MassMutual: A Fresh Start to Your Family’s Finances

In our family, I’m responsible for the finances.  Banking, budgeting, and overall family planning are all my responsibility…and trust me, it’s a daunting task.  I’m always worried about having “enough”.  Will we have enough money set aside so the girls can go to college?  Will we have enough stashed away in pension and IRA accounts to support us during retirement?  Will there be enough in our savings account to cover that unexpected expense?  It’s overwhelming and a little nerve-racking at times.  There’s just so much to think about.

So how do we plan for our financial future?

For me, it’s all about small steps.  Little things that we can do now to set our family up for financial success in the long run.  The best example of one of these small steps is that our family lives on cash alone.  That’s right, no credit cards.  At all.  Some of that was out of necessity – we had significant debts accumulated during law school to pay off – but after a while, we just got used to it.  We have credit cards, but they stay tucked away.  If we don’t have the money for something at the time we want to buy it, then we don’t buy it.  Period.  And sure, that hurts a little when there’s something we really, really want on super sale, but honestly, this rule has been good to us.  We don’t have any bills coming at the end of the month and never go beyond our means.  It’s also stopped us from buying things that we don’t really need.  Now don’t take this to mean that credit cards are evil, because they aren’t.  In the age of credit card rewards, miles, and cash back, I know there are tons of reasons to charge, but this one rule has really helped keep our finances in check.  There’s never a temptation of carrying a balance and having to pay interest on it.  It’s also forced me to coupon and find ways to save money along the way.  And when I do save money, I try to put that money aside in addition to regular deposits that we make into our savings accounts.  With dedication, this small step contributes to our family’s bigger financial picture.

But I’m far from the only mom who finds financial planning and the big picture daunting.  According to a new research study, many moms have strong hopes and convictions about financial stability for their families, but often don’t know where to start or how to achieve that goal.  Luckily, MassMutual is here to help!  They’ve created this cool new quiz designed to help moms think about finances and their families financial future.  It can even help with small ways that a family can help start a family financially plan.  If you’d like to take the quiz, you can find it here:

And make sure to follow MassMutual on Facebook and Twitter for more money saving tips and advice.

Do you find planning for your family’s financial future overwhelming? What tools do you use to plan for your family’s financial future?

Disclosure: “I wrote this post as participation in in a blog tour for Mom Central on behalf of MassMutual and received compensation in the form of an Amazon gift code to thank me for taking the time to participate.”