Working, Earning, & Saving

One of the conversations that I don’t hear spoken of often in relation to marriage and families, yet that I believe to critically important, is that of work and money within the home. By this I don’t mean family income as in who is working and how much money is coming in/how much is being spent. (Though that conversation is very important as well and should definitely be had between husband and wife and families.) What I mean by these conversations is the way in which work, and money are taught to children and implemented as a family in the home. Let’s start with work:

When thinking of learning how to work from a young age, the story of my father is what comes to my mind. As a young boy he worked with his father, my grandfather, at a gas station that was owned by the family. My dad had easy and small tasks as a boy but as he grew older, he had bigger and harder responsibilities. In his college years, work at the station became his job and everything he made there went towards his education. When not working at the station my father was helping at home and around the house; cooking dinner with his mother, washing dishes with his siblings, washing/hanging the laundry, or other tasks/chores. He often tells me how grateful he is to have learned from a young age what it means to work and have to do/get things done by himself. This is what prepared him as he grew, entered the work force after college, got married, and started his own family.

Family work has the potential to transform lives, forge strong families, and build strong communities. It is important to involve each member of the family in accomplishing different tasks and allow for them to try and figure things out in their own way. (This doesn’t mean that we never help each other, but that we give everyone the opportunity to learn of their own capabilities and limits in various circumstances.)

Now let's talk about money:

Elder Marvin J. Ashton, a previous member of The Council of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, gave a guide to family finance where he gives 12 recommendations to help families improve their personal and familiar financial management. Here are each of those recommendations and a few commentaries on some that stood out to me a bit more than the others:

1. Teach family members early the importance of working and earning- Just like what was mentioned previously and the story that I shared about my father.

2. Teach children to make money decisions in keeping with their capacities to comprehend

3. Teach each family member to contribute to the total family welfare

4. Teach family members that paying financial obligations promptly is part of integrity and honesty development

5. Learn to manage money before it manages you

6. Learn self-discipline and self-restraint in money matters- I’ll admit to falling into the trap of pointless spending at times, do you? Have you ever bought something and then realized a while later that maybe it was something that you really didn’t need? Hopefully, there was still time for you to return it if so. Being disciplined and having restrained can help greatly in saving money.

7. Use a budget- There are many who think that keeping a budget is too complicated and/or time consuming. However, doing so actually has the potential of saving an individual and family a significant amount of money and not spending too much on unnecessary things.

8. Make education a continuing process

9. Work toward home ownership

10. Appropriately involve yourself in an insurance program

11. Strive to understand and cope with existing inflation

12. Appropriately involve yourself in a food storage program- There is really no telling when a tragedy, natural disaster, or extreme circumstance can occur in our lives. It is important to be prepared with any essentials that may be necessary if going to get them is no longer an option.

To read the full explanation given by Elder Ashton, click here

I invite you, if possible, to see how it is that you may apply any of the suggestions/teachings of this blog into your own personal and familiar life. More ways to create a happy and healthy family life, one step at a time. What do you think? (As always, I would love to hear your thoughts, options, impressions, feeling, etc. So please feel free to leave a comment!)

Stay Golden!