yesterday i received in the mail IRD's response to my Paid Parental Leave Application last month. i'm only going for 14 weeks, which is the maximum paid parental leave either parent could take.
IRD's response was very specific - with dates and computations. that's good. now i actually know what i will get. not a lot i tell you although i get the maximum, just a weekly subsidy that's even taxable. sigh.
IRD decided that i could use some confusion (and maybe analysis) by paying me between payroll dates. i decided to add my subsidy to the payroll date following j's, which is also my payroll date if i weren't on parental leave.
knowing how much will be stripped off of our fortnightly income stresses me a bit. i've been playing with our money tracker spreadsheet to see how much we could still save in the next 14 weeks. i don't really expect that much to get saved away anyway. my folks are also coming to stay with us to help us in the first few months of parenthood, which we think is just superb. we'll get a lot of help around the house and not get so stressed. however, i know that more people in the house means more utilities expense, not to mention food. we don't really expect my folks to chip in food money knowing just how much help they'll provide during my parental leave. our debt reduction payments will be minimized during my leave and i just hope that that wouldn't hinder us from reaching our goals by end of this year.
in a way it guilts me that i'm allowing myself to stress about finances when i should be excited about welcoming a new member to our family! it's not like we are going to be tight. this is just the part of myself that is scared of financial discomfort. i've never had financial hardships before that's why i wonder how j handles the fact that he's got $40K of student loans to pay for X years is beyond me. but maybe that needs some getting used to. that's the thing though, i don't wanna get used to debt.
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