Nicole Carlon

In the blink of an eye, the kids are adults.

At least in this series.

Mine are still little and I am VERY much not ready for that blink to happen in real life.

We’ve gone from trying to become a mom, to pregnancy and new parenthood, to raising our kids while life inevitably throws a few things at the financial plan.

Now we’re looking at what happens when those kids grow up and some of the things that once sat 20 or 30 years out in the plan suddenly aren’t so far away anymore.

How do we help our kids when they’re adults? What are we still accumulating for? And what the heck are we going to do on a random Tuesday when we retire?

Part Five, and the final part, of The Financial Plan for Motherhood is live.

Apparently, we still have a lot of planning to do.

When Your Kids Grow Up: Part Five of The Financial Plan for Motherhood When did all those things that felt so far away get so close? When your kids are little, you know eventually they’re going to grow up, but that feels so far away. You’re too busy getting them where they need to go, sitting through dance recitals and spending weekends on soccer sidelines, helping...

There’s a strange point in motherhood when your kids are becoming more independent, but the things they need you for somehow start to feel bigger.

Around the same time, you may start noticing your relationship with your own parents changing too.

Meanwhile, you’re finally coming into your own, reaching goals you’ve spent years working toward, and starting to think about what you want next.

Apparently, there’s a name for this.
The sandwich generation.

The further I get into The Financial Plan for Motherhood, the more I realize the financial conversations keep changing right along with us.

At this stage, you may be perfectly capable of saying, “I can take care of it.”

I just don’t want that to be the end of the conversation.

When Everyone Needs Something From You: Part Four of The Financial Plan for Motherhood If you ask anyone what age they would want to experience again, almost no one says their teen years. Once was plenty.

The family you’re raising probably won’t look exactly like the family you pictured.

I certainly didn’t expect to be raising Donnie Thornberry, but here we are. 😂

Our children become their own people. They have their own personalities, interests, needs, and apparently plans of their own.

We can plan for the expenses we know are coming. It’s the things we couldn’t possibly know yet that can change the plan.

Turns out, our children didn’t read the financial plan either.

Part Three of The Financial Plan for Motherhood is about what we do financially when real life changes the plan.

When the Financial Plan Meets Real Life: Part Three of The Financial Plan for Motherhood Before our children are even born, we’re constructing their entire lives in our heads. How they’ll be best friends with our best friend’s kids, how we’ll be very structured with their eating and sleeping schedules, and maybe even how they’ll go to our alma mater because how dare they even ...

We spend a lot of time talking about how expensive it is to raise a child.
We spend a lot less time talking about what pregnancy itself can do to your financial plan.

I learned some of that firsthand.

Financial Advisor Nicole knew how deductibles worked. Pregnant Nicole had never connected a deductible reset to the timing of giving birth.

There were other decisions I also understood very differently once I was the one living them.

That’s where Part Two of The Financial Plan for Motherhood goes: the financial conversations that belong between those two pink lines and bringing your baby home.

Pregnancy & New Parenthood: Part Two of The Financial Plan for Motherhood The moment you’ve been waiting for has finally arrived. Maybe you knew the second your favorite comfort food suddenly grossed you out or when the scent of your favorite perfume had you running to the toilet.

What if starting a family doesn’t happen the way you always thought it would?

Most of us never imagine having to answer that question. We assume that when the time is right, we’ll start trying and eventually become a mom.

So what happens when getting there involves egg freezing, IVF, surrogacy, adoption, or decisions you never thought you’d have to make?

Somewhere along the way, there are financial decisions wrapped into all of it that you probably never thought you’d need to plan for either.

That’s the gap I’m exploring in Part One of The Financial Plan for Motherhood.

Trying to Become a Mom: Part One of The Financial Plan for Motherhood What if starting a family doesn’t happen the way you always thought it would? No one prepares you for the moment you find yourself asking that. Because that’s never how you imagined this chapter of your life would begin.

Kinda chic, isn’t it?

Build the wealth. Create the options. Enjoy the life you worked so hard for.

And always budget for twice-a-day gelato in Italy. 🍦🇮🇹