Education, health care take large part of family budget

Ratna Eliyawati, Contributor, Surabaya

Married life presents a new kind of challenge. Each partner must adapt to the other's traits and mind-set for the marriage to work. Careful budgeting is another challenge, especially with the arrival of the first child.

Basically, there are three areas of responsibility, or functions, that have to be taken care of by both members of this "life partnership".

First, economic well-being. Though traditionally this responsibility rests on the shoulders of the husband, in today's society the role is reversed in quite a number of cases, as men are becoming more accepting of successful wives -- career-wise, that is. With a major portion of the family's income earned by the wife, the decision maker in the family for budgets and spending, as well as of lifestyle, is no longer the traditional head of the family or the husband.

Second, emotional support. Here, it is the kind of love that also includes willingness to sacrifice for each other and the new family member: the child.

In the case of child support, various sacrifices have to be made to create a revised budget. Selflessness is the order of the day. Raising and bringing up a child takes away a large chunk of the available money. Plans for the purchase of a new fridge, washing machine or television set probably have to be postponed, as expenditure priorities will have changed. Apart from food, clothes, education and health care, other items are no less important, such as toys or all of the paraphernalia of a child's world. Everything is done to ensure that the child does not feel inferior to his friends.

The third area is to form a suitable family lifestyle. This is a fusion of each partner's previous lifestyle, experiences and personal values, which are then translated into, among other things, their choice of residential location, style of child upbringing and use of spare time for the family's recreation.

When these new parents are at a junior- or middle-managerial level in their career, another problem crops up. With their natural desire to climb to a higher social level, they often encounter conflicts on budget allocations: Taking a new course, attending a personal improvement seminar or buying a video game for the child.

Every manufacturer of products for children knows how to attract these extremely young customers and uses every trick to soften the hearts of decision makers -- the parents. In many cases, purchases are made to stop the child from nagging, although the family's cash flow is already in the red.

The abundant information available in the media on child education makes it easy for new parents to be more choosy about deciding on the right school, and so forth. The selection is not based only on information disseminated by the media but further confirmed by personally visiting and finding out for themselves all the pluses and minuses of advertised education centers.

With regard to their child's health care, young and educated parents are also very critical. Apart from conventional vitamins and supplements, they are also extremely cautious before deciding to provide their loved one with "intelligence-enhancing" supplements that are currently advertised everywhere.

While most new parents with a new family member -- the child -- have to be extra careful with their spending, those in the "A" or "A-plus" income level category (exceeding Rp 10 million in disposable income per month) have comparatively more leeway. Both categories, however, demand quality in the products or services they may buy, all the more so if they are related to their child.

A recent survey carried out in several of Indonesia's major cities by SWA-Pacific research agency confirmed that almost all new parents allocated a major portion of their income to their child's needs, with some of the A-plus families spending as much as 30 percent.

New financial management courses specializing in management of family earnings have also emerged in some large cities, such as Jakarta, Surabaya and Bandung. This further indicates that money management for young families is one important aspect that has to be fully mastered for the long life journey of the couple, as well as that of the all-important, additional family member.