Good Financial Reads: How to Prepare to Have & Teach Kids About Money

(Money) Date Night: Why You Need One and 5 Topics to Discuss

by Michelle Francis, Life Story Financial

Money is one of the top stressors for long-term couples

And it’s a topic that makes many couples uncomfortable, whether they’ve just started dating or have been in a long-term relationship or married for years. For couples who understand the importance of getting their money matters out in the open but aren’t sure where to begin, starting a money date night tradition may be the answer.

Long gone are the days when only one partner (usually the man) held the money strings. These days in many relationships, both partners work and contribute financially to shared expenses. They both have stakes in their household's financial situation, and their individual money habits can positively or adversely impact the other's—especially if there isn't an open line of communication.

The financial decisions you make as part of your partnership on expenses like the roof over your head, medical care, putting food on the table, your children’s school and college and your future retirement plans can have a big effect on your values and goals as individuals, as well as partners.

At times in my practice, money has been a sensitive issue with the couples I advise. Because money is often associated with one’s ability to take care of their family or their career success, it often informs each person's attitude about their relationship, their life and even their social standing.

If one questions a partner about their money habits without a lot of sensitivity, they may become defensive, aggressive or even outright hostile. As with any crucial conversation, it’s important to strategize and plan discussions in collaboration with your partner.

[Read the Full Article]

3 Tips for Financially Preparing for a Child

by Dan Andrews, Financial Planning Fort Collins

Financially preparing for a baby can be daunting. Your household is already preparing for a new dynamic, and you may feel like your life is heading into an unknown new chapter. It’s an exciting, nerve-wracking, and joyful time.

The to-do list of prenatal care, baby shower planning, home configuration, and new shopping lists make this learning curve an intense one. And you suddenly realize that you’re about to welcome a child into your family, which inspires you to own the title as a “responsible adult.”

Holy smokes! You need to adult now and get your $#!+ together to financially prepare for this little one. Well, here are some lessons I’ve learned through my own experience as well as helping multiple clients through similar transitions.

Now, let’s find some ways to keep more money in your family’s financial net worth versus mindlessly adding to the billion-dollar baby-care industry.

[Read the Full Article]

Financial Planning To-Dos for Expecting Parents

by Eric Roberge, Beyond Your Hammock

Having a baby or adding more children to the family is a big decision – and there are some major financial implications to this life milestone. Consider taking care of these financial planning to-dos for expecting parents.

We stepped away from the podcast for about a year. Why?

Because we had a baby! Our daughter was born at the beginning of October 2021, and we call her the G-BOAT for a reason: she’s truly the Greatest Baby of All Time.

She, like every other kid, also introduced a lot of complexity into our financial plan and expenses into our monthly budget.

So we thought we’d get back to the podcast by sharing what we thought through before we finalized our decision to grow our family. These are the financial planning to-dos expecting parents should think through ahead of time if they want to make intentional, mindful money moves ahead of having kids.

Today on the show, we explain the financial planning conversations and considerations you might want to go through before having a baby (or adding more children into your family). We cover:

• How we thought through the decision to have kids in the first place and why we waited
• Why it’s critical to know what you actually want first (and why you should turn to the financial considerations second)
• The importance of cash flow – and why that is even more critical than saving up cash before having a baby
• Financial planning to-dos, both before you’re expecting a new child and after they join your family
• Some upfront costs to expect and the ongoing expenses to consider (spoiler alert: “college savings” is going to be a line item in your budget for a LONG time)
• A strategy to stress-test your cash flow (and increase savings) before baby arrives
• Why you need to talk through your other goals and values, and acknowledge the changes or tradeoffs you may need to make if having a baby is a higher-priority event for you

Obviously, kids cost money. But with the right financial planning, you can make intentional decisions about how to use all your resources – including time and energy – to develop a strategy that gives you more control over your family’s financial situation.

Join the conversation to get insights from our personal experience and a quick list of important financial planning to-dos for expecting parents so you’ve got the money part of this whole parenting thing down.

[Listen to the Podcast]

4 Money Mistakes to Let Your Kids Make (for Their Own Good!)

by Eric Roberge, Beyond Your Hammock

Teaching kids, teens and young adults about how to handle their money is one of the greatest gifts you can give your children. It’s an education that pays dividends (sometimes literally!), and not just when you share the knowledge. Financial literacy benefits us over the entire course of our lifetimes, as there’s never a point at which we’re not making important financial choices and decisions as adults.

While much of the education your kids receive can come from leading by example, modeling smart money habits and sitting down to explain bigger concepts and financial ideas, we also learn by failing. As your children become older teenagers and young adults, it might be worth letting them mess up just a bit.

Good mistakes that provide learning opportunities allow us to experience consequences – as long as those consequences aren’t so detrimental as to be prohibitively expensive or extremely difficult from which to recover. To be clear, “letting” your kids make mistakes doesn’t mean letting them crash and burn. It means stepping back enough for your children to actually experience their failure, but then offering the support they need to quickly regain their footing.

Here are a few money mistakes that can teach powerful lessons, if you allow your children to learn them by going through it themselves.

[Read the Full Article]

Following along with the blogs of financial advisors is a great way to access valuable, educational information about finance — and it doesn’t cost you a thing! Our financial planners love to share their knowledge and help everyone regardless of age or assets.