Coronavirus Aftermath – How to Save More and Stress Less to Fund Your Fertility Journey

With the stress of Covid-19, not only come health concerns for loved ones but lack of income. In turn this makes us worry about fertility treatment costs. So many of our readers have come to us with concerns about how on earth they’ll be able to afford fertility treatment and IVF now? With this in mind, we chatted to The Fertility Finance Coach, Devon Baeza in the USA to pick her brains on the matter and to find out her suggestions on how to finance fertility treatment once the world normalises, whilst stressing less.

Over to Devon Baeza – The Fertility Finance Coach…

www.DevonBaeza.com | @The_Fertility_Finance_Coach

Has the Coronavirus Thrown your Finances into a Downward Spiral? Are you Panicking about How to Finance your Next IVF or IUI Cycle?

If you are one of the thousands of women who have had their cycles cancelled or postponed during the Covid-19 pandemic, you may know first-hand the heartbreak that can accompany that kind of news.

See our readers’ stories here of cancelled cycles. 

You might have lost your job, or be worrying that your biological clock is ticking louder than ever – angry that the powers to be clearly don’t view fertility with enough urgency and importance to grant you your much-deserved wish of a child…

Coronavirus has thrown so many people’s lives into chaos. To now have this added layer of complication on your fertility journey and life makes it quite understandable that you are feeling stressed to the max about how to fund your fertility journey.

Read here how an infertility counsellor can help you. 

It’s a bitter pill to swallow during an already intensely stressful time. You might feel really upset about losing what you’ve spent – not just money, but time, energy, and hope. When you’ve planned for the future, hearing the word “postponed” can be devastating. I recommend spending 10% of your time thinking about the problem. Talk about how awful and unfair it is. Scream. Cry. Whatever feelings surface…let them come up…let them pass through. The other 90% of your time, energy and attention can then shift to “What am I going to do about it?”

You can’t control what’s happening in the world, but you can control what’s happening in your house. Now is the best possible time to get your fertility finances in order. When clinics reopen (and I promise they will) you want to be in a position to hit the ground running.

Here are My 3 Top Tips to Save More and Stress Less in the Coronavirus Aftermath:

1.  Baby Making Budget

If you’ve been meaning to organise your finances or create a budget, but haven’t found the time…ta dah! Now you’ve got it. The truth is, with today’s money apps, if you don’t know where your money is going, it’s because you don’t want to know, which could signal a major money block. If you’ve been procrastinating on making a budget, it doesn’t mean that you are lazy. It could be that the thought of getting a hold of your finances is overwhelming. When the idea of getting started feels insurmountable, we choose to stay stagnant. For my clients (women looking to make, save, and manifest money to fund their future family) I find that fertility money issues are never about money.

So what do you do if you’re feeling overwhelmed? The solution is always to break down what you need to do into bite-sized pieces. Write down the steps for each piece. ONLY focus on the next step, and forget the rest. If you are new to budgeting, the first step might be to download an app that will show all your accounts in one location and automatically categorise your transactions – my personal favourite is ‘Mint’.

The next step would be to review 3 months worth of transactions. This part is enlightening! It is easy to see what categories need some work – online shopping anyone?? Then look for areas that will be easy to cut back on right now i.e. eating out. Also consider temporarily cutting your monthly bills by taking advantage of policies put in place to help consumers during this Coronavirus outbreak.

You could save hundreds per month to put towards your fertility treatments by taking advantage of these policies.  For instance, U.S. federal student loan payments are being automatically deferred until 30th September. Review your monthly bills and call providers to see what they can do for you right now. Additionally, in the UK, the Government are helping some freeze their mortgages.

Next, write up a new six-month baby making budget for this Covid-19 craziness. Not only will it help you get clear on exactly how much you should have left over every month to put towards your goal, it will also help you feel in control.

2.  Compare Costs

Guess who else is stressed about money right now? Your fertility clinic! They want your business. They NEED your business. Many clinics are offering phone consultations until their doors open. Now is the perfect time to compare clinics. Even if a consultation isn’t covered by insurance or the NHS, it’s often worth the fee to see the right fit for you. However, if they do charge a fee, make sure to ask if the fee is applied towards future treatment.

Don’t make a decision based on cost alone. How do you feel talking to the doctor? What do you like about their approach? Did they take the time to listen to you and let you ask every question? It’s important to trust your gut feeling when it comes to which clinic is right for you.

Read an article here from one of our readers about how to choose a fertility clinic.

If your meds aren’t covered by insurance or the NHS, then paying out of pocket is a must. Check out online pharmacies like freedomfertility.com or IVFmeds.com to check prices yourself. Don’t forget your local pharmacies as well! GoodRx.com will compare costs for you. Another cost effective option is to consider ordering medication from overseas. For instance, Israel is known to have stringent medical standards and identical medications for much much less. Double check with your fertility clinic to see what their stance is on ordering meds abroad though, as some won’t participate.

3.  Get Clear to Lose the Fear

Making money decisions from a place of fear is always a bad idea. When traumatic events happen in your own life, let alone on a worldwide scale, it’s a natural response to be afraid – afraid that there won’t be enough time, that you won’t have enough money, or that you can’t mentally handle one more piece of  bad news. If you ONLY focus on budgeting, it can keep you in a scarcity mindset that thrives on fear.

The Solution is to Get Clear on your Fertility Finance Savings Goal, and Have a Way to Track it Daily

A visual savings tool is one of the best ways to do this. It rewires the way you think about saving money and shifts your money mindset from fear to excitement! Psychologically it gives you a quick “win” every time you colour in your progress, which helps your brain associate saving money with feeling good. From a law of attraction stand point, i.e. manifesting, it works because you are saying to the Universe “This is the exact amount of money I need by this date. I won’t be stopping until I achieve it. Let’s co-create this reality!”

Make sure to put your visual savings tool where you will see it multiple times a day. Mine is always on my fridge – which I am constantly getting into, being stuck at home all day -hello #quarantine15!

It’s so easy to feel lonely, hopeless and frustrated about your fertility journey right now. I get it. But the truth is, there is so much you can do to make a difference. The way you use this forced “time out” can not only benefit your fertility finances immediately, but also change your relationship with money to benefit your future family forever. If you need some support in making, saving and manifesting money to fund your fertility journey, come check out The Fertile Money Club. It’s a group of women just like you who are making massive progress and having a ton of fun doing it! We may be quarantined, but we are not alone. We are all in this together, rooting for each other and figuring out how to come out the other side stronger than ever.