November 6, 2019

Kristin talks to Paige, The Millennial Guru, again today about how to financially prepare for growing your family!  You can listen to this complete podcast episode on iTunes or SoundCloud.

Kristin:  Welcome to Ask the Doulas with Gold Coast Doulas.  I’m Kristin, co-owner of Gold Coast, and I’ve got Paige Cornetet, the Millennial Guru, here with me for our second episode on financial tips.  This one is focused on, once you’ve had your baby, how to really stock savings and plan ahead and make important financial decisions.  So welcome, Paige!

Paige:  Thank you!  Thanks for having me on!

Kristin:  Yes, it’s our pleasure!  Fill us in, for those who missed the previous episode, a bit about what you do, and then we’ll get into your ideas for how our clients and audience can save.

Paige:  Perfect, thank you.  I started the business Millennial Guru, and basically, I do workshops and trainings focused on women as well as millennials.  I’ve written a couple of children books focused on financial education.

Kristin:  Fantastic.  Yeah, I love your books, and you’ve got another one coming out?

Paige:  Yes.  This one’s called The Hen in the Pen, and it’s all about investments and understanding the difference when you eat your chickens, when you eat your eggs, and if you eat all your chickens, you don’t have anymore eggs left, so focusing on eating your chickens because they provide for your lifestyle and growing your flock of chickens.

Kristin:  I love it!  I can’t wait for it to come out.  So tips — okay, so baby is here, and children are expensive?

Paige:  What?!  Yes, very!

Kristin:  So let us know what you would recommend for our audience.

Paige:  Oh, my gosh.  I mean, that’s a good question; that’s a big question.  I would say tips for moms: I think it’s really important to definitely have, like we talked about before on the previous episode — margin.  So understanding that cushion of what it is, how much that you need for a rainy day fund, whether it’s an emergency or something that the baby needs that you didn’t know that you were going to need and they didn’t get it at your baby shower, whatever it is.  Understanding what are the necessities, and then taking it even further, around the wants and needs.  So understanding what is it that you need; what is it that your baby needs; what is it that your family needs, and then what is it that you want?  What is it that your baby wants?  And what is it that your family wants?  Kind of differentiating those two, I think, makes a big difference.

Kristin:  Sure.  And they’re all the decisions of, do you leave your job and stay home with the baby, or do you look at in-home or a childcare center for daycare, and how do you maximize your income if you do return to work when all this money is going out for childcare, and what is the best situation for your family?

Paige:  Totally.

Kristin:  Short-term and then long-term.

Paige:  Well, and I think you have to be honest with yourself, as well.  I have a lot of friends who are having babies, and they’re either going back to work or leaving work and figuring out what that is, what that means to them.  And I think that, as well as, yeah, your personal desires on top of, you know, what is it that you can afford, whether it’s daycare, whether it’s staying home, and how does that look for you?  But I think being honest is the first step with yourself.  And then on top of that is, what is it that you want, and what is it that you need?  How do you need to provide for that desire?

Kristin:  Yes.  And then planning for college and other expenses and even — I mean, my kids are in sports and other activities, like theater, and all of the activities get pricey.  My daughter started dance at age two, for example, and so you think of those expenses, and are you going to limit activities for children?  What are you willing to budget for activities, sports, and so on?

Paige:  Absolutely.  Well, it’s interesting you say that about activities.  My family had a saying.  It was called GUTS, and it stood for Golf, U Pick, Tennis, and Swimming.  So those were the four activities that we were allowed to do, so golf, tennis, and swimming are things you can do until you’re 80, so they’re life-long sports.  Even if you don’t play it, you still have to learn it and do it.  And then the u-pick was just, whatever it is that you wanted.  So I loved dance.  I loved ballet; I loved jazz.  And I had to do it.  So even though it was u-pick, since there was four of us, my dad was, like, well, your sister has to do it with you, too, in terms of coordination and carpool and schedules.  It’s time and money.

Kristin:  That’s what it’s all about, yes.

Paige:  My sister, Brooke, she didn’t love dance as much as I did, but she did love the vending machine that gave candy at the bottom of it, so I was able to convince her to do one more year because there was skittles and candy that we could get right after.  Her want was candy; mine was dance.

Kristin:  It’s all about compromise.

Paige:  Exactly.

Kristin:  And then looking at other things outside of kids’ activities and just — you had talked in the previous podcast about maximizing your time, talents, energy, and so on.  So outsourcing your household things, whether it’s getting your groceries delivered by Shipt or having a housecleaner come in, or a postpartum doula, which I highly recommend!  Get some sleep!  What are your priorities?  So tell us about some of your theories in maximizing and how to figure out what might be more beneficial to outsource.

Paige:  Yeah.  I think just the things that you mentioned are really great, but understanding what is it that takes you a lot of time and what are the things that you don’t like to do that you can outsource?  So I would say, yeah, I love the grocery delivery.  If you want to work out, too, who is going to take the baby so that you can be physically active, or is there a place like the gym that you can bring your baby to so that you can work out while the baby’s there?  So I think figuring out what are your lists of goals; what are the things you need?  Definitely sleep!  Number one is sleep, and then we can talk about food and physical activity.  It’s understanding that, what that is that you need, and then going, okay, so if I need sleep, let’s hire a doula so that mom can get some rest.  Okay, now that I have the sleep — food.  I need healthy food.  Using outsourcing; people bringing food, meals.  Communities, whatnot; Shipt.

Kristin:  Yeah, special food delivery services that are local, as well as national, that you can get food delivered to your door, which is also a time saver, and if you can get specialty diet needs because a lot of people may need to cut out dairy or have certain allergies if they’re breastfeeding their baby and need to make some adjustments to their regular diet.

Paige:  Exactly.

Kristin:  So other than that, what are your other tips when you’re looking at — you’ve got this baby.  I mean, there’s college, obviously.  That’s a big one.

Paige:  Yes.  Well, I would say education, just in general, is an important one to be thinking about because, okay, they’re going to preschool.  Now they’re in middle school.  All those different levels of schooling, and what does that look like?  Where do you live?  For example, Michigan has a really great public school system.  Where I grew up, Florida, does not.  So what does that look like where you live, the state?  What works for you?  Would you want to send your kid to, like, a Montessori — I grew up there, so I’m a big fan of Montessori — and if you do, what does that look like?  So I think education is definitely a priority and planning for that, as well as just, not only education for paying for that, but education for your child from you because you are a teacher, as well, to your children.  And so are there things that you want to teach your child?  For example, I just have coffee this morning with a good friend.  She has a two-year-old, and she’s, like, what is education?  I want my daughter to go to a great college and — but she’s like, but I want her to have access to a lot of experiences like they’re going to spend a month and a half in Hawaii with her brother to really understand — and she’s like, I’m bringing my daughter with me.  I’m so excited because it’s important for her to see the world is bigger than just West Michigan where she lives.  So education, I think, in the whole sense of the word, is definitely very important on many levels for your children.

Kristin:  It’s not just planning for college.  You’re looking at, will it be a private or parochial school that you need to reserve funds for, or is music education?  You would lump that into the education category?  Same as sporting activities, for example?

Paige:  Yes, as well as experiences, too, right?  So let’s say travel is very important to you and you want that to be important to your children.  Are you going to be providing for those experiences that are very educational but maybe aren’t necessarily around schooling?

Kristin:  So when you’re planning your family budget, how does all of that fit in?

Paige:  Well, I think it depends on each family, of course.  So each family has, you know, from different jobs, different means, different lifestyles, different priorities.  But the one thing that we all have in common is time.  So we all have that equally, and I think that understanding where is the time going and what is it that your children are going to be doing?  For example, like you said, different sports; activities.  What’s important to you?  What’s important to the child?  What’s important to give them exposure to?  And then I think if you can do that and set that overarching as a bigger picture, it kind of will fall into place and you can start planning for that more strategically.

Kristin:  So how can people connect with you individually if they want to set up a planning session or hear you speak?  You have many appearances with your book releases coming out and so on.

Paige:  They can email me at paige@millennialguru.com.  Or you can call me and contact me at 616-443-1000.  Or they can go to my website or any social media, Millennial Guru.

Kristin:  Thank you so much for being on!

Paige:  Thank you!  Thanks for having me!