One of mother’s many duties is to handle the family’s budget. Are you one of those moms who is smart and fit to handle money? Or are you one of those moms who is leading your family to a disaster when it comes to money matters?
Here are the signs you are street smart when it comes to handling your family’s budget:
1. Moms who are financially smart have a household budget. A great financial plan always starts with a good budgeting. Who are more qualified to do it? Only moms that know all the expenses and know how to budget.
If you still do not have a budget, at least provide a ceiling for expenses. For instance, grocery is only up to 10,000/month, dining-out is 5,000/month. It all depends on your family’s lifestyle, of course.
2. Moms that are good with money have an emergency fund stashed away. Emergencies are unexpected things that can take place anytime. A mom who is smart when it comes to finances would have savings equal to a 3-6 months-worth of monthly expenses that is stashed away, but liquid enough and can be used immediately in case of an emergency.
3. Money smart moms know that the family needs a lump sum of money in cases of: Death, Critical illness, Disability and Accidents. She makes sure at least she and her spouse (bread winners) have life insurances enough for unexpected events in life. She does not leave her family’s future to chance.
4. Money smart mom knows where she can save more in a long run. Like with using cloth diapers with your babies. Cloth diapers cost an average of P14,000 per child until toilet trained vs P50,000 for 2 years use for the cheapest disposable diaper. You can also destash or sell used cloth diapers or you can use it to your succeeding children which means more savings.
5. Money smart moms know the benefits of breastfeeding and do it with their child. Breast milk is not only the best food for your baby, but it is also the cheapest.
6. Money smart moms know what really matters most. Time spent with children is more valuable than money spent on them. Children do not need a truckload of toys, they need you to play with them. A movie and popcorn in your home once a week is far better than Disneyland twice a year
7. Moms that are smart savers know how to SAVE FIRST, THEN SPEND rather than SPEND FIRST, THEN SAVE. Credit cards are good, only when it is used to your advantage, but is crippling if it takes advantage over you and control you.
8. Moms that are good with finances know where to put their family’s long term savings in the best place possible. Long term savings plan includes: education for kids, retirement for the couple and family’s life dreams. They know that by just putting money in banks, inflation will simply eat it up. They take advantage of different investment vehicles to be able to use the power time to gain more through compounding interest.
9. Money smart moms know how to reward themselves and their family without getting guilty of overspending. Because money smart moms have the budget for those things. Be it beauty care, spa, or even a grand family vacation.
10. Money smart moms are not afraid to seek wisdom from expert financial advisers they trust. For them, handling money has been just like building the family’s dream house which needs a good architect and engineer. Financial consultants are the architects that craft the family’s dream and help them plan to make it to reality and engineers who keep the family’s financial foundation strong and can stand against financial earthquakes. Money smart moms are not afraid to ask from the experts.
It’s Mother’s Day. Here is the tribute of myfinancemd to all the wonderful moms out there. Enjoy your happy day! You deserve all the pampering and attention the world is giving you today.
Happy Mothers Day!
From a Financially Smart Mom and Expert,
Few More Good Reads to make you a Money Smart Mom:
- How to get more than 50% discount for your child’s College Tuition fee
- How much should you be saving for Retirement? Do you have what it takes to retire comfortably?
- How to save more than 50,000 Pesos by just bringing your child to a Pediatric Dentist
- Free Monthly Budget Planner and Expense Tracker for 2015
- How to Compute your Emergency Fund? How much Exactly do you Need?
- Breastfeeding is Love
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