Important Life Lessons: Financial Smarts

I love sharing things that are important to me and family with readers. I have partnered with Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company to discuss the topic of Financial Literacy and its importance for families. While this post is sponsored, this is a topic that is dear to my heart and all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Let’s get real for a moment. I love sharing recipes and crafts with you all. One thing we don’t talk about much, because really in real life no one talks about it much, is money. Not in the sense of “how much do you make” talk but more, “are you making smart money moves” discussions.

I’ll be honest, I haven’t always been smart with money. I made some bad decisions early in life and had to work hard to recover from them. I have also seen first hand the consequences bad money decisions can have in life and on future generations. I have this fabulous family and I want to make sure that they are taken care of no matter what. Also just as important, I want to make sure my kids learn from so they make good financial decisions and pass along their knowledge to their kids too.

So, let’s talk about financial smarts and tools that are available to help you with your financial goals.

Now, before we get too far. I want to tell you there is no preaching here. I don’t do all of these things {yet} but I do think they are smart things to consider. We all need a little help and guidance in life and MassMutual is a great partner to have when navigating scary things like your financial future.

Here are the top 3 things I think are important when thinking about your financial smarts and your money!

1. Identify Your Financial Goals

This should be the absolute first thing you do! If you don’t know where you want to get, how can you plan a course to get there. I mean, I can’t put nothing into my GPS and expect to end up anywhere. These goals can be little things or BIG things and realistically should include a mix of both. I know when I first starting thinking about financial goals, I had NO IDEA what to even consider. That is where a goal planner like the one MassMutual offers is fantastic. You pick one and it helps guide you on how to get there…kind of like GPS. Because whether your goal is planning for retirement, saving for college or even purchasing a new home, a little help on getting there is always a great idea.

2. Teach Your Kids.

My parents didn’t NOT teach me about money but they didn’t necessarily make a conscious effort to teach me about money either. I had an allowance and all that jazz but discussions about thinking about retirement and early savings just never really happened. It was probably me just thinking I knew it all and not really them not trying to teach me but that is how kids are right?

With our kids, we are making a very conscious effort to teach them very early (they are 4 and 7) about how to handle their money. With our oldest, she gets a weekly allowance for doing chores and she is responsible for keeping track of what she spends and saves. We actually require her to save a portion of it so she understands that it just isn’t smart to spend all your money just because you want new doll clothes or a bag of candy. We also do things like making sure she can account for all of the money she spends even when she goes to events with our families. The four year old isn’t quite ready for those things yet but definitely try to emphasize the importance of saving to both kids.

3. Partner with Someone Your Trust

When planning for your financial future and also trying to learn the right ways to work with your money, you need to have someone you can trust to turn to. MassMutual is a great partner for this. They offer TONS of resources and educational tools to help you really understand how to handle your money in the best way possible for financial success. Learning how to handle your money smartly is one of those important life lessons but it isn’t necessarily one you have to teach yourself without help.