Who’s the CEO of your Family Finances?

Like any household, it’s constantly organised chaos.

In ours, we have two young boys, one aged 4 and the other 7, yes they are the ones in the image.

If you asked them they would consider themselves the owner of everything from the house, to the cars and to everything else we own.

The way they behave they would also believe they decide how the money is spent in our house and if that were the case we’d most probably be broke…  but have all the latest toys and gadgets.

Like most kids, they believe money grows on trees…

I’m constantly having animated discussions with them about the things they want.  They don’t like it when I ask is this a need or a want? (yes I know, it’s the finance side of me coming out…)

As you can imagine everything they want is a want and it’s really an instant gratification type of thing.  Generally, once they have it, it takes a few days and it’s forgotten.

I’ve started calling them the princes, why, well if something like their clothes is not in the right place, there’s absolute outrage.  It’s not uncommon in our household to hear why aren’t my clothes where they normally are or how come you didn’t put x in my bag, I’m sure you’ve had similar circumstances.

So, I guess you could say they think they run the household.

You may have younger kids, older or be an empty nester(if so how’s the serenity???).  They generally dictate the schedule of most households and maybe, just maybe you get to fit in an adult outing from time to time or even some downtime if you’re lucky.  So, this leaves little time for the money discussion, one of the important things we neglect.

So are you the CEO of your family household?

The one that is constantly organising everyone else to ensure everything happens in time.  From the running of the household, organising schedules, keeping it clean and tidy, cooking the meals, doing the shopping, doing the washing to maintaining the outside of the house.

Then there’s the organisation of the kids if they are still at home, what needs to be arranged and fitted in the diary for them, school, sports, and social occasions.

Then’s their’s the running the finances of the house, bringing in the bacon, paying the mortgage, paying the bills, managing the budget and ofcourse trying to get yourself ahead financially so eventually you have enough that work is an option.  A time when you can start enjoying some of the things you couldn’t do while working.

Some of these jobs you may outsource, like the cleaning and mowing of lawns for instance.

Why do we do this?

There is only a limited amount of time in a week, only 168hrs in a week.  168hrs to fit everything in.   Doesn’t really sound like much now?

We feel our time is better spent in other areas, spending time with our family and friends.

Time is precious, there’s not an unlimited amount of it, it’s a precious resource.

So what role does a CEO fulfill?

Running a household is like running a business, and every business has a CEO.  That may be you.

You generate income, income that needs to be managed to pay all the bills and fund a certain lifestyle.

To make sure everthing runs smoothly in this face paced world.

You’re the decision maker in the household, decide how the week is split up and what needs to get done, generally in order of importance.

A CEO is also the strategist, deciding on the direction of the business normally in consultation with members of the board.

In a household, ist’s generally the direction of the family, what is it that you are working so hard for, a certain type of lifestyle, put food on the table, kids education, holidays and building a financial base so you can continue a certain lifestyle now and into the future.

So, what do good CEO’s do?

They hire a good CFO (Chief Financial Officer), someone that oversees and manages the finances of a company.

Who fulfills this role in your family?

The CFO role in the context of a family is someone who coordinates all areas of cash flow, investments, insurances, taxes and legal.

You got it, it’s a lot on top of all the other priorities in the household and generally is one left in the too hard basket or for another day that never comes.

This is why CEO’s employ a CFO, to share the load.

Now, this is something all household’s try and get a handle of, however, there is so much knowledge to be gained to be able to understand the complex world of finance on top of managing a busy household.

You’re lucky if you can get a moment to yourself and enjoy a glass of wine in peace.

Here’s the thing, time is a commodity more today than ever, there is only a limited amount of it and you need to decide if this something I want to spend my time on to get it right or is it better to bring  someone else in to do this so I can spend my time with family and friends enjoying life rather than stressing about this stuff.

Sure, you can go off and do this all yourself, there are plenty of resources online to help you do this, some people are good at this but what I find is most DIY’s miss the critical parts.

I recently took something I was doing myself and outsourced it and it helped me get the results I was looking for.

I had always been a bigger guy, all the way through school and my younger years, never skinny, but always had played sports, you name it I did it.  I always loved being active.

Then like most got married, continued with my fitness and then kids came along and over the years the weight crept to a point where what I was doing wasn’t helping.

Earlier this year I realised that I really needed to get the right expertise.

So, I found a group that ran an 8-week fitness challenge, a group I had done some training with many years ago so I was aware of them.

Although they couldn’t do the pushups for me, they gave me the guidance, the know-how and the support needed to get the results.  I needed to put my trust in them.

So, I did and the results 8 weeks later was that I lost 16kgs and added 3kgs of lean muscle.  Those new lessons and structure have helped me keep it off since then.

It allowed me to get the results faster.

Why am I telling you this?

It’s not to solicit your business, but I’m here if you want to chat,  you can book a time here>>, but for you to have a long hard look at what you are wanting to achieve, what’s your vision for you and your family.

What’s the lifestyle you want to maintain into the future?

What strategies have you in place to make this a reality?

Just like BBL cricket, are you above the line or below the line when it comes to making it a reality?  Do you even know how you are tracking?  or are you just winging it?

What I find more often than not is that people hide behind it thinking things will changes, leaving action too late and ultimately missing out on what they wanted in the first place.

If this post does one thing, I hope it’s made you stop for a minute and consider what it is that you want for yourself and your family, what’s the future hold for you.  How could it be better if you took the right action to take better control of your finances?

Do you know how you are going to make it a reality, what’s the gameplan and who’s responsible for this?

Now, you may be the person currently doing this, or you may not put too much focus on it, but if you really thought about it for a while, are you right person with the right expertise to make it a reality?

Like me, I seek out people I can outsource what I don’t know to get the results.  Utilise their expertise to ultimately save me time, time I don’t have and time I would prefer to spend elsewhere with my family.

So, who’s the CEO in your family and do you need to seek the expertise of CFO equivalent to help you create your roadmap so that you can be in more control of your finances and make the most of your time rather than spend it on other areas that are outside your expertise.

If anything I hope this makes you take some sort of action, the action that will get you closer to what you want.

Make a solid plan and follow through, this is where the results come from.

Hope that been useful.

If, however you want to have a chat, we offer a 15 min phone call where we will help you answer questions that you have about your finances and we will give you 1-3 tips to move you forward.

You can book a call by clicking here>>

If there are questions you have, feel free to email me and I’ll answer them for you.

Make it a great Life!

Glenn Doherty – CFP – Founder & Financial Organiser at Jigsaw Private Wealth

Website: jigsawprivatewealth.com.au

Email: gdoherty@jigsawprivatewealth.com.au

Mob: 0401 253 729

 

 

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Advice Disclaimer: Any reference in this publication to the provision of advice refers to advice of a generic nature, and should not be taken as product or investment recommendations. Before any action is taken based on the information provided, independent financial advice from a licensed financial adviser should be sought. Financial Freedom Project Pty Ltd ATF GA & DC Doherty Family Trust Trading as Jigsaw Private Wealth is a Corporate Authorised Representative of Spark Advisors Australia Pty Ltd. The information contained in this publication is of a factual nature only and is not intended to constitute financial product advice. Information is current as at date of publication. This is an online information blog. It does not imply an offering of securities.

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