It’s easy to lose sight of your dreams for a comfortable retirement if you have children who need to attend college, have extravagant tastes, and have expensive whims.
Like any parents out there, we’d always love to see our children happy that we sometimes can’t help but spoil them. Although this is acceptable to some degree, it doesn’t mean we should neglect our needs.
While you can indulge your kids with their wish lists, you still need to limit how much you spend on them. Indulging your children’s expensive whims can distract you from more important things that you need to take care of. And worse, you’ll end up with the biggest mistake you can commit as a parent– putting off your retirement.
However, if we become more fiscally responsible, not only will we be better prepared for retirement, but this can also be a great opportunity to instill in them the value of saving money and managing finances wisely.
Prioritize Your Own Needs
Most parents provide for their children’s needs, and many will go above and beyond that. Perhaps most have faced many hardships and strive to give their children the best life possible.
However, many people do this and fail to prioritize their needs, leading them to financial trouble in their retirement years. Unsurprisingly, they are usually left with zero savings when they reach their golden years and will most likely depend on their children to sustain their financial needs. It’s given that the children will always be there to save them. But it’s essential to consider that it adds to their own financial burdens too.
It won’t be long before we realize that it is important to plan for our own retirement so that we can spare our children the burden of paying for our care later in life.
Cut Unnecessary Expenses
Let’s admit that some of us might have splurged in the form of clothes and toys for our first baby. It was probably your first time being a parent that you felt overwhelmed and eager to prove yourself as the best parent though you know your child won’t remember a thing.
Children grow out of their clothes so quickly that buying expensive, branded items is a waste of money. Similarly, toys only retain their appeal for a short time before children start looking for other stuff that could best catch their interest. At other times you might find yourself frustrated by the money you spend on toys, only to see your child rarely use them. Instead, he prefers to use everyday objects like broken items or even boxes rather than something new.
After giving birth to your second child, you may become more frugal and better at saving. So even though you can probably afford everything your kids want, you don’t buy them everything they demand. You’ll eventually learn to value experiences over material possessions by spending quality time with them. So that means you can take a stroll with your child at the park instead of buying expensive toys. You can simultaneously save money and bond with your toddler by hitting two birds with one stone.
Help your Children Develop Good Financial Habits
Taking care of our financial well-being first will help us better understand our children’s needs and instill in their minds the importance of saving. When we teach them how to handle money and allow them to earn it themselves, we are helping them become more financially independent. This will help them better equip themselves for life’s ups and downs.
It will help them become more independent and allow them to learn how to make the most out of the things they already have – a skill that will serve them well throughout their adult years.
Their decisions will be based on their financial habits, which are products of their upbringing. If a person has sound financial principles in place, then whatever he does will be for the greater good, but if he has bad ones in place, then whatever he does will be for their own good.
Start Planning for Your Retirement Now!
It’s not selfish to think of your future and prioritize retirement planning. Planning your retirement now and prioritizing it over another goal is also a way of doing your kids a huge favor. The best thing you can do for them is to ensure that you won’t be a burden on them in the future. As parents, we don’t want our kids struggling by adding up to their expenses. As much as possible, we want them to pursue their dreams without the constraints of parental support. There is no better time to plan for your retirement than—NOW.