Family financial planning is essential to getting the great start all young couples hope for. You bring to your relationship dreams for a long and happy union. As well, each of you brings a unique set of financial challenges, benefits, and priorities to talk about and address.
These can include:
* Student loans
* Vehicle loans
* Credit card debt
* Hobbies and interests
* Savings and investments
Desires for:
* children
* buying a home
* taking vacations
* early retirement
The swirl of details and uncertainty about money can be dizzying. A commitment to family financial planning will organize and demystify the process. Below I discuss a few benefits of family financial planning.
We may not want to follow all the advice we hear from our parents, but older couples who have spent many years together have definitely learned a thing or two, such as the importance of communication. Talking about your dreams and goals brings you close.
Family financial planning involves communicating about how to get there together, and may even bring you closer.
Family financial planning provides a big picture perspective. For an outdoorsy analogy, if your goals and dreams are the peak of the mountain, family financial planning is the rest of the mountain. Your mountain climbing gear is your spending plan. Family financial planning requires you to establish a spending plan together, agree to it, and talk about it to stay the course.
In the above bullet pointed list, those last four bullet points represent the dreams of many young couples. You may share some or all of those desires. With a little hard work and commitment over time, you will likely achieve them. But those much worked-for outcomes are vulnerable to set backs and loses due to unforeseen events such as a fire, an accident or an act of nature. Family financial planning includes discussing the types of insurance plans that protect not only what you have accumulated through your hard work, but also what you would have accumulated over your working lifetime.
Keeping Each Other in Mind
Throughout your journey, conversations about the spending plan will keep you both informed of where your finances are relative to your goals. Your relationship, your growing family and your goals will evolve over time. Talking about those changes and making the necessary adjustments to the spending plan you share helps each of you to keep the interests of your loved ones fairly in mind, while still pursuing your joint goals.
Choose Family Financial Planning with Michael’s Tax Preparation and Financial Planning. We all know the stories of friends or family members who left us too soon. Sound family financial planning includes steps to ensure that, if you die or become incapacitated, your loved ones benefit from the desirable life you were building. Estate planning, as a part of your overall family financial planning, is the way to make sure they will be covered financially in the event of your untimely death.
While it may not be the most romantic of thoughts, young couples who are wise realize their journey together will involve decisions about financial assets and liabilities over their lifetime, and that their relationship has not only sentimental value, but financial value as well.
Together, you can reach your goals. Michael’s offers a variety of family financial planning tools and services that can help you along your path. Use the “Contact Us” page for an appointment or schedule an appointment on our site.
Remember nothing changes if nothing changes!