Candid Financial Parenting

May 22, 2020 4:00 pm // Legacy Care Wealth

I wear two very important hats in my life, that of a Certified Financial Planner® and that of a mom to two amazing boys. From time-to-time those two worlds coincide beautifully and there are others where they both compete for my attention. But I know in my core that they both are a part of my mission and purpose in life. I could not be more grateful to have the opportunity to challenge myself and others about aligning personal finances so they can meet their goals, and the opportunity to challenge myself and my sons in finding new ways to learn and grow together. The Jacobs Family Tenants that I have the boys repeat back to me multiple times a week are:

Be present – Be kind – Do your best!

We try to uphold these in our practice as parents, as we want to lead by example for our sons, and try to live these practices in our work, as we hope this will show in our experiences with our clients and other professionals where our foundations lie.

As a parent I have learned to start with the basics, and build from there. There will be setbacks and simply by taking a deep breath and sticking to your principles, things usually work out. You have to reward for positive progress, and be forgiving of mistakes, which does not mean to forget, but instead to learn from them and move forward without regret.

In financial planning, all of these lessons hold true. Start simple, start creating an emergency fund and make a plan to payoff debt. There will be setbacks…I truly believe that by having a plan though you can better adjust your actions to realign back to the goals ahead of you, so when these setbacks happen just take a deep breath, get back to basics, and you will find stability again. When you meet a goal, acknowledge that progress and celebrate in a simple way. When you make a mistake, learn from it, but stop punishing yourself from it. Mistakes are such an opportunity for learning and growth, watch a baby learn to walk and you will learn the true meaning of perseverance.

I look forward to sharing my blogging baby steps with you. On this journey some posts may be more focused on my lessons from parenting and others will be more personal finance related. I hope to be a resource for others as we all learn how to handle family and finances together.

As I sign-off, I would like to share that my 2-year old just burst into my office and said “Alexa, play Old MacDonald! That’s my favorite!” Welcome to Financial Parenting 🙂

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