Starting your Family on a Budget

Whether you’ve just started a family and are new to the lifestyle, or you have several kids as old as high school age, it’s likely your finances could use some help. If you are in debt, aside from a mortgage, you need to make some changes. If you have no retirement plan because you think you can’t afford it, you need some help, too.

Debt comes in all shapes and sizes. You could have car loans, small business loans, loans from family, credit card debt, or money owed from any type of financing.

You need to find a way to either increase your income, decrease your spending, or do a combination of the two in order to have extra income to pay off your debt. Once you’ve paid off your debt, you can start funneling more of your excess income into a retirement account.

Before you can start paying off debt, you need to spend less. You need to make a budget and set up a plan to start spending less. Get your whole family in on it by setting up a family budget.

A family budget needs to be agreed upon and followed by the entire family. If one spouses spends all the time, the one saving will make no progress. The kids also need to follow it closely. Don’t give them money whenever they ask. Have them get their own job, or at least work for the money they want.

Paying off debt is your first priority. Pay it off as soon as possible and save yourself a lot of money in interest. Open up a 401K or an IRA and start contributing towards retirement. The sooner you start, the more you’ll have come retirement. If you set up a 401K with your employer, they might even match a percentage of or the entire amount of what you contribute, which means more free money.

If you feel trapped because you try to cut back and are still living barely within your means, take a serious look at your spending. Are you living in a house you can’t afford? Your expenses are never as low as they can be if you can ever downgrade your living. Don’t just look at cutting small expenses, also look to shave your big bills down.

The small things can still add up. Cut back on cable, cut down your cell phone plan, get a used car to get rid of car payments, use coupons and buy store brand, and stop buying snacks away from home. Move into a cheap apartment until your debt is paid off if you have to.

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