Being mom is a great feeling. Motherhood brings immense joy to every woman, whether she is a homemaker, a professional or self-employed. As a mother, she has to make so many sacrifices; most critical being leaving the job or her work, as carrying a baby and then parenting a baby is an occupation in itself. As more and more women are contributing to family’s kitty, it becomes increasingly difficult for them to leave the job. With more and more women joining the workforce and organisations giving due recognition to their contribution, support their decision to take a sabbatical. This period covers the period of pregnancy, delivery and parenting of the young one. Though it is a big relief for the moms-to-be, it has its own set of challenges and the major being rise in expenses and fall in earnings. How to cope with this scenario without compromising on the joys that motherhood brings. For this, you need to be well planned financially.

It is really heartening to note that so many women now take a proactive interest in their financial planning. The earlier you plan for it, the easier it will be to bear the financial implication of motherhood and parenting. Parenting is not an easy job, but at least if you take care of your financial implications it will leave you free to do the important “parenting”.

First is to save for thechildbirth expenses, then for the expenses related to it, and god forbid if there are health issues with the child. Note that your regular expenses with the newborn are going to go up because of the expenses on childbirth and your income is going to be affected. So you have to estimate the span for which you take the sabbatical.

For planning in advance, you need to make sure that you have a proper medical policy which covers the cost of pregnancy as most of them give cover in the range of Rs 25,000 to Rs 50,000. But the most important thing in the policy should be that the child is covered from day one.

Some policies not only take care of hospitalisation costs, be it the normal delivery or the C-section, but also of pre-natal and post-natal care.

Now comes the need to create a corpus for a period for which you are planning the sabbatical to partly pay for the increase in expenses during this period. The earlier you plan, the greater is the chance you are well taken care of during the sabbatical. As a first measure, you can use your marriage cash gift as the parenting fund. This will comprise your cash received during marriage, your regular investments, windfall gains such as bonuses and incentives etc. At the younger age, both husband and wife should use all these three things to build a parenting fund.

Basically, creating a parenting fund can insure that you became a great parent because you are minimising the financial impact of parenting which allows you to devote more time on parenting. Those women who are planning a sabbatical can cover risks that are coverable and creating a parenting fund, which can start creating from the day you start working.

Typically, the fund will not have a long investment period, hence investment will primarily be in debt funds or at best in debt-oriented hybrid funds i.e. MIP. You can also take benefit of the interest being accrued on your fixed deposits and recurring deposits. As the duration of investments is not very long, say between one-two years, it is not advisable to go with equity mutual funds. Instead, you can park your funds in FDs or debt funds of mutual funds. Now that you are starting a family, you need to be more responsible by taking enough life cover for yourself. You can opt for an online term plan where premiums are quite cheap even for big sum assured.

With all these suggestions and actions in place, you are ready to welcome your little bundle of joy.

The author is Chief Editor, ApnaPaisa. The views expressed in this article are her own

After a hard day’s work, you head home. It doesn’t matter if you are staying in a posh duplex or a dilapidated rented room; the solace of your house is undeniable. But what happens when your home is compromised? Not trying to scare you but peril affects our homes more often than we can imagine. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, there were 21,000 crores worth of goods stolen in India in 2012 alone. A FICCI report tells us that out of 35 states and union territories of India, 27 of them are disaster prone. Let’s face it; we are not untouchables when it comes to fires, floods and other contingencies, so the best to give up the mindset that it can’t happen to me.

Now, let’s take a financial perspective of the same situation. The cost of constructing a good 1,500 sq ft floor in a Tier I, Indian city is about 20 lakhs give or take. Rent on a similar space will be Rs 30,000. Add the cost of the basic household assets in every home, worth a couple of lakhs easy. So if something happens where you lose or damage your house to a peril, you will need to shell out a substantial amount to put the roof back over your head. Still think you don’t need home insurance?

With such stark realities staring at us in the face, the low awareness about the necessity of home insurance in India is indeed surprising. A recent survey conducted in the real estate market had 50 per cent of the survey respondents saying they felt home insurance could be ignored.

Millions of homes are bought and rented by educated smart Indians today, but home insurance, a basic precaution, figures almost nowhere in their list of priorities. This is known because these policies do not account for more than 1 per cent of all policies sold by general insurance companies.

So what is home insurance all about? Simply put, it is a form of insurance that is designed to protect your house and its contents from a range of listed perils such as theft, fire and natural disaster. A basic home policy covers only the cost of reconstruction of your house and the cost of its contents in case you face the above mentioned emergencies. If you are living in a rented house, your policy will focus on the household contents, if you are leasing, the focus will be on the house structure. Home insurance offers you the flexibility to customise your policy. You can also go a step forward and make your policy more comprehensive with add-ons covers. These include options for appliance damage, death or injury during an accident to self or worker in the house and even terrorism. Most companies offer discounts to consumers buying comprehensive policies.

The cover for an insurance policy for your home is calculated by multiplying the built-up area of your home with the construction rate per sq. feet. For the contents, it’s the current market value minus depreciation.

When it comes to cost, home insurance does not burn a hole in your pocket. For a house valued at 50 lakhs and contents valued at 10 lakhs, the cheapest policy can be bought from Oriental Insurance for only Rs. 1,755. Add-ons like burglary paying a cover up to Rs. 10 lakh or an injury\death cover paying up to Rs. 5 lakh will additionally cost you Rs. 1,000 and Rs. 300, respectively. In short, a comprehensive cover for your house can come for a mere Rs. 3,300 a year. Many other leading insurance companies, including Bajaj Allianz, Future Generali, HDFC ERGO, ICICI Lombard and IFFCO TOKIO offer these plans. If you purchase online, most companies can issue you a policy instantly without documentation. Being a general insurance cover, the policy is valid for a year post which a renewal is required.

Now that you’re convinced of the importance of home insurance and how little it costs, don’t waste a moment to get your house secured.

Understand your personal requirement, compare policies and purchase a policy that suits your needs. After all home is where the heart is.

The author is Chief Marketing Officer at PolicyBazaar.com. The views expressed in this article are his own