Expanding Your Home Before Baby Arrives?

The arrival of a new addition to the family is a special milestone. Whether it’s your first child or your fifth, expanding your family often requires expanding your home, making repairs, setting up a nursery, decluttering rooms, and baby-proofing the house. These home improvements can be overwhelming and expensive. Here are a few ways to feel prepared and financially secure as you consider expanding your home for the arrival of a new baby.

Have a plan and a timeframe

Once you know that you’re expecting a baby, you can build a plan to expand your home around your due date or pregnancy milestones—whatever best suits your needs. When making your preparations, be mindful of how long certain tasks  might take, such as building an addition, versus the deadline you need them completed by, like the start of your parental leave.

…But remember to be flexible

Even the most thoughtful plans require flexibility. Home expansions can include many steps, such as researching contractors, reviewing estimates, ordering supplies, and the renovations themselves. The many moving pieces mean that things can go wrong along the way—there are supply chain delays, people get sick, and projects can take longer than expected. If you encounter delays or hiccups, take a deep breath, and remind yourself that the overall goal is to properly prepare your home for the baby, not to execute your plans perfectly.

Take time to de-stress

While it may feel like home expansions call for determination and action, it’s important to take a step back to take care of yourself. Schedule moments of rest and relaxation, whether in your home—taking a bath or reading a book—or outside of your home—think visiting a spa or taking a walk in the park. Intentionally taking the time to de-stress can help you stay healthy and feel calm during such a big undertaking.

Prioritize your health

As an extension of taking the time to de-stress while pursuing home expansions, it’s important to prioritize your health. Whether you’re the one expecting, your partner is, or you’re adopting, maintaining your health and wellness is necessary to both be present for the time and attention that home expansion requires, as well as the demands of a newborn. Be careful not to push yourself past your limits.

Research options for financing home renovations

Once you know how you want to expand and baby-proof your home, you’ll want to decide how you’ll finance the project. If you don’t have the funds immediately on hand, there are several methods of financing available, such as a home equity loan, cash-out refinancing, a personal loan, or a life insurance loan. A life insurance loan involves borrowing against the cash value of a permanent life insurance policy, like whole life insurance or universal life insurance.

Preparing your home for a new baby can help you get through those first few months with a newborn a little more smoothly. However you choose to go about your renovations, remember to stay flexible, take time for yourself, and look forward to your new addition.

The primary purpose of permanent life insurance is to provide a death benefit. Using permanent life insurance accumulated value to supplement retirement income will reduce the death benefit and may affect other aspects of the policy.

Source: iQuanti