I didn't the first time around, but I had just started working. Now we're thinking about #2 and life is expensive! I want to save enough to cover my missed income minus PTO and std (which is next to nothing)
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I didn't save money, but I did save up my vacation time and sick time so that I was able to cover my leave!
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Yup, we have started a aggressive savings plan to account for my lost income while on maternity leave.
There is no way my minimal vacation plus PTO will cover my leave time especially considering days I have to take off for a sick toddler.
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Yup! We saved what amounted to half of my income for the 8 weeks I'll be gone. My STD is 50%, so it works out.
Thankfully DH got a job right before DD was born, and we don't actually NEED the saved money (we were assuming he would be employed for less).
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@locavore_mama: your situation sounds like mine. Most of our savings had been going toward our emergency fund which we just got to a good level. I just started a maternity leave account and I'm putting a lot into that now.
If I'm lucky I'll have 2 ish weeks vacation and std for 6 weeks which covers about 1/3 of my income. It really sucks!!!
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That's a good idea! I need to calculate how much I'll be down between state disability and short term disability. Luckily I'll be able to take PTO for part of the leave too.
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No, I had near full top up my time off, so we prepped for the bit of a dip by just being a little more conscious of our spending.
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We are in the process of saving! I need to really calculate it out and get aggressive with it. I think I can take up to 12 weeks leave, and use my saved up sick time and vacation time to cover it but I don't want to completely drain my time since LO will obviously get sick, we might take vacations still, etc.
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I have no idea what federal maternity benefits are,other than unpaid leave. I don't want to use up my 3 weeks annual and 3,weeks sick, so we will probably use savings. Our savings is down payment plus emergency fund, so we will contribute more once we get bfp.
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I tried, but only managed to save about $3,000. And of course I didn't sign up for short term disability before I got pregnant. I get paid by my employer for the first six weeks of my leave, but I'm trying to be off for about 18 months, and my SO's salary just barely covers the bills with nothing leftover for food. This should be interesting.
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Yup. I knew I would be off work for 5 months, and since it was a new job my maternity leave would be completely unpaid. I managed to save enough to have half my salary each month for the 5 months.
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No, I had 7 months off at full salary.
We did save aggressively though, because we were not sure if I would return to work, which I didn't.
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Yep!! Had to, I only had 4 weeks PTO. We saved enough to pay for another 4 weeks off, plus enough to cover daycare the first few months.
I plan to do the same for LO #2.
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We saved up for DH to miss work because my maternity leave was fully paid for.
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Yes we saved for 8 weeks of my missed income, we had a car accident that ended up using some of that fund, but we had enough saved + my PTO to help with expenses. the last few weeks were tight with the holiday's, but we managed.
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Doubt it. We don't count on my salary anyway.
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I started putting aside a little bit of money each month when we started TTC because I knew I would have to take some LWOP for mat leave. It took us so long to conceive that I ended up having extra money. Woo hoo!!
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We haven't saved any more than usual, but that's because luckily my maternity leave is almost all paid at, or close to, 100% so we don't have to worry too much. I would like to save a bit extra over the next two months though.
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@looch: Full salary?! That's amazing!
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I did. I saved enough to cover my medical bills (~4k) and my time lost (~3 weeks after short term disability and using ALL of my PTO). I'm not doing it again (getting pregnant) and one reason is we really need to keep saving, not keep spending money we're saving. We just don't have the extra cash to put towards savings AND maternity leave savings with daycare involved. Whomp.
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@mediagirl: I know what you mean. It's kind of sickening that I am saving a lot of money just to spend it all while I'm off for 3 months. We really need better maternity leave options!
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@yellowbird: Yes, we do.
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@yellowbird: I have 8 days left and whatever PTO gets accrued. NY state std is only $160/wk so I highly doubt my employer purchased a plan that will give me more.
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We saved last year for my maternity leave, taking 12 weeks off unpaid big a big dent into our savings account last time.
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No not really. I mean we have a few savings accounts we fund, but nothing specifically for leave. But I'm getting paid and my hub has plenty of paid time off so I don't think that leave will cost us anything, above and beyond just having a kid!
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@lavender: I'm now starting to think we should up our savings even though we are,still only ttc. Gulp!
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No. We just ate the cost.
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We didn't specifically save for maternity leave but we are pretty good savers in general so losing my income wasn't a problem.
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We did save agressively during the pregnancy, but we ended up not having to touch that money. My company has a generous disability policy - they will pay the difference between STD and your full-time salary, depending on how long you've worked for the company. So between that and my PTO, I had all but a week of my leave paid. BUT, I didn't have any PTO for the rest of the year, and I was on leave Jan-mid April! It sucked big time!
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Not specifically. We don't depend on my salary for basic expenses, so we usually use it for one vacation a year, and then save the rest. I get paid at 60% of my salary for a year, so we ARE saving most of that for a rainy day if I end up not going back to work after my leave is up.
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we are aggressivly saving to get me covered for just my salary for 12 weeks, but I think adding in some medical costs like @medigirl stated is really smart. In our seperate savings account we are able to say what goal we want to reach and when and it does the math for us...thank goodness! lol
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@sunset840: I've been putting money into my HSA for the medical bills!
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Yes, I am saving all of my overtime pay between now and then since I will have a few weeks unpaid.
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Yes! We're actively saving so we can keep LO in daycare while I'm at home with the newborn for the first few months.
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No, I have PTO to cover my leave this time around, and still plan to do some freelance work during that time too (it mostly runs itself). The STD last time was a huge help, but not worth the expense to keep it as a part time worker this time around.
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