the parents were retired, mama had a lot of care and support while on bed rest.
Pregnancy can present some unique challenges, especially when they are multiple and/or high risk. Couples will have to be creative when it comes to finding solutions to managing the financial burden these challenges bring.
Over the next several blog posts, we’ll share various tips we’ve learned about financing bed rest. We want your input. What are your financial concerns? What has worked for you financially? Share your story below as it will most certainly benefit another mama.
Mamas on Bedrest: Denver is Poised to Pass Paid Sick Leave Bill
October 21st, 2011
Denver Colorado is poised to be the 4th US City to provide paid sick leave to its employees. Currently, Seattle, San Francisco and Washington, DC all have laws guaranteeing workers a certain of number of paid sick days-days which workers can take due to their own illness or to care for a sick relative. Connecticut is the only state with a law that guarantees paid sick leave for its employees.
According to The Denver Post, Backers submitted 12,636 petition signatures to the Denver Elections Division — more than triple the 3,973 that must be verified by election officials within 25 days to place the measure on the November ballot. The clerk and recorder certified 7,248 petition signatures. On November 1, 2011 ballot, Denver voters will vote on Initiative 300, The Paid Sick Leave Bill, and decide whether or not to make paid sick days the law.
The bill has been contentiously debated. Many businesses, legislative officials (including Gov. John Hickenlooper) oppose the bill stating that it will cost Denver too much, some $700,000 annually, and only add to the current budget shortfall. They also contend that this bill will put Denver at a competitive disadvantage compared with other Colorado Cities who don’ t have such a mandated sick leave policy. The Majority of the Denver City Council opposes the bill as well.
However, the majority of Denver voters are in favor of the bill. Huff Post Denver reports that in a press release Kyle Legleiter, President of the Colorado Public Health Association said this about the ballot initiative:
“The paid sick and safe time ballot initiative protects the public’s health. Most of the workers who will earn paid sick and safe time for the first time are lower-wage workers who may expose the public to illnesses in restaurants, childcare centers and medical caregiving, all because they simply cannot afford to miss a day’s pay.”
Low income workers and minorities stand to benefit the most from passage of the paid sick leave bill. Huff Post Denver further reports,
“A recent study conducted by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research found that access to paid sick days in Denver, for private sector workers 18 years and older, varied widely based on ethnicity and race, with Latinos and African Americans lacking paid sick days at significantly higher rates. Most of the jobs without paid sick time are in service industries like restaurants, childcare, home healthcare and construction, where workers have a great deal of interaction with public. Read more about their findings here.”
While the Denver battle may seem remote to Mamas on Bedrest, it is indicative of the change that is coming. No longer is it okay for women, minorities and low income workers to have to choose between keeping a roof over their heads and food on the table and caring for their health and the health of their families. Public outcry is strong and change is imminent. Let’ s hope that this wave of change will extend to paid maternity leave so that Mamas on Bedrest will be able to relax and calmly gestate their babies instead of stressing themselves out over whether or not they will be able to stay in their homes, maintain their jobs and their health insurance and be able to pay for the child that is on the way.
Are you a Mama on Bedrest in Denver? We’d love to hear your perspective on the Campaign for a Healthy Denver and Initiative 300. Share your thoughts below. You can also tweet us on Twitter @mamasonbedrest or post your comments on our Facebook page.
