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Welcome Back, Fellow Parent
It’s been a while since the last Knocked-Up Money newsletter hit your inbox.
A really long while.
But sometimes good things need a little time before they find their next chapter.
First, I want to thank Jeremy, the previous owner and editor of Knocked-Up Money, for building the brand and creating the foundation that made this next chapter possible. I’m excited to take what he started and build on it.
So, welcome to that next chapter of Knocked-Up Money.
The mission is simple: help parents navigate one of the most rewarding, complicated and expensive jobs in the world: raising kids.
This newsletter is going to focus on the practical side of parenting and money. How much things really cost. How to budget for the expenses that seem to come out of nowhere. How to save for college without sacrificing your own financial future. How to teach kids about money. How to prepare teenagers for financial independence. And how to make smarter decisions when every kid-related purchase seems to come with a comma (and everything in-between).
No financial jargon. No lectures. No pretending that every family has the same circumstances.
Just useful ideas, practical advice and the occasional reminder that, yes, kids really do cost that much.
The goal is to make Knocked-Up Money something you actually look forward to reading and, more importantly, something you can use.
It’s good to be back.
Let’s get started.
The Parent's Emergency Fund: How Much Cash Should You Actually Have?
Everybody says "save 3 to 6 months of expenses."
Cool. Whose expenses?
That advice was written for a single person with a cheap apartment and zero daycare bills. You've got childcare, a mortgage or rent, a minivan payment, and a pediatrician who knows your name. (News Flash, kids are expensive.)
So this week, we're skipping the generic number and building yours. Grab your phone calculator. Five steps. Let's go.
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Step 1: Find your "must-pay" number
Not what you spend. What you have to spend to keep the lights on and the kids safe. Add up your monthly:
Housing: rent or mortgage, plus homeowners/renters insurance, property tax, and utilities
Groceries: the basics, not the DoorDash
Childcare: daycare, after-care, nanny, whatever lets you both work
Transportation: car payment, gas, insurance
Minimum debt payments
Health premiums (only if they're not already pulled from your paycheck)
The other must-pays: phone, internet, diapers, formula
Leave out streaming, takeout, Amazon "just because" orders, and vacations. Those get paused in a crisis.
Example family: two parents, two little kids. Must-pay total is $6,700/month.
Step 2: Pick your months
3–4 months: two stable paychecks, in-demand skills, solid job security
6 months: one income, a single-parent household, or one parent on commission, gig work, or self-employment
9–12 months: one income and irregular pay, or a shaky industry
Example: They pick 6 months. $6,700 × 6 = $40,200. That's the "everything goes wrong" number, where both incomes are gone.
Step 3: Add your deductible bucket
Emergencies don't just take your paycheck. They also send you bills.
Look up your health plan's out-of-pocket max. That's the real worst-case number, not the deductible. Then add your car and home (or renters) deductibles. With kids, an ER visit or a broken arm isn't a maybe, it's a when.
Example: $3,000 health + $1,000 auto + $1,000 home = $5,000.
Keep this as its own line so it doesn't get raided for a "great deal" on a couch. And if you own, you'll want a separate home repair fund too. A common rule of thumb is about 1% of your home's value per year.
Step 4: Run the one-paycheck stress test
Losing both incomes is rare. Losing one happens all the time: layoffs, a health issue, a parent staying home because childcare fell through.
Here's the math:
Take your household take-home pay
Subtract the paycheck you'd lose (always test the higher earner)
Subtract what's left from your must-pay number. That's your monthly gap.
Multiply by the months it might take to replace that income (6 is a solid default)
Example: Take-home is $8,000/month. The higher earner brings home $4,500, so $3,500 is left. $6,700 − $3,500 = a $3,200/month gap. × 6 months = $19,200.
Two gotchas:
Health insurance. If coverage runs through the job that disappears, COBRA can get pricey fast. Add that premium to your gap.
Childcare. Decide now whether you'd keep it (job hunting, holding your spot) or drop it. It changes your number.
And don't count unemployment or severance in your baseline. They vary a lot by state and employer, so treat them as a bonus.
Step 5: Set two targets
Your Floor (one paycheck gone): $19,200 + $5,000 = $24,200. This is the "we'll be okay" number, and the one to hit first.
Your Goal (both paychecks gone): $40,200 + $5,000 = $45,200. This is the "we can actually sleep" number.
Your formulas:
Goal = (must-pay × months) + deductible bucket
Floor = ((must-pay − remaining take-home) × months) + deductible bucket
Yikes, that number's big. Where do I start?
Totally normal. Build in layers:
$1,000–$2,000 starter cushion
One month of must-pays
Your deductible bucket
Your Floor
Your Goal
Keep it in a high-yield savings account, separate from your everyday checking. Boring on purpose. Then automate it. Even $50 a paycheck beats "I'll start when things calm down." (They won't. We have kids.)
Quick question before you scroll:
Where's your emergency fund right now?
Under one month of expenses
1–3 months
3–6 months
6+ months
What emergency fund? 😅
(Just a friendly note: this is education, not personalized financial advice. Your numbers are your numbers.)
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Outro
Thanks for reading today's newsletter! I hope it was helpful.
If you want to dig into more content……
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