16% of Parents Say Having Kids Prompted Them to Do This Important Thing

My life was very different before having kids compared to what it looks like now. Back then, my husband and I could pick up and travel whenever we wanted, provided we had the money. Nowadays, any trip we take has to be scheduled meticulously so as to avoid conflicts with school, sports, and other activities. 

Having kids has also eaten into my downtime significantly. These days, when I'm not working, I'm typically shuttling a child to an extracurricular activity, carpooling to a birthday party, or generally hanging out with my kids and tending to their needs.

I wouldn't trade any of this for the world. But there are times when I can't help but bemoan how expensive life has gotten since having kids. 

Between the cost of camp, healthcare, food, and clothing, my husband and I spend a small fortune to raise our gang of little humans. And we've also made a point to boost our emergency fund since having kids, because you never know when a large expense might arise from one of them (like the whopping medical bill we recently received after treating my daughter's broken finger). 

Not surprisingly, a recent survey by Policygenius found that 26% of parents said they'd have less debt if it weren't for their children. But 16% have also made one important move since bringing kids into their world.

A smart move to make

Having kids prompted 16% of parents to build themselves an emergency fund. And that's a smart thing to do when you have children.

Granted, it's important to have money in a savings account whether you're a parent or not. But if you have kids, it opens the door to a host of bills, some of which may be unavoidable.

Take medical bills, for example. If your child is sick, you pretty much have to take them to the pediatrician or urgent care. Now, if that only happens once during the month, your earnings might cover the cost. But if you have multiple children and each one ends up having to see the doctor within the same four-week span, you might end up having to dip into your cash reserves to cover your costs.

And let's not forget child care expenses. Those could eat up a huge chunk of your income, so having money in the bank to tap is a helpful thing. 

Plus, you just never know when you might end up losing your job or seeing your income decline. That's a stressful enough situation when it's just your needs you have to cover. But if you also have to cover your kids' needs, a situation like that becomes even harder. So you need an emergency fund to bail you out.

How much emergency savings do you need?

As a general rule, it's best to keep enough money in your savings account to cover a full three months of essential bills at a minimum. But when kids are involved, going above that point certainly isn't a bad idea.

Of course, having kids might make it difficult to build emergency savings seeing as how you're probably spending tons of money on them. So if you're still kid-free but expect to have kids in the coming years, take the opportunity now to bank some cash reserves while you can. That way, you can focus more on raising your kids and spend less energy worrying about money when your bills inevitably start to rise.