How Fathers Can Thrive Financially

Episode 31: How Fathers Can Thrive Financially

Finances are one of the five F's in my Five To Thrive Framework.

Why would you want to thrive financially, and how can you thrive financially as a regular guy raising a family?

What can you do right now to bring more financial success to your family?

What are some pitfalls to avoid when you have a family versus being single?

How should you look at finances differently when in your 20s versus in your 40s?

These are just some topics we cover in today's show. It will be a great show packed with nuggets you can use today to take your finances to the next level. 

I would love to connect with you on Facebook. Feel free to join my group, Thriving Fatherhood, where I offer more on how to thrive in fatherhood.

END OF THE YEAR SPECIAL: If you feel like you are just surviving and want to return to thriving in your fatherhood journey, let's talk. I want to partner with you on your journey to thriving more this holiday season. 

Transcript

Welcome to the Thriving Fatherhood Podcast, where we are living and working in the trenches to go from surviving to thriving in this mission field called fatherhood. 

My name is Brian Knight. I am a father of three, a husband, a son, a coach, and a believer in Jesus Christ.

Today, I have a special episode for you and one I have been wanting to do for quite some time. This is an area that I have studied a lot and listened to a lot of content on throughout the years.

This is also one of the five fs of Fatherhood that I talked about in my first few episodes and that I will be coming back to more in the coming episodes.  My Five to Thrive Framework is: Finances, Family, Fitness, Future, and Faith. 

I do not profess to be a financial guru or even be more successful than most fathers my age, but I believe I can share a few valuable nuggets and perspectives about how to thrive more financially in your fatherhood journey as a W2 employee. I have had some success myself and feel like we are in a pretty good spot financially these days. 

Honestly, career wise, I believe if I could do it all over again, I probably would have been a financial advisor knowing what I know now about my strengths and talents. 

Why is thriving financially important? Time freedom (be with family, not work more versus time off, or take that job because it pays more), more choice (wife stay at home, retire earlier, not take a particular job), help more people and give more to causes you believe in. Basically, choosing what you do with your time, and having the resources to help more people.  

How do you get ahead: Coming up in my 20s, it was difficult to find the margin to save or prioritizing it.

Well, you want your money working for you. You want to start early and get it rolling. That can be stocks in your 401K, real-estate, a small business.

Debt, this works against you. It can be a tool, but be careful you are not using it to live outside your means. You do not want compound interest to work against you. Debt can also be your worst nightmare if you need to file bankruptcy while you have a family. You talk about losing sleep at night. Obey your risk tolerance. I know too much leverage is not for me. You have others who are depending on you, it is not just you that you have to worry about. 

Don’t leave yourself open to risk to save a few hundred dollars a month by not carrying health insurance. I have some family members who did this and it finally caught up with them. You do not have to get sick, you can have an accident. With a family, you should always carry health insurance. Medical debt is the number one cause of personal bankruptcy. Don’t risk taking your family through something like that to save a little bit of money. Insurance is meant to mitigate risk when you do not have the cash to pay for something out of pocket. That includes car insurance. 

Create enough margin to save and invest. Delayed gratification. This is one critical characteristic of successful people in my experience. Start teaching your children this now.

What are some practical steps. Get addicted to saving while you are young and then when you get in your 40s and 50s you can take your foot off the accelerator. 

There is some truth in living like no one else today so you can live like no one else tomorrow. I would rather be rich than look rich. This is what gets a lot of young people in trouble these days and therefore they have no margin to save and invest. 

As a government employee and three kids, what is working for me on growing my net worth? This is in no particular order. Owning real-estate(talk about current rates, prices), investing in my roth and my wifes roth, maxing out my roth tsp at work, HSA, minimizing debt so interest doesn’t work against you. Then trying to increase your shovel through promotions or opening your own business. 

Budgets can help you keep things efficient and be aware of where your money is going. Capitalize on deals when they are available. Shop, but do not obscess, your time is worth money as well.

Do what you can yourself, but sometimes it is worth it to pay for a professional. You have to determine the value that is in it for you. 

Wife staying at home has helped us with childcare, we send our kids to public school to avoid the private school cost. We tried the home school thing and it was not a good fit for us. 

Overall, finances takes time. Time in the market in better than timing the market. Focus on the habit of saving early instead of getting rich quick while you are broke. There is a lot of people out there trying to sell you the next get rich quick idea. What I have learned is building wealth takes time and there is rarely a quick path to wealth. It is more slow and grows exponentially as time goes by. Eventually, your money will be earning more than you can in a year. That is why you want to create the margin and get it in there and working for you as quick as possible and give it time.

I want to talk about finances and the king. He is Lord over all that we have. It is all His, we are stewards of the resources we are given. 

Tithes -right now this is where Bethany and I am. Although, the tithe is an Old Testament principle. I believe giving to your local church should be something you want to do not something you do begrudgingly. Personally, I feel I have a responsibility to give back and support my local church and community there.

My motivation for wealth creation is to take care of my family, and so I can give more to expand the kingdom. I mean I like fancy stuff, but it really does not motivate me for wealth creation. I would rather be wealthy than to look wealthy. Nobody really cares what kind of car you drive or house you live in. It will be better that you drive a modest/reliable cars, and live in a modest house and have margin to save and invest in the long run instead of maxing out your life style to keep up with the Jones.

Remember, stuff will not bring you happiness, what is new today will be old tomorrow, true happiness come from the Lord and from your relationships. These do not take money for the most part. Your kids will most likely remember things where you spent quality time with them, not where you spent money on them.  Take it from me, I have been there and done that. I have done some stupid things with my money over the years. Like not investing as soon as I would like, buying things I should not have been buying, floundering in my career in my 20s.  

Sometimes things do not work out perfectly the first time we try, but we get back up and we try again. Through the struggles of life and fatherhood you will become stronger, wiser, more resilient, more equipped, build a better relationship with your heavenly father, and a better leader through the process for your family. 

So, that is what I have for you today; if you feel this show has been valuable for you, I encourage you to share it with one other father who could gain some insight from it and wants more thriving in their lives. 

Also, I would love to hear what your thoughts are on finances and fatherhood. What have you found to be important and what have you learned. Please share that with me on Facebook.