Financial Management For Large Families: Tips To Keep Your Family’s Finances On Track
Having a large family can be expensive. The increased housing prices, grocery bills and other general living costs can put a strain on the parents’ income.
While the size of the family may increase, the family’s income (mainly parents’ income) doesn’t. As a result, many families find themselves juggling rising credit card, student and other consumer debts.
The average credit card debt per household in 2017 stood at $8,377, highlighting the rising household debt levels. Compared to smaller families, the finances and incorporating the budgeting process in expanded families can get a bit complicated but it doesn’t necessarily have to be that way.
Handled the right way and by using a few handy tips, managing money matters for your family can be simpler than you thought. Manage your finances well and you and your family can be on your way to financial stability and security.
Make your Expenditures a Priority
With larger families, incomes can vary. Sometimes there’s just the parents’ income while in other families, older children and other members may be employed and contribute to the household’s income.
For any family, keeping track and being aware of your outgoings is a good idea. However, particularly in larger families, expenses can rise dramatically if not monitored.
Employ money-saving tips in various parts of your household including the kitchen. With the numerous amount of budgeting resources available online today, it is easy to keep an eye on your family’s spending.
To begin with, making a monthly household budget is always a great idea. In addition to drawing up a debt repayment plan if needed.
Become Debt Smart
One of the best things you can do financially is becoming educated about effectively managing debt. The reality is for most families are contending with:
- student loans for both parents and college-aged kids,
- mortgages and
- sometimes credit card debt.
For larger families, these amounts can quickly creep up so being debt savvy can make a huge difference. Start with a debt repayment plan suited to your family.
This allows you to visualize and plan on how to tackle your repayments and keep your credit on track. If you do have credit card debt, consider lenders with promotional offers of zero percent interest rates for purchases and balance transfers.
This will remove the element of finance changes for a period, allowing you to make more headway in repaying your debt. The average interest credit cardholders can expect to pay currently hovers around 16.71 percent.
Another option to explore is debt consolidation or refinancing. Not only does it help to save money otherwise paid in interest rates each year but it also helps you to keep track of the different payments each month.
According to Crediful, families looking to have their outstanding debts negotiated must satisfy certain criteria such as having defaulted on payments in order to access help from organizations such as The National Debt Relief.
Make Emergency Saving a Habit
Having a contingency fund is a good habit for everyone to have. For larger families, planning ahead can make all the difference in difficult circumstances.
Even with you practicing good budgeting habits, unplanned events can occur and throw you for a loop. With this in mind, make it a habit to put away some money each month towards an emergency savings account.
In addition, it would be wise to plan ahead for future medical and retirement needs so investing in life insurance and an appropriate retirement savings portfolio is recommended. Approach these items as you would your monthly bills and make it apart of your monthly expenses.
A great tip is to set up a standing order into a dedicated savings account of a set amount each month. That way you can rest assured you stay on track with your savings.
Regardless of the circumstances under which your family grew, there is no comparison to the joy they bring. Whether it is through blended families or your children choosing to stay longer at home, this financial management tips for large families will keep the stress away.
A large family will come with more financial requirements.Managing the finance may be difficult but with the tips here it seems entirely possible.Saving money and avoiding debts can really be helpful.Spend well!