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By DIYFather.com

If you are worried about how to pay for your new baby while maintaining your current life style you're not alone. Financing a family is the #1 worry of dads-to-be. During pregnancy moms are mostly worried about giving birth financial worries still rank highly. And those concerns are very real ... raising a child till age 18 can cost anywhere from $100,000 to over $500,000(!). A baby's first year alone can cost upwards of $10,000. So what can you do? Re-mortgage your house, get another loan, try and get a raise or ask for a promotion? Sounds kinda hard.

How Much Money Can You Save in a Month?

Saving money often seems like a challenging goal. With so many expenses and costs, it can seem that putting aside money and saving is impossible. Despite the potential challenges, anyone is able to set aside extra cash each month with a little hard work, planning and searching.

Searching for Comparisons

The Money Game

As a parent and someone who is interested in creating wealth, helping my little lady become financially savvy when she grows up is very important. I come from a wealthy family that "gave their children fish, rather than actually teaching them to fish". So I thought it was timely now to teach my 4 year old girl Pyper about money and finances. We have started getting her used to money - she picks up bits of money that is either lying around in coins or someone might give her $5 here and there for a birthday. I firmly believe that parents who introduce the concept of "saving money" to their children early will be helping them in the long run. I recently came across an article that talked about practical steps parents could do to teach financial literacy to their children.

Children's allowances - when to give and when not

By Andrew Lendnal

Do you consider giving your children pocket money or an allowance essential? Is it bribery to ensure basic chores get done, or does it teach them budgeting, saving and basic money management skills? In truth, it’s probably a bit of both, and I don’t think either is a bad thing.

Children watch and learn all the time, so start as soon as you can to model these money skills. Let children handle money and use the language of money when talking to them about shopping, or even a trip to the cash machine. In these days of credit cards, eftpos and internet banking, children rarely see money going out. But it comes in via ATMs, and of course eftpos cash-out – they could easily think you go shopping and get paid to do it!

Don't blow the budget ...

Here's the second instalment from our feature on heaps.co.nz ... useful tips to help parents avoid blowing the family budget.

Enjoy,

Stef

Baby on a Budget on TV

Scott was interviewed about our new book "Baby on a Budget" this morning on TVNZ's Breakfast Show. Here's the link if you've missed it: TVNZ Breakfast Show




Check out the "Baby on a Budget" page on DIYFather.com for more information about the book.

-Stef

OK so what if there were a simple guide that:

• tells you exactly what you need to buy (and where from) for your new baby
• lists what you should NOT buy for your new baby because it's a complete waste of money
• explains how to save $$$ on toys, clothes, baby gear and consumables (which make up for over 70% of the expense in the first year)
• reveals what you're entitled to from the government and your employer when the baby's here (time off and money)
• includes practical information on how to save on special occasions - birthdays, going on vacation and the budget-killer Christmas

And ideally all of the above would be available in easy to follow steps and advice. Read on (some good news below).

Let's face it, you could probably get all of this information on the Internet ... and how long do you reckon it would take you to find exactly the right pages and sites that have the information you're looking for? Hours, days ...

How to help your child get her first job

If your child is looking to get a part-time job in the near future, why not give her a mock job interview? Have her enter your office and sit down. First, note if she is dressed appropriately. Second, ask for her resume. Then ask her questions like following:

• Why are you looking for a job?
• What can you do for our company?
• Why should I hire you?
• What is your biggest strength? Biggest weakness?

Also, be sure to tell your child not to ask about compensation until the end of the interview. A little preparation will go a long way in helping your kids land a job.

10 Ways to Teach Your Children a Great Work Ethic

We all want our children to learn the value of hard work, responsibility, faithfulness, and the joy of a job well done. But sometimes the distance between where they are now and the goal we have in mind seems awfully long.

Five Decisions Expectant Fathers Tend to Avoid

Expectant fathers have a lot of decisions to make when getting ready for the arrival of their first or new child. Many people create checklists to try and help them prepare, but it is impossible to make ready for every situation or need. There are many decisions during the pregnancy that dads really care about expressing an opinion but some are avoided at all costs.

Here are Five Decisions Expectant Fathers Tend to Avoid:

1. Choice of doctor or hospital - we're not the ones who need to feel comfortable being poked, probed and examined, so why should our opinion matter?

2. Room decor or bedding set - dads want kids to have cool rooms, but the only things we really care about when it comes to decor are how much it costs and the amount of work it will be for us to paint and set-up all of the furniture.

3. Formula or breastfed baby - as long as we can be involved in feeding the baby in some way, we don't really care where the milk comes from.

4. Natural or 'pain relieved' delivery - some dads may quietly think they have a strong position on this leading up to the big day; however, that quickly changes when they get in the delivery room with a screaming mom. In most cases, dads understand that they aren't the ones pushing the baby out, so they really don't have a say about epidurals or pain medications anyway.