Finance / Family Advise

I'm not married, in a relationship nor a financier.

But I'd like to share with you a valuable lesson that I wish to keep with regards to family finance.

I was actually thinking about how family usually fails in their finance management.

And for some reason, I came up with a realistic and yet thoroughly idealistic solution;

"A successful family finance depends on the teamwork of ALL its members. Men, it's your responsibility to provide for your family - emotionally, physically, mentally, spiritually and of course, financially. Women, it's your duty to help your man when he can't make ends meet - motivation, support, encouragement, understanding, and yes, financially too. Children, it's your job to avoid spending unnecessarily, and if you're of age, work the weekends to pay off your own habitual expenses."

"Men, it has always was, and always will be, your call to provide for your wife, and family, for everything. And you can never do that if you can't trust her with your life, let alone your money."

"Men, you have to earn for the family, women, you need to use his earning to give your family a home."

"Women, your man cannot do it all on his own. If he has given all he could to give you, and you know that he has always done and he can't say no to any of your expenses, you have to cut him some slacks when he cannot provide more than he can"

"Women, you need to know that just because he's the man of the house, doesn't mean that you have to put ALL of the family expenses on him. If you have the money, use it and elevate his burdens. This is called teamwork."

"Opinions of external members such as parents of the man or woman, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, cousins and so forth, should NEVER override the financial understanding of the man and woman"

"Men, if you have habits that pulls at your wallet besides what is necessary and what you can afford, you have to give it up. You're similarly choosing between two things - temporary or permanent happiness. So what will you choose?"

"Women, don't fall prey to overly superficiality of branded items. Yes, buy branded items when you can, or if it's due to occasions. The feeling you feel right after you buy that Gucci or Prada will not be special anymore when it becomes a habit. Same principle to the feeling you get towards a dish you eat everyday for a month, or even just a week"

There's more actually but I'm stopping here. These are just some guidelines I wish to follow through in due respect of the principles I developed as I lay thinking of my friends' first-hand experiences and even my own family's financing issues.

Sometimes, it's not that the money is not enough. It's mostly due to our management. I've seen how I can juggle with $150 and $1500 a month, it can disappear at the same rate / duration if I don't actually pull the reign on my money.

Remember the sayings:

"The higher your income, the higher your expense"

And a very one I coined regarding happiness and contentment:

"You're never happy if your not first contented"

XOXO