Hidden costs of motherhood

Becoming a mother “was a joy,” said Anna Wilde Matthews in The Wall Street Journal, but paying for the delivery? Not so much. Health insurance covered most of the above-average $17,300 hospital bill, but I was still stuck paying $2,100. Who knew babies had their own deductibles? Many hospitals will estimate your out-of-pocket costs beforehand, but you have to ask.

The costs don’t end at the hospital, said Kristen Gerencher in MarketWatch. Breast-feeding is an “inexpensive and healthful way” to nourish your child, but if you work, “pumping breast milk on the job” can be inconvenient. And some women fear looking less productive. Still, the big health and financial benefits might make it worth the hassle.

The salary for all the “Mom jobs” mothers do at home, said Janet Bodnar in Kiplinger’s, would be $122,732 for stay-at-homers and $76,184 for working moms, and that doesn’t include the CFO role most moms play. This Mother’s Day, Mom, give some TLC to your own finances: Put your retirement savings before your kids’ college funds, and set aside a little “treat yourself” fund, too. You earned it.

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