Father-as-money-manager

At eleven months, my wife went back to work three days a week. We sat at the kitchen table on a Sunday evening with two laptops and the daycare invoice. I'd looked at the daycare invoice in isolation before. I'd never put it next to her new payslip and the mortgage in one place. The number that came out the bottom of the spreadsheet was not the number I'd been carrying in my head. It was about a thousand a month worse.

We weren't in trouble. We were just running on a budget that no longer existed.

This module is about money in the back half of the first year. Childcare, the new household budget, super contributions on a partner's reduced income, income protection, and the estate review almost no Australian father has done. It's a long module. The numbers matter.

Childcare, the actual Australian numbers

The Childcare Subsidy (CCS) replaced CCB and is the dominant federal subsidy. The mechanics, in plain English:

• The subsidy is means-tested on combined family income. The lower your combined income, the higher the percentage covered, up to 90 percent. The phase-out begins at around $80,000 combined and tapers across higher bands.
• The subsidy applies to "approved" providers (most centre-based daycare, family daycare, before/after-school care). It does not apply to babysitters or informal care.
• It is paid directly to the provider; you pay the gap fee.
• Activity test: both parents need to meet hours of recognised activity (work, study, volunteering, looking for work) for the highest subsidy hours. The test still surprises couples in the first year.

What the gap actually looks like in 2026:

• Centre-based daycare in metro Sydney/Melbourne/Brisbane: $140-$170 a day, gross. Inner-suburb premium centres push to $185-$200.
• Outer-metro and regional rates: $110-$140 a day.
• Net of average subsidy (50-60 percent for many dual-income families): $60-$90 a day per child, four days a week, gives you a real number around $1,000-$1,500 a month.

Two children in care simultaneously is a different conversation. The CCS has a higher subsidy for the second-and-subsequent child, which materially helps, but it doesn't make two-in-care cheap.

Waitlists matter more than price in most Australian metros. The honest advice from anyone who's been through it: register at your two preferred centres in the second trimester. Yes, before the baby exists. Inner-Sydney and Inner-Melbourne lists run fifteen to thirty months in some suburbs.

The new household budget

The pre-baby budget was built on two full incomes and one mortgage. The first-year budget runs on:

• One full income (yours, usually).
• A partner income that drops to part-time, freelance, or zero, often for twelve to twenty-four months.
• Daycare costs that didn't exist before.
• A grocery bill that climbs with formula, solids, and the household waste of a tired adult ordering takeaway twice a week.

Most couples don't redo the budget. They run the old one until something pings. Don't be that couple. Run the new one on purpose.

A simple structure that works:

• Fixed essentials. Mortgage, rates, insurances, utilities, childcare, internet, phones. Calculate to the dollar. This is the floor.
• Variable essentials. Groceries, fuel, kid stuff, household. Set a number. Track it for one month to test it.
• Discretionary. Eating out, drinks, hobbies, subscriptions, gifts. The first place to cut, the last place to negotiate.
• Savings + investment. Whatever's left, automated. Out of the account on payday. If it doesn't move on payday it doesn't move.

A spreadsheet works. A free banking app works. Anything beats nothing. Most couples who do this for the first time find $300-$500 of monthly drift they can reclaim without changing how they live.

Super while she's on a lower income

This is the lever most Australian couples miss in the first year, and it's worth real money over a thirty-year horizon.

When her income is down (parental leave, part-time return, or out of the workforce entirely), her super contributions stop or drop. The compounding hit on a missed year of contributions in your mid-thirties is, on conservative numbers, $40,000-$60,000 by retirement. Four levers to pull:

1. Spouse contributions tax offset. If she earns under $40,000 in a financial year, you can contribute up to $3,000 to her super and claim a tax offset of up to $540. Small number annually; large compounding over a decade.

2. Government co-contribution. If her income is under the threshold (around $43,000 lower bound, $58,000 upper, indexed) and she makes after-tax personal contributions, the government adds up to $500 a year. Free money. Most couples don't claim it because they don't know to.

3. Contribution splitting. You can split up to 85 percent of your concessional (pre-tax) contributions from the previous financial year into her super account. Useful for couples where one of you has materially more super and you want to even things out for couples-protection and tax-flexibility reasons.

4. Use her catch-up cap years. If her concessional contributions in a year are below the cap ($30,000 in 2026), she can carry the unused portion forward for up to five years, provided her total super balance is under $500,000 at the start of the relevant year. When she returns to full income, those carry-forward amounts can be used as additional concessional contributions.

This is not financial advice on your specifics. It is a list of levers worth taking to your accountant in the first year, when most accountants don't proactively raise them with new-parent clients.

Income protection, post-baby

If you didn't have income protection before the baby, get it now. If you had it before, review it.

The thing that has changed:

• The household is now reliant on your income to a degree it wasn't before. A six-month gap in your earnings doesn't just hurt you; it hits the mortgage, the daycare, the groceries.
• Insurance terms tighten over time, not loosen. Underwriting today will be cheaper and more comprehensive than underwriting in three years, after a non-trivial back issue, blood-pressure reading, or mental-health appointment lands on your record.

What to actually buy, in plain terms:

• Income Protection that pays around 70 percent of your gross income, for a benefit period of at least 2 years (5 years or to-age-65 if you can afford the premium).
• Life cover roughly equal to mortgage plus five years of replacement income. More if school fees are a future cost.
• TPD (Total and Permanent Disability) at a similar level to life cover.
• Trauma cover is optional and depends on your view; it pays a lump sum on diagnosis of one of a defined list of conditions. Useful for some, expensive for others.

Most of this can be held inside super (premiums paid pre-tax) or outside super (premiums tax-deductible for income protection only). A 30-minute conversation with an actual financial adviser will save you more than the fee. Don't buy off a comparison website without advice.

Estate review, the part most fathers haven't done

The blunt fact: most men in their thirties and forties don't have a current will, and the binding nominations on their super are either out of date or never made.

If you die without a will in Australia, your estate is distributed under the rules of intestacy in your state. The default is mostly sensible (spouse and children) but it doesn't account for guardians of minor children, testamentary trusts, or the specifics of your situation. Sorting this out post-baby is the most important $400-$1,500 you'll spend this year.

What to actually do, in order:

• Will. Use a solicitor for $400-$1,500. The DIY kits work for the simplest case but miss the things that matter when you have a child (guardianship, testamentary trust). Get the proper version.
• Binding death benefit nomination on your super. Lodge with your super fund. Without it, the trustee decides where your super goes, which may not be where you'd choose. Renew it every three years; many lapse silently.
• Guardianship clause. Who looks after the child if both of you die. The conversation is awkward. The will not having an answer is worse.
• Powers of attorney (financial and medical). Less time-sensitive but worth doing in the same sitting. Your spouse should be the default but, again, write it down.
• A "if I die" document that isn't legal. A two-page note with passwords (password manager master password, ideally), bank accounts, super fund, insurance policies, accountant's contact, solicitor's contact. Stored somewhere your partner can access it.

This is admin. It's also the most loving thing you'll do for your family this year. Most fathers don't, because the conversation is uncomfortable. The conversation is uncomfortable. Have it anyway.

What not to do in the first-year money window

• Do not buy a bigger house "for the kids" while one of you is on parental leave. The mortgage assessment is on combined income, but the lifestyle assessment runs on your sustained reality.
• Do not raid your offset account for renovations. Cash buffer matters more in this year than it ever has.
• Do not stop super contributions to "free up cash flow." The compounding cost is enormous. Cut Netflix first.
• Do not let income protection lapse because the direct debit feels expensive. It will be expensive on the day you need it. Today's expense is the cheapest version.

A short closing on money in the first year

Most Australian fathers in the first year are fine on money. They're just running an out-of-date version of fine, where they don't see the changes until something forces them to. The Sunday at the kitchen table with two laptops is uncomfortable. The Sunday after that one is much less uncomfortable. By the third Sunday it's a thirty-minute admin meeting and the marriage is steadier for it.

Run the new budget. Pull the super levers. Do the will.