6 Keys For Family Financial Planning - Mom With Five (2024)

Providing well for your loved ones is a top priority. How to buildwealth? Here are 6 keys for family financial planning.

Providing well for your loved ones is a top priority. This certainly means ensuring that they have a roof over their heads and food to eat at each meal. However, you also may be focused on ensuring their financial security and even providing for them after you have passed away. The reality is that financial security is not something that is accomplished overnight for most people. It requires daily effort at properly managing your finances as well as developing a strategic plan for the future. If you want to know how to make a financial plan for your family that incorporates today’s needs with plans for the future, consider these points.

Develop a Budget

The most important step that you can take to improve financial management is to develop a realistic budget and to rely on this budget on a daily basis for the exceptional resource that it can and should be. Your budget can dictate your daily buying decisions as well as help to ensure that you are saving for the future in various ways. Spend time creating or updating your budget to ensure that all expenses are accounted for. Include an allocation for a rainy day fund as well as a retirement fund in your budget. Many of the most financially secure people create a rolling budget that spans across the next few months or even years. This is because income and expenses can vary by the season, for the holidays and more. Ensure that you review your budget every day or two to update it for recent purchases as well as to guide your day’s buying decisions.

Educate Yourself

Money may seem like an easy enough concept to understand, but the reality is that many people fail to understand how it can work for you or against you. For example, when you make purchases with debts, your interest charges make your money work against you. This is also the case when you invest heavily in depreciating assets, such as cars, unnecessary electronics and more. On the other hand, if you make purchases of assets, such as CDs, bonds, stocks and real estate, your money is working for you. Essentially, your money will make more money for you rather than cost you additional money. This is why the poor cannot seem to get out of their current state while the wealthy tend to grow richer. Take time to read as many books and articles as possible on wealth accumulation and money management to learn more about how you can manage your money and make it work for you.

Stop Using Credit Cards

You may have heard repeatedly that credit cards are bad. The reality is that some debt is reasonable and can be used to help you maintain a great credit score. However, that debt does not need to be in the form of credit cards. Credit cards have high interest rates and revolving terms, making them notoriously difficult to pay off and costly to carry a balance on. Just one of your credit cards may be creating a hundred dollars or more in interest charges each month. Interest charges are a direct cost associated with using a credit card. This is wasted money that you otherwise could be saving.

Grow Your Emergency Fund

When you want to know how to make a financial plan for family needs, an emergency fund is critical. The reality is that many people term things like paying a car deductible, appliance repairs and medical expenses as unexpected. However, car accidents can and do happen. Appliances break down, and people get sick. These are facts of life, so you must plan for them. Because they are not recurring expenses, like your home mortgage payment, you may not think that they belong in your budget. An emergency fund provides you with a way to pay for these unplanned for, rather than unexpected, expenses. Contribute money regularly to the growth of your emergency fund.

Alter Your Lifestyle

There is a good chance that your lifestyle is costing you more money than you think. Research fun ways to spend time with family and friends on a dime. Plan cheap vacations, such as camping. Master the art of cooking, and dine in rather than at expensive restaurants. You may be able to save hundreds of dollars a month or even per week by altering your lifestyle.

Plan for the Future

Will and estate planning may seem like something that the elite class does. However, the importance of estate planning for all income levels should not be minimized. Estate planning for children helps to ensure that they are well-cared for after your passing. You never know when the end of life will come. At minimum, your will and estate planning efforts should include naming a guardian to care for the kids if you pass away before they reach adulthood and the purchase of life insurance to provide for them financially. As your wealth accumulates through the efforts described here, you may consider establishing a trust for them as well.

Regardless of your current income level, there is a good chance that you can improve your financial management and planning in various ways. Carefully and honestly analyze your current money management efforts to determine which of these tips you can apply to your life for improvement.

Author BIO:
Riya is an inspired writer. She is very delighted to work with aspiring small business owners. Riya enjoys decorating her home, crafting, trying new recipes. She is also a runner who likes to enjoy the morning breeze. You can find her on Twitter.