Okay, so let’s talk family finances. Does just the thought, stress you out? Maybe you’re listening and thinking that you don’t even know where to start when it comes to saving, spending, or investing. Maybe you feel so deep into financial trouble and so overwhelmed that it’s having an impact on your marriage or even in your relationships. Enter Meghan Rabuse.
Meghan’s mission is to explain finances in a way that everyone can understand and practice in your own home, no matter what your financial situation is. She wants to help moms especially feel confident, informed and educated to be better financial decision makers for their family.
Meghan spent nearly a decade as a Financial Analyst, before spending the last 7+ as a SAHM to three little ones. After graduating summa cum laude from the University of Notre Dame with a degree in Finance and Business Economics, she worked as an Investment Banking Analyst for Morgan Stanley, an Equity Research Analyst for a hedge fund, and ran Investor Relations and Product Development for quant funds. She now shares simple money tips and financial education to help your family reach your financial goals and build a financial plan you can LIVE with!
I LOVED talking with Meghan. If you’ve heard my own financial story in Episode 22, you’ll know how passionate I am about how financial freedom can change your LIFE. Meghan isn’t coming at this as someone who has never faced financial struggles, either. She and her husband went into their marriage with $60k in student loan debts…each. They lost six figures on their first home. She has been in stressful financial situations.
Together, we talk about navigating through building a budget with your partner and getting on the same page, figuring out the “Why” behind your personal family’s financial goals, common facts and mistakes made specifically by women when it comes to finances, and how we can protect our kids financially.
This episode is PACKED with valuable information and free resources from Meghan. So, I won’t keep you any longer. Here’s my conversation with Meghan Rabuse, the Family Finance Mom:
Growing up, Meghan was always into numbers. She has a finance degree, she worked on Wall Street, and fell in love with the world of markets and finance. She worked as an investment banking analyst, working as an analyst for a hedge fund.
Meghan never imagined that she would be a stay at home mom. When she had her first child, she had a nanny all lined up, but the nanny quit just a week before Meghan was scheduled to return to work. As a result, Meghan became a stay-at-home mom. As she spent time with other mom friends, she realized that she could empower families with the education and knowledge to make better financial decisions for their family, and thus the Family Finance Mom was born.
LOVING BEING A WORKING MOM
Meghan loved the financial independence that came from working. The thought of having to be accountable to someone else on how she spent her money, terrified her. Letting go of that idea and working through it was what helped her to be comfortable with the idea of staying at home.
She also feared loss of identity. Meghan was always the smart kid in school. If she didn’t have that anymore, she wondered who she would be. She feared that her brain would turn to mush.
For Meghan, being the Family Finance Mom was the best of both worlds: to be able to stay at home and still challenge herself with something she’s passionate about.
THE FAMILY FINANCE MOM
Meghan started as a blogger so she could keep her family updated with what was going on with her and her kids. Then she began to build a community on Instagram, addressing the everyday financial issues that women encounter. She noticed that financial institutions tend to give a template about how everyone should run their finances.
Financial advice isn’t a one-size-fits-all thing. Personal finance needs to be, PERSONAL. So Meghan helps families to understand the “why” behind financial strategies.
When it comes to finances, families are in different stages of life: maybe they’re saving to buy their first home or trying to get out of debt. Maybe they’re trying to save for college for their kids, or trying to retire. Those things all look different for every family. The reality is that the tools are all the same, but the numbers (income, etc.) look different. What needs to stay the same is being on a budget. Most families aren’t aware of where their money is actually going.
GET ON A BUDGET
Budgeting is like dieting or counting calories. It’s important to keep count, track, and have control over where your money is going. Once you start your budget, be realistic about where it needs to be. Not every area (needs, wants, debt, bills) has the same impact or importance for every family.
A budget tells you where you want your money to go every month, but its value comes in when you compare it with where your money actually went at the end of every month. Compare that to your budget, assess where your missteps were, and decide how you can change your behavior to improve going forward. That’s the learning curve where you see yourself getting closer to your goals.
WHAT IF MY PARTNER ISN’T ON BOARD?
When Meghan was first getting her blog set up, she surveyed her audience. The number one thing people communicated as their biggest financial struggle, was their spouse. Click here to go to Meghan’s questionnaire that you and your partner should both fill out and compare answers. The way you get on the same page is not to say, “My way is right and your way is wrong,” but in understanding one another, knowing where you’re both coming from, and finding ways you can both compromise. We all come from different levels of understanding, different backgrounds and upbringing. We all come from a different perspective. If you don’t get all of that out on the table with your partner, and coming to a shared understanding with shared goals, you’re never going to move forward with your financial goals.
Meghan wants to be clear that this doesn’t mean you HAVE to have a joint bank account. She and her husband still operate with different checking accounts. It DOES mean that you don’t want financial infidelity in your marriage. If you have separate banks accounts, it shouldn’t be to hide purchases from your spouse. Come to an agreement on what your spend threshold is. Have a mutually agreeable perspective.
Every household needs a household CFO. It usually becomes the woman. Most of the household expenditures are performed by women. However, you shouldn’t be doing it all on your own without input from your partner. Make sure you’re on the same page.
FINANCIAL STRESS
What if a family is up to their eyeballs in debt, has two or three small children, and they don’t know where to start?
When people get overwhelmed financially, it’s usually because they don’t have a clear view into what the big picture actually looks like. Her advice? Get it ALL on paper. This can take the fear out of finances and put control back in your hands.
Tune in to hear Meghan’s strategy for budgeting, common mistakes, and when you might need to make some big changes (hint: have you thought about how often you’re getting a $7 cup of coffee every day?)
WOMEN AND FINANCES
In general, women earn less than men. Meghan believes a lot of that is by choice in terms of the careers we choose to pursue. Sometimes we choose careers that pay less because of life situations, like wanting a better balance between work and family. Because of this, we save and invest less, so we have less of a retirement fund. It becomes even more of a problem because women are outliving men, and are much more likely to live in poverty in their retirement age.
The good news is that women today are more educated than ever. We should be looking at higher paying jobs and closing the wage gap.
When it comes to saving, women are more afraid of taking risks when it comes to saving and investing.
Tune in to find out one of the most valuable things you can do for yourself financially!
SAVING MONEY
Meghan makes it very clear that saving money doesn’t have to be time intensive. Clipping coupons does not have to be part of your everyday saving if that’s not your thing.
No matter what your schedule is, Meghan says to set up a budget. The first budget will take a little time, but Meghan has a simple, 5 step process that you follow every month that will take you just thirty minutes each month.
Make sure that the income you work so hard for, earns its value. Spend a little time each month to figure out how to make your money work best for you!
Whether you’re a working mom or a stay-at-home mom, be aware of not only where your money is going, but also where your time is going. Do you ever turn around and think, “Where has all the time gone?” Budget your time, break it up into pieces, block schedule, and use your time wisely so that you can also use your money better.
Meghan suggests the Artful Agenda App. It’s a digital planner that helps you meal plan, schedule to do’s, and more!
SAHM AND FINANCES
I hear from a lot of stay-at-home moms about how guilt-ridden they are over making financial decisions for the family, even though they aren’t bringing in any income themselves. Meghan had this same fear, and encourages you to shift your perspective on this. She says that if you added up all of the things a stay-at-home mom does and paid someone else to do it, it would cost over six figures in income. Even though you aren’t being paid, you’re doing things you would have to pay someone else to do. You are valuable.
You also need to recognize that If you step up to be the CFO of your home, you can create value. You can make the hard-earned money go farther. You can put more in savings account, invest, and earn passive income without physically working outside of the home.
SETTING OUR KIDS UP FOR FINANCIAL SUCCESS
Protect: You need a plan for what happens to your children in the event that the worst happens to you or your spouse. Many parents don’t want to think about this, but you need an estate plan. These aren’t just for the wealthy. Check out this post Meghan wrote as she interviewed an estate planning attorney, outlining the difference between a will and an estate plan, and why all families need an estate plan.
Teach and Empower: Talking about money can be a taboo subject in so many families. We need to change that perspective with our kids. It’s okay to talk about money with them! Start teaching them addition and subtraction when it comes to money. Show them price tags. Allow them to earn an allowance so they can work for and save their money. Use language like, “This isn’t in the budget,” versus, “We can’t afford that.”
Look out for more from Meghan, like a busy mom’s budgeting guide, coming soon!
Connect with Meghan:
Blog: familyfinancemom.com
IG: instagram.com/familyfinancemom
FB: facebook.com/familyfinancemom
Twitter: twitter.com/financemom1
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/familyfinancemom/
Thank you so much for letting me share my views with your community and be a part of the SuperMom podcast.