Carry On

Team,

Yesterday, I posted about our decision to move forward with IVF. As C and I have spent the last 24 hours letting the magnitude of this decision soak in, I’ve had moments of panic and peace about our next steps. As I mentioned yesterday, the part that has me reaching for a paper bag is the expense of this venture. In our relationship, I’m the financial planner so it makes for an interesting emotional combo when I combine that hat with the baby-carrying hat. Today, I’m feeling more settled about the expense, specifically because of our decision to enroll in a 3rd party payment plan rather than take on the expense as we go along.

Normally, I run like hell from accruing additional debt. I think I manage our money really well. We try to live below our means through thoughtful spending and designed savings. As we were meeting with the folks at the doctor’s office yesterday, they handed us a pamphlet for Capi.tal O.ne Healt.hcare Finan.cing. Our doctor is affiliated with this program and the idea is that we apply for financing and the check is sent to the doctor to cover all office and medication fees. Essentially, the loan is our bank of money that’s held at the doctor’s office. The payment for each visit is taken directly from our ‘account’ and then the remainder returned to Capi.tal O.ne.

We qualified for an interest rate of less than 4%. I think what I like best about this is that the loan is paid directly to the doctor. We can show up for our appointments and not even have to think about plunking down a credit card at the end. That was always a piece that made me a little uncomfortable because it seemed to distract from the emotional focus that we needed for the insemination or the blood test or whatever we were there for. If the bill for a particular service was different than I thought it would be, I would obsess about it rather than focus on the fact that I had just been inseminated. In terms of coping, one of my very first go-to places is to focus on the money aspect. I think that this set up will work well, and the interest we’ll pay over the short term of the loan I think is worth the peace of mind we’ll achieve. We have enough in savings to cover the first 6-7 months of repayment without dipping to far into our overall house savings account so that we can still have money to count on in case of anything unforeseen. If I can pay several months upfront, then we really won’t have to think about the money while we are undergoing the intensity of the procedures.

To be clear – I’m not in any way affiliated with this financing program – I’m only mentioning by name in case anyone else out there wants to look into it.