Family Financial Goals and Priorities

Do your spouse and you often struggle with the family budget?  Are expenditures accumulated with a thought or a plan?  Does the person who brings home the most money usually make the majority of financial decisions?  If so, then not only is it possible that your finances are out of whack but maybe your family’s happiness and peace are as well.

Setting and maintaining a family budget can be accomplished by following this simple plan below.

Work on the family goals by setting short-term and long-term goals.  Your goals need to be reasonably achievable yet challenging.  For example, deposit 10% of all income coming in into a high yielding savings account or Certificate of Deposit. The money set aside would be used as the deposit toward the future purchase of a home.

Define the priorities of your family.  Using the example above, you can see that the goal established was to set 10% aside; however the priority is a new home purchase.

One of the keys in making a family budget successful is to be happy with your established goals and priorities.  Once this is said, reminding yourselves of your goals and priorities can cut down most extra spending.  Post these in places where family members are reminded daily of what the family is working towards.

Start living towards your goals by posting the goals and priorities list.  To evaluate and list all expenses, make a tracking system to check all expenses against income, goals, and priorities.  After one month, you and your spouse need to carefully look at the expenses and determine which expenses are unnecessary, thus allowing for additional savings.  Now is the time to work up a family budget with your family.  Please note that Quicken or similar software (paid or free) can easily help with this task.

Reevaluate the family’s goals from time to time.  Review your family’s goals and priorities from time to time so that you can track your family’s progress against your financial goals and decide if any changes are necessary.  Major life changes (ex: career change) affect your plan.  Make it a point to re-evaluate your goals and priorities if family variables or desires change that affect the already stated goals and priorities.