Handling your finances — budgeting, retirement planning, etc. — feels stressful enough alone. Toss in a family, and now you’re navigating multiple relationships, needs, and wants all at once. 

But what if you didn’t have to dread managing your family finances?

Regardless of size or income, setting your family up for success starts with a foundation of trust, communication with family members, and prioritizing financial goals. (And, occasionally, using your handy conflict resolution skills.) 

Basics of family financial planning

Family financial planning contains many of the same principles as personal financial planning. Whether you’re juggling two expenses or five, you’ll still need to budget, track expenses, and set financial goals. 

But family financial planning also carries a few extra steps, like communicating with family members, estate planning, and staying organized. 

Below, we’ll explore these basic principles — and more. 

1. Tracking all your finances in one place

Let’s start with a basic truth — you can’t manage what you can’t see. If you’re not tracking your finances in one place, you’re doing yourself (and your family) a disservice. 

Automated trackers can consolidate your account balances and trends into one dashboard to give you a bird’s-eye view of your finances. Take advantage of these tools to:

  • Stay up to date on your family’s account balances
  • Monitor income and expense changes
  • Track trends like increased spending by category before problems arise

In short, tracking your finances in one place means enjoying greater control — and finding fewer nasty surprises — long term. 

2. Seeing where your money is going

Budgeting is a fundamental cornerstone of effective financial management. Controlling a family budget starts with knowing where you are today, including how much you need to cover monthly expenses.

Track every dollar your family earns, saves, invests, and spends. If you can’t see your financial outflow, you can’t truly control your spending. That’s like trying to stop the bleeding when you don’t know where the wound is!

3. Knowing what you have left to spend

Money doesn’t spend itself  — you can be proactive and intentional about your purchases when you have up-to-date numbers.

Let’s say you make $1,500 this pay period and calculate that $1,000 will go to bills. By doing the math ahead of time, you know that you have $500 left to budget for spending and saving. 

Good financial management involves looking ahead to balance your expenses and wants against your income and goals. 

4. Setting your financial goals

Every goal needs a plan, right? You (usually) wouldn’t start a long road trip without deciding where you’re going first. You wouldn’t put together a bookshelf without a set of directions. So, why spend time getting your finances in order without a plan in place?

Ideally, you wouldn’t. 

When you have other people depending on you, discussing and planning for financial goals becomes a critical exercise. Core goals might include:

  • Saving for future purchases like new appliances, vehicles, and vacations
  • Buying a house
  • Investing for your future retirement
  • Managing and repaying your credit card or student loan debt
  • Investing in your child’s education

Collaborate with family on which goals are most important to you and on what timeline. You may need to help your children set small goals while they’re young and bolder goals as they grow.

Make family financial planning a lifelong group effort for everyone to participate in and enjoy. 

5. Growing your income

Let’s be honest — life gets expensive, and every year, the price tag only seems to get bigger. To add more income streams, you might:

  • Get a second or part-time job
  • Start a side hustle, like monetizing a hobby or selling your knowledge as a consultant
  • Investing in assets like bonds or real estate to generate passive income

Not only will growing your income help you maintain (or increase) your financial security, but it also means meeting your goals faster. Hello, early retirement! (Or buying a house, or padding your emergency fund, or other goals you’ve set.) 

6. Plan for the unexpected    

The best-laid plans take into account occasional detours. Water leaks, job losses, and medical emergencies all arrive unannounced. When you have a family, the impact multiplies, often affecting everyone in the household. 

When that happens, it’s best to be prepared with a hefty emergency fund that can cover your expenses (and keep you out of debt). 

Emergency fund needs vary, but as a general rule, you can aim to save 3–6 months’ worth of household expenses. So, if your family spends $2,000 a month on rent, groceries, and bills, aim to save at least $6,000 to $12,000. (Preferably in a high-yield savings account that grows your money in a safe environment.)

Saving this much doesn’t happen overnight, though! It’s okay to start with small, reasonable goals, such as saving $15 per week or $100 per month. Set up automatic contributions to keep you on track. 

7. Communicating with your family members

No financial situation is truly “set it and forget it,” especially when multiple people, desires, goals, and futures live under one roof. Instead, make a point to foster calm, honest conversations about your family finances with your family. 

Early on, share your income, expenses, and debts with your partner. Talk about your individual goals and collaborate on mutual priorities. Determine how to split your responsibilities, whether you’ll have separate or joint accounts, and how to prioritize tasks according to each other’s strengths. 

As time passes, monitor your financial tracker(s) together. Celebrate progress toward your goals and support each other through any setbacks. 

If kids enter your life, don’t leave them out! Bring them into your financial discussions, where appropriate, to teach them the importance of managing money.  

8. Teaching children financial literacy

As we’ve hinted already, instilling a strong sense of financial responsibility into your children early on will help set them up for life. Tackling this task is a tall order, but it can start by:

  • Having frequent, age-appropriate conversations about budgeting, spending, and saving
  • Presenting opportunities to earn, spend, save, and give responsibly
  • Encouraging your children to set and meet their own financial goals
  • Teaching the difference between “good” (useful) and “bad” (predatory) debts
  • Helping your children cultivate a good credit score before leaving home

You can also give children the opportunity to contribute to the household by treating the whole family to ice cream or paying for a streaming service they want. The more that kids see their earnings contributing to their individual and family happiness, the more they’ll associate good financial sense with success later on. 

9. Organizing family information and documents

An organized, accessible system for financial information keeps you from getting frustrated and stuck looking for paperwork. It also helps you make decisions faster. Depending on your preferences for filing, securing, and sharing family documents, you may:

  • Create digital documents or spreadsheets with information like accounts and contact information for your estate lawyer
  • Share access to password managers
  • File important financial statements into physical folders
  • Stash passwords to your financial accounts in your bank’s safety deposit box

After you decide who needs access to what, you can share the physical location and/or digital file access. Family members can then check on financial information themselves.

How to talk to your family about money

Finances can be a sensitive topic, especially if you and other family members have different attitudes about handling money. Consider the following tips for smoother conversations:

  • Lay all relevant facts on the table early on. Be upfront about income, expenses, debts, and dreams — otherwise, how can you get on the same page?
  • Talk when the time is right. Don’t have financial conversations when you’re especially stressed or angry. Instead, wait until everyone involved is in a calm headspace and willing to talk and listen. Address potential problems with empathy, open curiosity, and a desire to fix the situation creatively, thinking outside the box.
  • Validate each other’s goals. Although your ultimate goal should be furthering and protecting your family’s finances, you don’t have to let individual hopes and dreams die! Instead, acknowledge each person’s desires, and take steps where you can to make them happen. 
  • Address estate planning. As uncomfortable as it feels, you need a plan for the family’s estate — each person’s physical and financial assets when they die. Designating beneficiaries early and drawing up your will prevents your loved ones from struggling with an extra burden if the worst comes to pass. 

Above all, remember that you’re a team working toward the same goal: A strong, financially secure family unit. Ultimately, your whole family will benefit if you and your partner can align your goals, communicate frequently, and solve your differences together. 

How to keep track of your family finances

Tracking one person’s financial situation can seem hectic enough. But add all your family’s income, expenses, accounts, and goals, and managing your finances can start feeling … unmanageable. 

With Quicken Simplifi, you can monitor your entire family’s financial situation from just one dashboard. Keep an eye on shared accounts and expenses, and take steps to keep your goals on track. Share your finances directly with the people you love, and use our powerful reporting tools as a gateway to smarter, real-life financial conversations with the entire family.