Blended families often face hidden financial tension that traditional families might not.
Different upbringings, spending habits, and priorities can lead to friction unless they’re addressed head-on. In this episode of Sidewalk Talk, Russell Riveria walks through why communication is key and where to start.
Topics Discussed:
Financial stress in blended families
Importance of open communication
Aligning spending priorities
Planning for shared expenses
Transcript:
Hi, I am Russ Rivera, founder and president of Voice Wealth Management, and I want to tell you a story of a lovely lady who is bringing up three very lovely girls, and this man that she met who had three boys of his own.
Alright, enough of that story. I'm obviously making allusion to The Brady Bunch. But today I really wanted to talk about blended family finances. One of the things you never saw in anything like Brady Bunch is certainly people talking about how did they manage their daily finances? How did they come together to figure out how they were going to make it all work? These six kids, these two different parents coming from their own, we'll call it money culture, at least within their family, and coming together and making it all work. In the idealized world of television, this isn't something that really gets dealt with too much, especially since they had Alice there taking care of their daily needs and taking care of the household. You could only assume they were reasonably well off. But at the end of the day, for many other blended families, this continues to be a bit of a strain.
So imagine you're getting back into the world, figuring it out, bringing your families together, but you're arguing about finances or something like that. All this different spending is causing a different strain on relationship, aside from dealing with kids of the same age who are living together or trying to blend kids of different ages and have them come together and make one family on their own. That's a real challenge. And then you throw the money blows on top of it. These things could get even more stressful, especially to a new family that's supposed to be trying to figure out how to love each other.
So what if this is your family's situation? How do we come together? How do we make it work? Well, we sit down, we talk to each other. We figure out everybody's priorities, whether it's young kids and figuring out how to get them started in school, or older kids who are trying to figure out how to pay for college - and who pays for college. All of these things come together, and of course then you have to worry about retirement and maybe kids that are left in the other half of the prior relationship. All of these things have to come together in order to make things work. And the only way is to sit down, have the conversations and figure out the things that are important to you and feel right for you. School expenses, education plans, vacations - all of these things can lead to that financial stress.
And like I said, the only way to figure out how to make these things all work is to sit down, communicate, and keep talking with a third party who definitely has your best interest in heart and wants to make sure your money is working for you. That's what we at Voice Wealth Management want to help you do if this happens to be your situation. So give us a call or send us an email and we'll be happy to help you out and get you started on what sometimes is a more difficult conversation than it should be. But at the end of the day, we want to make sure your money is doing the best that it can for you and your new family. Thanks for watching. This is Russell Rivera. This is Sidewalk Talk and we'll see you next time.
Russell D. Rivera, CFA, CFP®, is the Founder and President of Voice Wealth Management, an independent financial services firm serving professionals, entrepreneurs, and families in New York City and beyond. Focusing on helping clients make informed decisions about saving, investing, and financial planning, Russell is committed to providing a customized approach that reflects each client’s unique priorities and experiences.