Starting Your Family Boardroom
Now that you’ve given your finances a spring cleaning, it’s time to create a resource for use during family finance meetings. Dr. Jill Wade likes to call this the “family boardroom,” but rather than the hush-hush, trade secret swap that normally happens behind closed doors, this boardroom will include the entire family. In place of an executive board, this will be a panel of a different kind, each an expert in managing your family and its associated businesses, properties, and investments. This can also include your accountant(s), attorneys, investors, or other professionals related to your family dealings. Everyone will share their diverse knowledge, openly sharing, communicating, and contributing to the creation of a strategic plan for your family.
Talking to Your Children About Money
Remember to also include your children, encourages Dr. Wade, who is a mother to teenagers and young adults, some of whom have gone away for college. She stresses the importance of this based on her experiences analyzing their spending, where she and her children discovered the impact of their expenditures such as Uber rides, fast-food meal purchases, and other superfluous shopping. While there’s nothing inherently “wrong” with these purchases, especially when engaging in social activity—because we should enjoy the money we earn—reducing the amount they spend in these areas proved to have positive impacts on their budgets and, ultimately, their lives. Considering the effects the change had on her children, Dr. Wade feels it’s never too early to get your children involved in finance management, which could cultivate wise and less “reactive” decision-making regarding money, especially in times of financial hardship.
Make Money Matters Fun
“It can actually be fun and enjoyable” to talk about money, says Dr. Jill Wade of Stonebriar Smile Design. “Finances are not ugly, and they’re not dirty…[they can be] very inspirational for the entire family, if done properly.” With that in mind, she’s created a family boardroom workbook with her family that contains all the “important things” and information necessary to keep her family and businesses running. A sort of “scrapbook,” her three-ring binder, with copious amounts of dividers, has a profile for each member of the family and includes those little-known details that most of us take for granted. Some of the information for each encompasses:
- Name
- Home address
- Mother’s maiden name
- Date and county of birth
- Wi-Fi and email passwords
- Home and cell phone numbers
- College, school, and work addresses
- Access codes to safes, entry gates, and other such access codes
Some of this information may seem rather obvious or even “elementary,” but not everyone in your family has or knows this information. Even Dr. Wade admits that she didn’t know the address to her children’s college residences, and likewise, her children may not have been aware of her maiden name(s).
To add a bit more fun to the matter, Dr. Wade has added photos of her family to the front of her family boardroom workbook, which could also be helpful for several reasons. One reason is that it will serve as a reminder to the family why they’ve created the book, giving it more purpose and meaning beyond the practical. Another benefit is photo identification for each family member, making it easy to pair the information inside with the person to whom it’s related.
Get Organized
If you’ve already completed step one by spring cleaning your finances, be sure to clear your designated space and any lingering bills. Then, head to your nearest stationery or office supply store and pick up a large binder. Dr. Wade advises you get one larger than you think you need so that the book can “grow with you” as your family and finances expand. Here is a short list of things you’ll need to get started:
- Large binder
- Section dividers
- Page protectors
- Family photos
Dr. Wade does not claim responsibility for the concept of the family notebook because she actually got the idea from Stacy Bullman—who has been a years-long consultant for her dental practice—founder of I’m Not Mad At You, a consultancy business. Stacy created what she and her family called “the death book.” Though aptly named, Dr. Wade preferred a more positive spin on what to call her family workbook, but the concept is still the same. It serves as the go-to reference in the event of someone’s death, incapacitation, or other need for sensitive information.
Dr. Wade may already have her family boardroom workbook, but she will guide you, step by step, in creating one of your own, from the simple supplies you need to get started to suggestions for the information you should put in them. You don’t have to be married or have an abundance of financial obligations to justify creating this handy notebook. Everybody should have one because it will not only benefit you but your loved ones, whomever they may be. We’ll also provide downloadable inserts for your workbook to help you get started.
So, get your supplies, download the inserts, and be sure to follow our series for next steps.
Click here to watch this episode of the Beyond Face Value Show on YouTube.
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