In this post, I am going to share 7 ways motherhood changes my personal finance.
In fact, motherhood changes me in many other ways such as physically, financially, mentally and emotionally. For the purpose of this personal finance blog, I will be just sharing the financial part.
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7 ways motherhood changes my personal finance
Most people will agree if I said motherhood is expensive. As for me and my husband, we feel the expensiveness even before we started our parenthood journey.
Those who read my sharing earlier should know that my husband and I spent a lot of money on infertility treatments including IVF.
Actually, before the arrival of my baby, I am well aware that motherhood will change me in many ways including my personal finances.
But, there are still some surprise changes that I only realized as I ventured into my motherhood role.
So, these are 7 ways motherhood changes my personal finance:
1. Earning money is no longer my top priority
Before motherhood, I remembered I shared with a colleague that it is better for women to go back to work after becoming a mother. I also remember I told my colleague the reason is that women need to be financially independent.
But, from the moment I saw my little baby, he immediately becomes my top priority. As I spent more and more time with him, I feel the special bonding growing stronger.
As the priority changes, so do my work and the thought of earning money. Somehow I feel guilty for not being able to make more sacrifices for my work.
Before motherhood, I would say I was a really committed employee who would go the extra mile to ensure tasks were completed properly.
After motherhood, I was no longer willing to spend extra hours at work. Because I really value the limited bonding time with my little baby.
Thus, to be fair to my baby and my former employer (also coupled with other reasons), in the middle of 2018, I decided to take a break from employment. That was when my baby is almost 2 years old.
Motherhood gives me the special courage to temporarily let go of my career and be a stay-at-home mum.
Now, earning money is still my priority but no longer my top priority.
On a side note, please don’t feel bad if you are a working mum. Instead, you should feel proud of yourself if you can balance motherhood and your career. I would say it is personal preferences that matter.
If you are currently a working mom but thinking to become a stay-at-home mom, you might be interested to read my sharing on 7 questions to ask yourself before deciding to become a stay-at-home mom.
2. Motherhood increased my monthly expenses
Secondly, as expected motherhood increases my monthly expenses. Based on my calculation, after the arrival of my baby, my monthly expenses increased by about 25%. In some months, it can reach up to 30%.
A big portion of the monthly expenses went to the nanny for childcare while I was at work. Other expenses include baby needs such as clothing, toys and baby food.
As for my husband, he contributes to the other half of our baby expenses such as formula milk, diapers and other baby needs.
The increment of 25% is just from my part of the contribution. So, motherhood does really change my personal finance and our family expenses as a whole.
3. I am more careful with my money management
With motherhood, I am even more careful with my money management. I noticed the changes in my personal finance as below:
1. Apply the smart spending concept as much as possible
Whenever possible, I try my best to apply the smart spending concept. Be it at the local supermarket, online shopping or dining out.
2. Using financial apps to keep track of my expenses
Since 2018, I have started to track my expenses in more detail by using financial apps.
Many years back, I used to track my spending in detail when I started earning money. But, as my income increased, I got lost in tracking my expenses. And I control my spending by ensuring I didn’t spend more than my monthly allowance.
I am glad that motherhood brought me to track my spending in detail again. The beauty of tracking my expenses in detail is that I have a clear picture of where my money goes to. This also helps me to make better financial decisions for future purchases.
3. I spent less money on myself
Something I realized from my tracking is that nowadays I spent less money on myself. I no longer feel good spending an RM200 hair salon session.
In other words, I am better at controlling my unnecessary expenses.
On the other hand, I am willing to spend more for my baby especially if it can enhance his learning experience.
I think this is a natural sacrifice that a mother is willing to make for her baby.
From the above, two good reasons why I am more careful with my money management is because:
- I need to adjust my personal finance to fit in the additional expenses from my baby
- I want to show good personal finance habits to my baby
So, motherhood makes me become more money cautious.
4. I picked up online shopping
Before motherhood, I don’t shop online.
Probably because many years back I had some bad experience when I purchased a few blouses online. The quality of the blouses was below standard and did not match the price tag. I never wear those blouses.
As a result, I was sceptical and not interested in online shopping.
With motherhood, I started to research good quality baby apparel at a reasonable price online. That was when I started my online shopping with Shopee.
On Shopee, I found many good purchases for both my baby and myself. I would say I am happy with the price I paid for my purchases.
They did help me save money, especially on baby clothing.
5. I have an additional fund to manage
Motherhood also gives me another role which is to manage my baby’s angpao money.
As our only child and among the youngest in my husband and my family, my baby accumulated some savings from his angpao money.
Now, aside from managing and monitoring my own personal finances, I also need to manage and help my baby to grow his angpao money.
This also means I have an additional fund to ‘play’ with and an additional personal finance lesson to learn.
6. I am willing to take more risks
As I grow into motherhood, I am also learning to take more risks. This includes investment risk.
If you are wondering why motherhood changes my risk appetite, these are the reasons:
- I want better returns on investment – I hope to have sufficient funds for my retirement and also to support my baby’s education, especially his tertiary education. One of the ways is to invest in the right type of investment vehicle which might carry higher risks but a much better return on investment.
- to maximize the time I have – I started motherhood late. So, I don’t have the leisure to grow my money with time. Thus, I need to make up for time lost with a better investment decision which might carry higher risk.
- to show and teach my little one the importance to take measured risks – I learned from my past that it is best to incorporate some parts of risk into our life. One of them is taking risk in investment with the hope of better returns. I hope I will be able to show the positive result of taking risks to my baby when he’s more mature.
So, motherhood changes my personal finance by inspiring me to take more risks.
7. I need bigger emergency funds
Undoubtedly, with the arrival of my baby, I am also preparing for a bigger emergency fund.
Now, I not only have to get ready for my own emergency needs but I also need to take care of my baby’s emergency needs. And a lot of times, a baby’s emergency needs are not something a mother is willing to tolerate.
So, motherhood drastically doubles the size of my emergency funds.
Final thoughts
Well, motherhood does really change my personal finance. In fact, currently, motherhood brings the biggest change in my personal finance.
But, one important thing is that my little one gives me the greatest and purest joy of being a human. He gave me the courage to do things that I never thought I would do. I see hope and light in my toddler’s eyes.
Even though motherhood is expensive, I will not trade it for any other things. Because I know my little one is my true investment.
So, with my sharing above, I am not discouraging women to have babies. But instead, please take my sharing positively to better prepare for motherhood.
Are you a mum yourself? If yes, I want to know how motherhood changes your personal finance.
