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How parents of multiples tackle financial challenges

Reuters, New York :
Kevin O'Reilly spends his life dispensing financial planning advice. But he wasn't exactly fiscally prepared when his wife Rebecca had triplets more than six years ago after spending close to $20,000 on fertility treatments. At the time she was earning a substantial salary as a project manager. The plan was for his wife to return to work not too long after the delivery. That pretty much went out the window once they found out she was carrying triplets because of the extra care they required.
Although the loss of one income was the biggest financial challenge the couple faced, there were others. "We had to buy a minivan because we needed a vehicle that could fit three car seats," says Kevin, a Scottsdale, Arizona-based financial adviser. "That set us back about $30,000. Then there's the cost of diapers, formula and everything else you need." While they have set up college savings plans for each of the children, the family has had to cut back substantially on retirement plan contributions. As the media continues to follow Kate Gosselin and Nadya Suleman, thousands of families with twins and triplets quietly struggle with unique financial issues that most singleton parents don't face, or encounter more gradually. With the use of fertility drugs more than doubling the rate of multiple births since 1980s, many families now grapple with these issues.
In the scheme of things having to buy two or more of everything at once or the absence of hand-me-downs may seem like fairly minor inconveniences. But adding multiples children to the mix can have more serious financial consequences when premature deliveries and related health complications, which are more common with multiple births, lead to exorbitant hospital bills.