Family Finance

Marin Mommies presents another guest article by Marin mom and financial planner Katy Song, CFP®.

As a financial planner, I do a lot of “planning” for my clients all year long. Over the years I have learned what works and doesn’t work for making meaningful changes that stick. For example, cutting things out cold turkey doesn’t work. Long-lasting meaningful change needs to be progressive, which means you first need to learn to crawl, then walk, then run.

Whether your resolutions are financial or not, to ensure success in keeping these resolutions you need to plan ahead (before January 1st is optimal) and create steps that progress so that you build on your success over time to accomplish a larger goal. It is positive momentum from these successes that is going to help you stick with your resolutions throughout the year.

Here are some easy steps to get your progressive resolution plan in place:

Marin Mommies is presents another great guest article by Marin mom and financial planner Katy Song, CFP®.

When you think of how you want to spend your hard earned money, rarely do you think “I want to overpay for car insurance and spend $70 to fill up my tank!” Car related expenses are a necessity for most families, but there are easy ways to reduce these costs and make sure you are not overspending.

The “rule of thumb” for transportation related expenses is that they should not account for more than 10% of your gross income. Depending on your salary, this could be a really big number! For example, if you make $150,000 per year the “rule of thumb” says that you can spend $1,250 per month on your cars. This could easily cover gas ($350), insurance ($115), commuting ($50) and a VERY nice car payment. While this rule might make sense in other parts of the U.S., I believe it overstates what a family in the Bay Area should spend given our significantly higher home related expenses.