You’re ready to meet your baby, but are you emotionally and financially prepared?

But with great joy also comes great responsibility for now you have so much to think about. A healthy pregnancy, raising a healthy and happy child, planning for your future as a family and so much more. The best way to start this journey is by being emotionally and financially prepared. In doing so, you will go forth with confidence knowing that you can offer your newborn the best. Here’s how you can do so.

Being financially and emotionally prepared at the pre-natal stage

To help you get started on financial planning, we’ve decided to divide your parenting journey into two stages – the pre-natal stage and the post-natal stage. In doing so, you can streamline your priorities according to the needs of each part of your journey.

Pre-natal stage : having the essential protection for mum-to-be and baby

Being financially prepared starts from the prenatal stage. While getting maternity insurance does not pay for your regular check-ups or delivery, it will help you financially in the unfortunate event of pregnancy and childbirth complications or congenital conditions your baby has from birth.

It may be an uncomfortable or unpleasant thought, but in reality, such things do happen. And when they do, the family will be under immense stress. The last thing you need is to be worrying over the medical bill.

Protect yourself and your unborn baby with a pregnancy and newborn insurance - GREAT Maternity Care. For a one-time premium, GREAT Maternity Care provides complete coverage for both you and your baby from as early as 13 weeks of pregnancy all the way to the third year of your policy.  Among other things, you will be covered against 19 pregnancy and childbirth complications while your baby will be covered against 26 congenital conditions from birth. In the event of hospitalisation due to covered events, you can receive daily payouts as well.

With GREAT Maternity Care, you can give your child an added layer of protection by purchasing a new eligible insurance plan for your child or yourself within 90 days of birth without medical underwriting.   Any pre-existing conditions of your child diagnosed prior to the purchase of the new policy will also be covered.

Some parents feel that maternity insurance is unnecessary. But there’s no telling as to when and how things can go wrong, and the best gift you can give your unborn child, is that of being prepared to take on whatever comes. When you are financially prepared, you have one less battle to fight. As such, you can focus on the most important thing – looking after yourself and your family. 

Post-natal stage: being a financially ready parent

When your child is born, you need to review your coverage with a much wider lens. You need to think of being financially prepared to raise a child and that entails medical and educational expenses among other things.  Your maternity insurance only covers your child against pregnancy complications and congenital illnesses. Your baby still needs coverage against any new illnesses or medical conditions that may arise, as well as hospitalisation.

-   Being financially prepared for your child’s medical expenses

The first insurance plan you want to have in place for your newborn could be one that would adequately cover hospitalisation or medical expenses. Unfortunately, medical expenses and hospitalisation for newborns do not come cheap and can place a huge financial strain on your family. GREAT SupremeHealth, along with GREAT TotalCare, will ensure that you have comprehensive coverage of up to 95% of the hospitalisation bills and are provided with access to one of the largest panels of medical specialists.  If treatment is sought from Great Eastern’s panel of medical specialists or at restructured hospitals, your co-payment expenses are capped at $3000.  You have the flexibility to choose your coverage based on your budget and needs, for everyone’s financial profile is different

As new parents, you probably have many expenses. The good news is that you can use your MediSave funds to pay a portion of your child’s premiums under GREAT SupremeHealth. You may not need to fork out the cash for it!

In addition, children are highly susceptible to certain illnesses like HFMD, Zika and Dengue Fever and they can have vastly different symptoms. For some, the effect may be mild while for others, it could land them in hospital. Again, in such a situation, you will be stressed and emotionally burdened. You can consider having additional coverage by getting GREAT Junior Protector.  This personal accident insurance plan for children provides medical expense reimbursement in the event of such illnesses to ease your financial burden and leaves you to focus on your child's recovery. 

-  Being financially prepared for your child’s education journey

Your child’s education is a long road ahead, and one that you need to start saving for early. We live in a globalised world and it is increasingly common for students to travel. Especially when it comes to university education, your child might want to broaden his or her horizons and study overseas. Perhaps he or she might even make it to an ivy-league university for all you know! Are you ready for the financial commitment? While there are scholarships, these are only offered to the crème de la crème, and it is extremely competitive.

You might find yourself in a difficult position if you have to deny your child a golden opportunity because you can’t afford it. The best way around this is to have good foresight and think about these things from the time your child is born! If you start planning and saving early, you are paving the way for your child’s dreams to become a reality!

With GREAT Wealth Multiplier 3, a regular premium endowment plan, you can enjoy multiplied returns to meet your changing life goals and needs. Everyone has different needs so you can choose to accumulate or opt for a partial surrender of your cash value on your own terms. Depending on the selected premium payment term, you can receive 100% capital guarantee from as early as the end of the 15 policy year!

Mums and Dads, it’s never too early to secure your child’s future with the wealth you’ve built. Start today and multiply your wealth to make your dreams come true. Stretch your dollar and secure your child’s future without compromising on your quality of life. 

- Being financially prepared to look after yourselves

As parents, we often get so caught up with giving the best to our children that we may overlook our own needs. However, the best thing we can do for our family is to ensure that we are financially prepared to look after ourselves too. Especially as we get older, we need to think more about critical illness and disability so that we don’t place financial stress on our loved ones if something happens to us.

You can consider:

-        GREAT Life Advantage, with optional riders that provide lump sum critical illness (CI) payouts that cover different stages of CI.  This regular premium investment-linked plan even offers $20,000 Child Cover Benefit that covers all your children, including the ones you may have in the future.

-        GREAT CareShield, a MediSave-approved supplementary plan to your CareShield Life or ElderShield scheme, which provides additional long-term care coverage in the event of a disability. It provides payouts and benefits starting from as early as your inability to perform just 1 Activity of Daily Living (ADL).  As such, these payouts and benefits could partially cover your expenses. You can also use your MediSave funds to pay for your premiums fully or partially.  

When it comes to raising a family, nothing can prepare you for the ride ahead, but you can be prepared for what is to come! We hope that we have given you a comprehensive overview of how you can be financially and emotionally prepared for life’s many challenges. Being prepared means having the peace of mind to enjoy today, knowing that if things go south tomorrow, you have a safety net. Start planning on how you can protect your child even before birth.

Learn more about GREAT Maternity Care or get in touch with our Great Eastern Financial Representative here.