Household money management tasks are traditionally relegated to one member of the home while everyone else tends to trust it’s all being taken care of. Unfortunately when it’s left to one person to take care of the major things, other family members often tend to overlook some spending patterns that can threaten family goals.
Creating a family budget can help make your financial future much smoother, but when you work together as a family to discuss the budget you may find there are several positive side-effects.
In most families, a family budget is usually just a simple list of bills that need to be paid and the amount of income that is available to be allocated for spending money. By sitting down one evening each month as a family and talking through the financial obligations that must be met, you instill a sense of awareness within your children of the responsibilities you face.
When you include your children in family financial discussions they can often develop an awareness of how their own spending patterns can affect the entire family unit. Many teenagers learn to modify their spending behavior when they understand the implications of their actions and see the size of the bills they helped to generate.
You also have the benefit of including the entire family in setting some goals for debt reduction and building savings. It’s much easier to work on important money management tactics when you have the full support and enthusiasm of your loved ones behind you.
If sitting down as a family to work through a family budget together is a new concept, you may initially feel some discomfort talking about bills and debts that are usually hidden away and dealt with alone. Your children may also find talking about money a little boring or complain that it’s not their responsibility.
To help alleviate some of their boredom, discuss their own financial contributions to the household. This might mean completing some simple chores in order to help out around the home, which creates a little extra free time for mom or dad. It might mean helping them to understand how their actions can affect the size of your utility bills. No matter what tactic you use, include them and their responsibilities into the family discussion and they’ll be more interested as they become aware of their place within a loving Christian family unit.
Learning to be good stewards of money begins at a young age, so try to find ways to include feedback from all family members. All suggestions into money management decisions should be considered valid and any kind of input should be encouraged. However the final decisions for major purchases should be reached by consensus and discussion with the entire family given a voice.
Your children’s opinions and suggestions are valid and if they have questions about why the family budget is so important, take time to answer their questions. You’re all a part of a loving Christian family and you each have the right to contribute to making the financial decisions that affect all of you.