Are you in touch with your family's finances?

For a person wishing to exercise more control on family monies, knowledge about financial matters is primary; then comes winning the full confidence of your partner in your abilities of managing the finances.

Here are a few tips on how to keep a check on money matters.

Knowledge is power.
Know the details of your family's income sources, savings and various investments. Many families still hesitate to discuss nominations or beneficiaries in case the original owner dies. If things are in order the grieving survivor/s of a tragedy will not have to face the additional burden of having to sort out tedious financial affairs.

Know where important financial documents are stored.
Can you access them? If there are passwords required to access, do you know these? With a lot of information available online, it is imperative to know your login id and password. Many times, a family ends up with several login ids and passwords for its various accounts; keep these handy in a safe place for easy access.

Win your partner’s confidence.
In delicate matters of family finances, known to cause rifts and disruptions in marital harmony, it is important to truly establish confidence in your partner’s mind that you can be as good, or perhaps better in handling money matters.

Accept responsibility.
Take steps to control wanton spending habits. Jot down every expenditure and review them later on objectively. Use budgeting to stay close to your financial goals and learn to take charge.

Share responsibilities.
Divide finances into different areas of responsibilities and work. In many homes, the woman is in charge of bill payments towards home maintenance, while the spouse maintains payments in areas like mortgage payments, car payments, investments etc.Reverse the roles with your partner so that you get a bird’s eye view of all your investments and family earnings.

Budget realistically.
Allocate some money each month to simply spend as you wish? This way, you will not feel guilty about overshooting your budget and your partner is also confident that you are on track as per budget.

Communicate regularly with partner.
This is very important for mutual understanding. Both partners must know what the other is doing in their individual areas of financial responsibilities. This helps in building more trust and confidence in the partner.

Stay motivated.
This works really well for those in the ‘inertia trap’, the ones who would rather not handle money matters. Get together with like-minded friends and form a ‘Personal Finance Club’. Meet regularly and exchange ideas and experiences on budgeting, spending, saving and investing. Being members of a group like this can be rewarding even for financially savvy women.

So follow some of these guidelines and seek the road to true financial freedom. It is never too early or too late to take control of your financial future.