Money and a new baby: the first-year checklist for two

You're both right, and the calendar settles most of it. Some baby-money tasks have hard deadlines and belong before the due date. Others depend on information you'll only have once you're living the new routine. Sorting the list by deadline lets the planner get ahead and lets the wait-and-see partner keep decisions open until they're informed.

Before the due date

Leave and pay

Ask each employer's HR, in writing, what leave you get and how much of it is paid. Under the Department of Labor's FMLA rules, eligible employees can take up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave in a 12-month period for the birth of a child, but not everyone is eligible, and the law guarantees job protection, not pay. Paid leave depends on your employer and, in some states, a state program. Write down each of your start and end dates and expected pay.

Pick the insurance plan the baby will join

If you're on separate employer plans, decide now which one the baby joins. Compare the family deductible and out-of-pocket maximum, and confirm your pediatrician is in network. Our health plan comparison walks through the numbers.

Build a cushion for the leave gap

If leave is partly unpaid, total the shortfall and set it aside before the birth if you can.

The first 30 days

• Add the baby to health insurance. Under federal HIPAA special enrollment rules, employer plans must give you at least 30 days after birth to enroll a newborn; Marketplace plans generally allow 60 days, per HealthCare.gov. Check your own plan's deadline and don't let it pass.
• Social Security number. The Social Security Administration lets you apply for your baby's number at the hospital when you give information for the birth certificate. You'll need it to claim the child on your tax return and to open most accounts.
• Birth certificate. Order a few official copies from your state's vital records office. Insurers, passports and schools ask for them.
• Flexible spending changes. A birth usually lets you change dependent care or health FSA elections mid-year. Ask HR how long you have.

Months one to three

Name a guardian

If something happened to both of you, a will is where you name who would raise your child. It's the single most important document new parents put off.

Update beneficiaries

Retirement accounts and life insurance pay whoever is on the beneficiary form, regardless of a will. Decide whether the baby, through a trust or custodial arrangement, should be a contingent beneficiary. Our beneficiary forms talk covers the details.

Review life insurance

A child changes the income-replacement math. Revisit whose income needs covering now that someone depends on both of you for longer.

Price childcare

Get real quotes for the arrangements you're considering, including waitlist deposits. This is often the biggest new line in the budget.

Month six

Now you have real information. Sit down with three months of statements and answer:

1. What does the baby actually cost us each month: diapers, formula, childcare, the higher insurance premium?
2. Did leave go as planned, and is either of you changing work hours?
3. Is the emergency fund still sized right?
4. Is there room to start saving for education? A 529 plan is one common option; the rules and any state tax benefit vary by state.

Tax season

Your new child can change your taxes for the year they're born, even if they arrived in December. The Child Tax Credit requires the child to have a Social Security number; amounts and income limits change, so check IRS.gov for the year you're filing. If you pay for childcare, keep the provider's name, address and taxpayer ID for the Child and Dependent Care Credit, explained in IRS Publication 503.

Keeping it fair

The money list is real work on top of the baby work. Put names next to every item, trade tasks when one of you is underwater, and check the list together once a month. Nobody should discover in March that a deadline belonged to them.