Home Money Management
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Home money management is quite often the subject of situation comedy and the butt of many jokes. Wives hiding secret purchases from their husbands, and husbands trashing check book records are stock items for comedy. But in reality it's no laughing matter because home money management or the lack of it can be a sad reason why marriages dissolve. With families which have less than formal plans for handling the monthly expenses, questions like, "Where did all the money go?" or "Didn't you pay the bill?" can pop up like Whack A Moles. So the real question comes down to having a solid plan in place to handle the monthly budget and a method for paying the bills.
Home money management has been and will be getting more and more difficult as the country seems to be moving into a formal recession like period. The fact that perhaps as many as seventy percent of all households are living pay check to pay check indicates that budgets are very tight and little savings are available for emergency situations. So the stress will become greater and greater on households that do not have a workable plan in place to decide priorities and goals. If there is no plan in place, the beginning point is deciding on priorities. Jesus made it absolutely clear that real joy came in life from following His priorities. He explained when He said, "Therefore, take not thought, saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink? or Wherewithal shall we be clothed? ...for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things." (Matthew 56:31-32)
When a family is having trouble meeting its monthly budget, the children are impacted as much as the adults, so it is advisable for preteens and teens to be let in on all the facts and numbers. Allow them to view just exactly what the squeeze is all about so they will feel a partner in the budget planning. The decision about priorities must be the first topic of discussion but be sure it includes retirement money and college expenses. Then look at the expenditures by laying them all out and going down each one answering any questions the children have. There will be plenty of eyes opened with full disclosure and issues will begin to be raised about how to cut some expenditures out or pare some down. In any case, the children will become advocates for even hard changes that have to be made in the home money management plan.
A look at fixed expenses would be first in the order of discussion such as the mortgage, car payments, tuition, and credit card payments. Again, eyes will be wide open at the cost of living life in America in the 21st century. Then the pliable expenses, aka those than can be altered are next. These would include food, including eating out, electricity, allowances, gas for autos and other manageable expenses need to come under hard discussion. Together a family can put together a covenant to pledge support for all decisions regarding home money management. The difficulty will come if there is so much debt that even priorities are getting squeezed.
In the case of unsecured debt, that is charge card accounts and other revolving charge debt, paying extra every month on the principle can begin to lower that pressure in relatively short time. But if there is no extra money, and things like food and gas and utilities are getting hammered, it may be time to seek credit counseling help. Credit counselors offer a plan to erase all unsecured debt within five years and provide dramatically lessened monthly credit card bills, but the big drawback with this is that the plan can really hurt one's credit score. Yet if late payments occur often, then the credit score has already been hit pretty hard. A conversation with a credit counseling agency may give some ideas and direction for home money management.
There are online tools that anyone can use to help plan and maintain a home money management plan. In addition there are plenty of sites with great ideas on handling the stress of tight budgets as well as hundreds or thousands of articles that can encourage the weary family budget watcher. Since everyone will be a whole lot more excited on the day the budget is finalized than two months later when going to the movies with friends is not feasible, incentives and pep talks will have to be a regular meal time conversation. If possible, both husband and wife must share the cheerleader role so that credibility is built and burnout is eliminated. And when there is a little extra money for discretionary spending, allowing the entire family to enjoy the spoils is called for.
One of the real positive steps a family can make in their home money management plans are discussions about the misplaced priorities of Christmas. When such a discussion begins to home in on the empty value of materialism and the receiving of seemingly endless gifts, the discussion can turn easily turn to the value and joy of serving others that do need a lift. Frankly, a crisis in home finances might turn out to be some of the most unifying things a family can face together. With apparent very difficult days on the horizon for the country's economy, the joy of family and friends may become more precious and apparent than ever.
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