Family Financial Management

Family money management involves planning, tracking, and controlling your income and expenses, which are key to staying in control of your finances. Plus, it empowers you to:

• Achieve your financial goals. Creating a budget will help you understand your income and outgoings, and make informed decisions about spending and saving money.
• Manage your debts. Having a clear an actionable plan for paying off loans or credit cards can help you manage and reduce your debts, working your way towards financial freedom.
• Prepare for emergencies and save for your family’s future. By saving money, you’ll be ready to handle unexpected expenses like car or home repairs. It provides a sense of security.

Get tips on how to manage money

Building a plan can help you and your loved ones live a comfortable lifestyle, afford expenses, and save for the future. 

Creating a budget is a good start to discussing how you’ll manage your finances as a couple or family – as well as understanding your partner’s spending habits and checking if there are any existing loans or debts you need to consider. This will help you set realistic financial goals and become financially stable.

Get budgeting tips.

Whether you want to save for a house, pay off debt or plan for retirement, the first step to family financial management is setting your goals and priorities. This will help you assess your current financial situation, taking your family’s current income, expenses and debts into consideration. To stay motivated, you’ll need to set specific targets and timelines to achieve your goals.

Having open and honest conversations about who will be responsible for each task – such as tracking expenses, paying bills or managing investments – is also essential to achieving your financial goals. You need to decide the best way to manage your money as a couple, exploring available options such as:

• Share everything in a joint account. This is a good way to pay household bills and share costs but could have disadvantages if one partner has a poor credit score.
• Keep separate accounts. To avoid late payments, it’s important to decide in advance which expenses each member will cover. Want to make sure you always pay bills on time? Here’s how to set up a Direct Debit.
• Have both joint and separate accounts. Maintaining separate accounts will give you and your partner freedom for personal spending, and combining this with a joint account could help you easily cover shared family expenses, like mortgage payments, utility bills and childcare. You’d both pay in an agreed amount, keeping the rest of your finances separate.

Even small changes add up to significant savings and can have a big impact on your outgoings. Here’s how to effectively manage your family’s budget:

• Understand your spending habits. Analyse your Card statements to understand your spending behaviour, and trim costs. This will help identify areas where you can reduce your spending or even spot forgotten subscriptions you need to get rid of.
• Cut back on expenses. Shop around to make sure you’re on the best deals for your utility bills and check if you can save on outgoings – for example finding cheaper alternatives for entertainment. Explore some ways to save with Amex Offers.
• Prepare for unexpected expenses. Make saving a priority and build an emergency fund to prepare for unexpected expenses, like home emergencies. This will not only help you feel more confident and financially secure, but also avoid debt.

Review your budget regularly and run meetings to check your progress. Whether your goal is saving for a holiday or creating an emergency fund, you need to make sure that each family member understands how they can work towards it. If you have kids, consider involving them in the planning process. Educating everyone at home about responsible spending and saving will make the process easier, while encouraging good financial habits.