One of the pluses in working out of the home is that some employers offer a paid maternity leave. Six weeks of being able to babymoon with your new child and not worry about paying the bills. Your job is covered by coworkers or a temporary worker enables you to focus on your baby and recover from childbirth.

It is a completely different story when you work from home, especially if you are in independent contractor or business owner. If you take time off after you have a baby then you will probably not have any income coming in. So how can you relax during this time and not have to worry about money? The best thing is to plan ahead.

Most of the time you will have nine months to prepare for your newest family member to arrive, so if you are thinking of becoming pregnant, are pregnant or are planning to adopt now is the time to get working. Start with a budget. Figure out how much money you will need in order to make it through the time you would like to take off from working.

The easiest thing may be to start putting away a little money each month now that you can use to live off of while on maternity leave. If you don’t have enough extra to put into a savings account then now may be the time to ramp up your work schedule. Make a stockpile of articles or plan a blitz of home parties in the months leading up to your new arrival.

You may need to plan on working in the first few weeks after your child is born. This is not ideal but if it is necessary, prepare yourself now. You may not have to work as much as you normally do and find that an hour or two of work a day can help to get you through until you are ready to devote more time to work.

Are you planning on taking a maternity leave? Did you take one after the birth of your child? Please share any tips or thoughts that you may have.

Warmly,
Mia