Things You Must do to Protect Your Family Financially
If you have a family, it’s probably fair to say that you’d go to the ends of the earth for them – we all want our families to be as happy safe and secure as possible, after all.
One of the best ways to protect your family is by ensuring that you, and as far as possible they, are in a good place financially. Here are some things that can help you do exactly that:
Get to Grips with Your Debts
If you’re in debt, then it doesn’t just have an impact on you, it impacts your spouse, your children, and quite possibly other close family members like your parents too. If your debt is unmanageable, it can cause untold amounts of hurt, arguments and family fall-outs and it can prevent you from doing good things for your family, like starting college funds and buying properties.
That is why it is of vital importance that you grab the bull by the horns and do everything within your power to pay off your debts. If that seems impossible, see a debt counselor and make use of all the help they will give you. It is so important!
Live More Simply
Living a simpler life is a fanatic way to protect your family’s finances, and spend more time binding with them. Think about it, when you stop spending so much money on useless gadgets and gizmos, meals out and brand new designer goods, not only do you have more money to build up college funds, pay off debt, and maybe go on the occasional family trip, but you have to spend more time making your own fun. Fewer screens and more family dinners, a happier, more secure, family makes!
Build Up an Emergency Fund
Everyone, whether they have a family or not, should start to build up their own emergency fund. This is a fund that can be accessed when the car breaks down and needs some serious repairs, the family pet gets sick, or you’re hit with a huge medical bill. Put simply; it’s for the important stuff in life that we can’t always plan for.
How do you build up an emergency fund? By creating and living on a budget that leaves you with a fair amount of money at the end of the month, instead of spending with wild abandon and actually being in the minus come the 31st.
Invest in Yourself
In order to do your best by your family, particularly when you’re just starting out, one of the best uses of your money is investing it in yourself. Whether you use it to get a masters in engineering or to set up a brand new business that you hope will one day become a family company, using your own money to better yourself will almost always pay off and help your family, providing you don’t have any debts (debt should always come first).
Get Insurance
Insurance – if you’re struggling to pay your debts and save money, it’s easy to let insurance payments slide, but you really shouldn’t, particularly for the important stuff like medical insurance, homeowner’s insurance and life insurance, which if you don’t have, could plunge you and your family into dire straits in an instant. No one thinks the worst will happen to them, and it probably won’t happen to you, but it does happen and you need to be prepared should it come knocking at your door.
Teach Your Kids About Money
Starting from a young age, you should start teaching your kids about money and how to use it wisely. That way, they might not make the same mistakes you did, and they’ll only follow in your footsteps that proved to be successful. You can never guarantee anything, but the more your children know about money, and the sooner they know it, the more likely they are to treat it with common sense and respect.
Organize Power of Attorney
Should something happen to you that leaves you mentally incapacitated, what will happen to you and your money and assets? If you can’t answer that question, then you need to make an appointment with your local power of attorney solicitors right now! Why? Because when you don’t have mental capacity, it can be all too easy for your money to be stolen, swindled or frittered away and that could be a huge problem for you and your family. You need to prevent that from happening by having it legally declared who is to take control of your life/finances and make the big decisions for you, should the day ever come when it’s required.
Pay for a Funeral Plan
It’s not nice to think about your own death, but we do all die, and when that happens, you probably don’t want your family to have to worry about paying for it, which is why you should take out a funeral insurance plan, which will cover the costs, now while you’re fine. Hopefully, it won’t be required for a long time, but when it is needed, it will remove some of the pressure from your bereaved loved ones.
Write Your Will
While we’re on the subject of death, if you want to protect your family financially, you absolutely must take the time to draw up your last will and testament. If you don’t, then it could cause fall-outs in your family when you’re gone. Even worse, the people you care about most, might not be legally entitled to anything. For example, if you’ve been married more than once and you have a complicated set up of children, step-children, ex-wives, etc., they won’t all immediately be entitled to a share, so you need to make your intentions pretty clear while you can.
If you can do as many of these things as possible as early into your family life as possible, then you can all but guarantee that your family are going to grow up financially stable and respectful of money. So, it’s time to get started.
