What is a family vision plan? Well, have you ever found yourself wondering how you would pay for a larger expense? Maybe that fridge that is barely hanging on to life or the kitchen you have always dreamed of remodeling. It can even be the medical bill debt still lingering after your child broke their arm playing soccer. It doesn’t take much for us to feel at the mercy of these larger expenses.
Big expenses can knock the wind out of your sails and leave you reeling, unsure of where to start. It can feel like we are in full survival mode all of the time when we find ourselves in these cycles without any plan or goals to keep us on track. How do you know which large item to start with?
We aren’t talking about a budget, though we always recommend you have one. Instead, we are referring to a family vision plan to help you and your family make long-term plans. This family vision plan starts with the “why” of your finances, before diving into the “what”. To do this you first nail down the values your family has within a big picture lens.
Your family vision plan might look like this:
Values:
- hospitality
- travel
- spiritual growth
Then set big goals that line up with those values.
For example:
- Expand and remodel the kitchen
- Pay off debt before saving up $x for a big family trip
- plan meaningful cross-cultural trip
From there you will create a plan with set actions that will help you meet each of those goals.
Some of these might include:
Pay off student loan
- Stop using credit cards
- Pay $50 a month to student loans
- Use overtime to pay down loan by August 20xx
Demo kitchen wall and install kitchen cabinetry
- Set aside $100/week for kitchen remodel
- work on Saturdays for a few hours
- Figure out what you can DIY to save
Research best prices for the trip
- Figure out what times of year have lower rates
- Find deals that will allow you to pay less in total (i.e. 5 days for the cost of 4, early-bird specials)
- Would waiting a year allow you to take the trip for less while giving you time to save more?
To learn more about creating your family vision plan and more great in-depth financial literacy education, check out our program which includes our re$tart course.
Already a Birch participant? Don’t forget that you can schedule a call with a financial counselor anytime! Just contact us and we will get you on the schedule.