Four weeks ago, my wife and I welcomed our first child into the world – a healthy baby boy that, on this blog, we’ll call Financial Cub. I know – big news! I’ve been admittedly slow to share this information since obviously a lot has been going on, but now that it’s been a month, I think it’s time to get this news out into the world.
Looking back at it, our little boy couldn’t have come to us at a better time. It’s hard to think about it, but when our baby was born just a few weeks ago, the world looked very different. The current global pandemic was barely a blip on most of our radar screens. There were no special precautions at the hospital. We had visitors coming and going as they pleased. It’s a testament to the power of exponential growth that things can change so quickly.
In any event, mother and baby are all home safely and our little family is now hunkered down at home waiting until things can hopefully return to normal. Luckily, my wife’s family was able to meet and hold our little one before the epidemic broke out. My family, unfortunately, didn’t get the chance (my mom was originally scheduled to fly out to us in mid-March but had to cancel her flight due to the pandemic; she’s been able to see her grandson via video chat, which is at least better than nothing).
Needless to say, the circumstances we find ourselves in aren’t ideal, but on the bright side, this period of self-quarantine and social distancing is giving us plenty of time to learn more about this new family of ours.
A Moment Of Crisis – But We Were Lucky Too
It started to hit home for us that this pandemic was going to be a big deal about a week after we got home. Our governor issued a stay-at-home order about 10 days into the pandemic and as a result, our new baby has really only spent time with his parents during the entire course of his life. I worry that he’ll be scared of strangers in the future since there’s no telling when he’ll be able to start interacting with other people.
Our household income has also taken a big hit as a direct result of the pandemic. My wife had to close her practice in mid-March and it’ll likely stay closed for quite some time. That means she’s bringing in no income until she can reopen. If there’s any silver lining here, it’s that she was already going to be on maternity leave for the next few months, so if she’s closing her practice, now is probably a better time than any other to be closed.
On my end, blog income is down since advertisers are cutting back on their marketing budgets. That means my ad revenue and affiliate revenue are down (most bloggers are feeling this pinch right now).
My side hustle income is also down. I stopped doing Airbnb because of the baby, although I wouldn’t be doing it right now anyway due to the Coronavirus. My dogsitting income from Rover is now non-existent since people aren’t traveling right now and don’t need dogsitters. I can still make money doing food deliveries and grocery deliveries, but I have been shying away from these side hustles just because there’s some risk involved, although I still do them occasionally (for folks out there that are ordering food, seriously tip your delivery people because they are doing a lot of work for you).
With all that said, I think we’re still pretty lucky all things considered. Our baby was born in the first week of March, which meant that the birthing experience was ultimately fairly normal (or as normal as having a baby can be). If he’d been born just a week or two later, things would have likely looked very different. We’re extremely thankful that we didn’t have to worry about a raging pandemic while my wife was giving birth.
The decreased income also hasn’t been a problem for us due to some accidental planning that worked out well. I’ve kept a massive $42,000 emergency fund for some time due to my goal of maxing out my 5% interest savings accounts.
We also ended up with a large stockpile of cash in anticipation of our baby – and having that cash really gives us a lot of security right now. We ended up with all of this cash because, for the past year, we’ve opted to pay minimum payments on my wife’s student loans and put all of the excess payments that we would have made into a savings account. The idea was that by doing this, we could have the money on hand in case we had unforeseen issues with our baby. And if we didn’t need the money, we could take it and pay off the student loans with one click.
Right now, we’re probably going to continue to hoard this cash just because so much is up in the air.
Costs That We’re Thinking About At The Moment
As everyone likely knows, kids aren’t cheap. Here are some of the costs – direct and indirect – that my wife and I are thinking about right now:
Immediate Birth Costs. One of the strange things about medical care in the United States is that there’s no easy way to figure out how much it costs to actually have a baby. Other than checking to make sure that our hospital was in-network for our insurance, we honestly didn’t even have a ballpark of what the actual birth would cost. We recently received a few bills from the hospital and it looks like after insurance, we’ll be paying somewhere between $3,000 to $5,000 to have our baby. I have no idea whether this is reasonable or not. In any event, we’ll be using a credit card to pay this bill, so we’ll at least get some money back via the points we earn from credit cards. (I recently opened up another Chase Ink Preferred specifically for this purpose.)
Health Insurance. We have to add our baby to our health insurance plans. Since my wife and I both have our own businesses, we’re fully on the hook for this cost. I have an HDHP that I pay for through the state exchange (which gives me access to an HSA). My wife gets her health insurance from the group plan that she has with her practice. We’ve made the decision to put our baby on my wife’s health insurance since she has the better health insurance plan. I don’t know what this will cost yet.
Daycare Costs. It’s hard to even think about daycare at this point, but it’s something that we’ve had planned since my wife got pregnant last year. Our initial plan was to have our son attend daycare three days a week, with my wife and I each working four days a week and alternating taking care of our son on our off days. Daycare costs $1,404 per month, so this is not a cheap expense. In fact, once daycare starts, that will become our highest monthly expense – higher than our mortgage even. We had daycare scheduled to start at the end of May/beginning of June and we’re going to have to pay if we want to keep our spot, even if we decide to hold off on sending him to daycare until the pandemic passes.
College Costs. I set up a 529 plan for myself five years ago and have been putting money into it in order to get a state tax deduction. Our state lets us deduct up to $3,000 for 529 contributions, so we’ll continue to put $250 per month into the 529 in order to take advantage of this deduction. I use the New York 529 plan since I think it’s the best 529 plan (my state gives us a tax deduction if you contribute to any 529, not just our state 529 plan). This cost will have to increase at some point in order to fully fund future college costs, but for now, we’re just aiming to put $3,000 per year in order to take advantage of the state tax deduction.
Less Time Working. This is more of an indirect cost, but having a baby will obviously impact both me and my wife’s ability to make more money. With kids, we’ll necessarily have to work less, which will likely mean we earn less. It’s a trade-off we’re willing to make, but it is a trade-off nonetheless.
Excited About The Future
There’s a lot of doom and gloom out there with the ways things look, and even though I tend to be an optimist, I can’t seem to stop myself from reading all of the doomsday stuff that’s out there on the internet. It can scare you into thinking that the world is over.
The interesting thing, however, is that when you have a baby, the only assumption that you can work on is your belief that the world will get better. And it seems like every single time, the world absolutely does get better. Say what you will about the world we live in now, but it’s better than the world we lived in years ago.
I was listening to the Micromobility podcast a few weeks ago and the host of that podcast made an interesting point about what happens after big, societal changing events. Interestingly, instead of destroying the world, it often seems like great, productive things come out of it.
The endless Napoleonic Wars of the early 1800s led to the Industrial Revolution. World War 1 and the Spanish Flu led to the Roaring Twenties. The Great Depression and World War 2 led to the prosperity of the 1950s. Even the Black Death of the 1300s ultimately set the stage for the Renaissance.
I’ve got a lot of faith in people to improve, create, and innovate and we’re going to learn and create new things out of this crisis that we’re going through right now.
With a new baby in our lives, we’ll be doing the same thing – learning, improving, and hopefully making ourselves and the world a little better for this new life that is now in our hands. Things aren’t the most ideal right now. But I think the future is looking bright.
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More Recommended Ebike/Scooters
Check out these other ebikes and scooters I've reviewed:
- Urban Arrow Ebike – Last year, I made one of the largest purchases I’ve ever made – I bought a $9,000 electric cargo bike from Urban Arrow. In my Urban Arrow review, I will discuss what it is and why I decided to buy this bike, as well as discuss how impactful a bike like this can be on your journey to financial independence.
- Troxus Explorer Step-Thru Ebike – The Troxus Explorer Step-Thru is a fat-tire ebike that I’ve had the pleasure of riding for a while now. It has amazing power, great looks, and awesome range. If you’re looking for a great fat-tire ebike that offers a lot for the price, the Troxus Explorer Step-Thru is definitely one for you to consider. Check out my Troxus Explorer Step-Thru Review.
- Hovsco HovBeta Ebike – The HovBeta is a folding ebike with great specs and a lot of interesting features, and importantly, it’s sold at a good price point. I’ve had a blast commuting with it and using it to do deliveries with DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. Check out my Hovsco HovBeta Ebike Review.
- Vanpowers Manidae Ebike – The Vanpowers Manidae is a fat tire ebike that I’ve been riding as my primary winter commuting bike and have also been using it to do food delivery with apps like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. After clocking in a decent number of miles with this ebike, I wanted to write a post sharing what my experience with the Vanpowers Manidae ebike has been like. Check out my Vanpowers Manidae Review.
- Sohamo S3 Step-Thru Folding EBike Review – A Great Value Folding Ebike – The Sohamo S3 Step-Thru Folding Ebike is an entry-level folding ebike that offers a lot of value for the price point. I’ve been riding the Sohamo S3 for a while now, putting the bike through its paces, and I have to say, this bike has exceeded all of my expectations. Check out my Sohamo Review.
- KBO Flip Ebike – The KBO Flip is an excellent bike. I’ve had a great time riding it and think it’s a versatile bike that can be used for a lot of purposes and can fit a variety of lifestyles. It’s worked out great for me as a general commuter bike and as a food delivery bike. Check out my KBO Flip Review.
- Hiboy P7 Commuter Ebike – The Hiboy P7 is an excellent electric commuter bike that’s offered at an affordable price point. The range and speed of this bike are both very good, so you won’t have any trouble getting anywhere you need to go with it. As a food delivery vehicle, this is also good – with how much range it offers, you’ll be able to work all day on a single charge. Check out my Hiboy P7 Commuter Electric Bike Review.
- Himiway Escape Ebike – The Himiway Escape is an interesting bike for anyone looking for a moped-style ebike. If you’re a gig economy worker, the Himiway Escape is particularly interesting and it’s possible to think of it as an investment, especially if you can opt to do deliveries with the Himiway versus using a car. It’s not cheap, but you can definitely make your money back when you compare the mileage you’ll put on your car versus using an ebike. Check out my Himiway Escape Bike Review.
- Espin Sport Ebike – The Espin Sport is a good ebike for someone who is looking for an ebike that feels and rides more like a regular bike. There are many ebikes that are really only bikes in name. In reality, they’re basically electric mopeds. The Espin Sport, by contrast, is a bike you could probably ride without the battery and you’d feel like you’re just riding a regular bike. Check out my Espin Sport Review.
- Varla Eagle One Scooter – The Varla Eagle One is an excellent scooter that can make sense for a lot of people. It can work as a primary mode of transportation. You can use it to work on gig economy apps like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. And it can also be a recreational vehicle if you’d prefer to use it for that. Check out my Varla Eagle One Review.
- Varla Falcon Scooter – The Varla Falcon is an excellent scooter that offers a good amount of power at a lower price point compared to more powerful scooters. It’s not exactly an entry-level scooter, nor is it a high-powered scooter. I think it fits somewhere in-between those two categories – an intermediate scooter if I had to give it a category. Check out my Varla Falcon Review.
- Hiboy S2 Scooter – The Hiboy S2 is an excellent entry-level commuter scooter that's perfect for someone looking to save some money in transportation costs and improve their commute. Check out my Hiboy S2 Review.
- Hiboy S2R Scooter – The Hiboy S2R is one of the more interesting electric scooters I’ve been able to test out. It’s not a high-powered scooter, but for an everyday transport option, it’s very useful, especially given some of the unique features that it has. Indeed, for the price, the Hiboy S2R might be the best value scooter I’ve used. Check out my Hiboy S2R Review.
- Fucare H3 Scooter – The Fucare H3 is a fun scooter and I’ve enjoyed testing it out. For a daily commuter or quick trips or errands, the Fucare H3 is probably the scooter I’ll use. It’s portable and easy to maneuver, so it’s just easier to take on the road when I need it. Check out my Fucare H3 Scooter Review.
More Recommended Investing App Bonuses
For additional investing app bonuses, be sure to check out the ones below:
- M1 Finance ($100) – This is a great robo-advisor that has no fees and allows you to create a customized portfolio based on your risk tolerance. You also get $100 for opening an account. Check out my M1 Finance Referral Bonus – Step-By-Step Guide.
- SoFi Invest ($25) – SoFi Invest is an easy brokerage account bonus that you can earn with just a few minutes of work. Use my SoFi Invest referral link, fund your SoFi Invest brokerage account with just $10 and you’ll get $25 of free stock. I also have a step-by-step guide for the SoFi Invest referral bonus.
- Webull (20 free stock shares) – Webull's current promotion gives you 20 free shares valued between $3-$3,000 each if you open an account using my referral link. Here’s a guide I wrote about how to earn your free shares using Webull.
- Moomoo (15 free stocks) – Moomoo is a free investing app currently offering 2 different referral bonuses if you open an account using a referral link. Read my Moomoo referral bonus guide for more information.
- Robinhood (1 free stock) – Robinhood gives you a free stock valued between $2.50-$225 if you open an account using my referral link.
- Public (1 free stock) - Public gives you a free stock valued between $3-$70 if you open an account using my referral link.
More Recommended Bank Account Bonuses
If you’re looking for more easy bank bonuses, check out the below options. These bonuses are all easy to earn and have no fees or minimum balance requirements to worry about.
- Upgrade ($200) – Upgrade is a free checking account that’s currently offering a $200 referral bonus if you open an account and complete a direct deposit. These bonus terms are easy to meet, so it’s well worth doing this bonus as soon as you can. Here’s a post I wrote with more details: Upgrade $200 Referral Bonus – Step By Step Directions.
- Ally Bank ($100) – Of all the banks out there, Ally is, without a doubt, my favorite. At the moment, Ally is offering $100 to customers who open an eligible Ally account and meet the requirements. Here are the step-by-step directions to earn your Ally Bank referral bonus.
- Fairwinds Credit Union ($175) – Fairwinds Credit Union is offering a referral bonus for users that sign up using a referral link. Fairwinds has no fees or minimum balance, so this is a particularly easy bonus to earn. Since this is a smaller credit union, my gut instinct tells me this offer won’t be around long, so if you’re in a position to meet the bonus requirements, grab this bonus before it’s gone. Here is my step-by-step guide on how to earn your Fairwinds Credit Union bonus.
- Chime ($100) - Chime is a free bank account that offers a referral bonus if you use a referral link and complete a direct deposit of $200 or more. In practice, any ACH transfer into this account triggers the bonus. This bonus is easy to earn and posts instantly, so you’ll know if you met the requirements as soon as you move money into the account. I wrote a step-by-step guide on how to earn your Chime referral bonus that I recommend you check out.
- US Bank Business ($900) – This is a fairly easy bank bonus to earn, since there are no direct deposit requirements. In addition, you can open the Silver Business Checking account, which comes with no monthly fees. Check out how to earn this big bonus here.
- GO2Bank ($50) - GO2Bank is an easy bank bonus that I recommend people take advantage of if they have an easy way of meeting the direct deposit requirement. I like that it’s easy to open the account and that the bonus pays out quickly. Check out my step-by-step guide on how to earn your GO2Bank $50 referral bonus.
- Current ($50) – Current is a free fintech bank that’s offering new users a $50 referral bonus after signing up for an account using a referral link. Current is an easy bonus to earn and also gives you access to three savings accounts that pay you 4% interest on up to $2,000. That means you can put away up to $6,000 earning 4% interest. That’s very good and makes Current an account I recommend to everyone. Check out my step-by-step guide on how to earn your Current Bank bonus.
- Novo Bank ($40) - Novo bank is a free business checking account that’s currently offering a $40 bonus if you open a Novo business checking account using a referral link. In addition to being a good bank bonus, Novo is also a good business checking account. It has no monthly fees or minimum balance requirements and operates a good app and website. Indeed, it’s the business checking account I currently use for this blog. Check out my post on how to easily open a Novo account.
- Varo ($25) – Varo is a free fintech banking app similar to Chime or Current. It’s currently offering a $25 bonus to new users that open a new Varo account with a referral link. The bonus for this bank is very easy to meet, all you need to do is spend $20 within 30 days of opening your Varo account. Check out my step-by-step guide to learn how to earn this bonus.
Kevin is an attorney and the blogger behind Financial Panther, a blog about personal finance, travel hacking, and side hustling using the gig economy. He paid off $87,000 worth of student loans in just 2.5 years by choosing not to live like a big shot lawyer.
Kevin is passionate about earning money using the gig economy and you can see all the ways he makes extra income every month in his side hustle reports.
Kevin is also big on using the latest fintech apps to improve his finances. Some of Kevin's favorite fintech apps include:
- SoFi Money. A really good checking account with absolutely no fees. You'll get a $25 referral bonus if you open a SoFi Money account with a referral link, and an additional $300 if you complete a direct deposit.
- 5% Savings Accounts. I'm currently getting 5.24% interest on my savings through a company called Raisin. Opening a Raisin account takes minutes to complete, it's free, and all of your funds are FDIC-insured. I explain how it works, why I'm now using it to store my emergency fund and any other cash savings I have, and why I recommend everyone check it out in this review.
- US Bank Business. US Bank is currently offering new business customers a $900 signup bonus after opening a new account and meeting certain requirements.
- M1 Finance. This is a great robo-advisor that has no fees and allows you to create a customized portfolio based on your risk tolerance. You also get $100 for opening an account.
- Empower. One of best free apps you can use to monitor your portfolio and track your net worth. This is one of the apps I use to track my financial accounts.
Feel free to send Kevin a message here.
Congrats Kevin! It’s great to read some positive news these days. The timing will definitely give you plenty to tell your son about what was going on in the world when he was born.
Thanks Marc! Yeah, it’s a crazy time that will be a defining moment for all of us I think.
Congratulations! I guess it’s no better time to have a shelter in place order to spend time with your baby. For daycare, there is a wonderful program called ECFE you should check out if you haven’t done so, when you are ready. Stay safe!
Thanks! I’ll take a look at it!
Congratulations Kevin! My “baby” is turning 4 in June, and the past few years have been amazing with her in our lives. You are in for a wonderful, intense, and joyful ride!
We’re looking forward to the journey!
Congratulations!! Enjoy your time with your family. The days can be long but the year(s) go fast. My son is 13 months old. Don’t worry too much about him not getting socialized early on, most babies will get “stranger danger” later on no matter what. Pretty normal.
Thank you! And thanks for the reassurance. We’re really going to enjoy when we can meet up with people again.
Congratulations! Stay safe! 🙂
Thanks! Doing the best we can out here!
Congrats Kevin, what exciting news and great timing!!
Thanks Matt!
Many congratulations. In a time when most of the news is bleak, it’s great to read about something unequivocally excellent.
Thanks!
Congrats Kevin! Enjoy your time with the baby boy. Definitely got lucky with the timing of the birth.
Thanks Bob!
Congratulations! What exciting news, Kevin. Sounds like you’re in a good position for now and got lucky with the timing of the birth. Good luck for the adventures of parenthood ahead!
Thanks Michelle! It’ll be an adventure for sure.
Congrats man! No better time to have a baby then right now!
Good for both parents to take care of the little one for 3-6 months.
Enjoy!
Sam
Thanks! Yeah, it’s a scary time, but honestly, if we’re going to be at home, now’s the time. The only thing that’s made me sad is that our little one hasn’t been able to meet anyone really. He probably thinks we’re the only two people in the world right now.
Congrats on fatherhood Kevin!
Thank you!
OMG – congrats for the little panther. Youre blog just became all the more relevant because we had our first a week ago 🙂 now that’s something. Ill look forward to reading about how you go about your boy to get ideas. We’re also waitlisted at a daycare – 3 days a week – $1400. That’s a second mortgage and really hits our savings rate. I’d rather out that amount in our baby’s vtsax fund. At the moment, my wife thinks shell work weekends – she’s a nurse. I’m not sure about the 529 so I’ll need to read more on that.
Oh man, we’re basically on the same track then.
Congrats to you! We’ll have a lot to learn from each other as we both figure this stuff out. Like most things in life, we just learn it as we go.
Congratulations Kevin!
I am happy for you. Your blog has been quite helpful and an inspiration to me.
Thank you! Really appreciate the kind words and glad I’ve been able to help you in some way.
Aw, a baby! How wonderful. Congratulations, Kevin.
Thank you Donna!
Congrats man! Glad to hear everything went well with the birth! That is an awesome onesie lol
My wife’s due date for our first is 6/01 so we may be dealing with a lot more than we anticipated. Crazy how much this virus has changed.
This situation has made me want to pile up some more cash. I’ve been a bit on the aggressive side with how much we’re investing vs saving cash and now I wish I had saved a little more. I did start the process for the 5% savings accounts so thanks for the walkthrough on those!
Hope the rest of your year goes well and I’m optimistic good things will come from this too.
Thanks! I hope that by June, things slow down, but depending where you are, that might be around the peak, so things could be crazy then. I wish you well!