62. Blending Families, Blending Finances

David Mulonas is a personal finance author who has spent over 20 years as a financial coach helping those that lacked personal finance education take control of their daily lives while planning for their retirement goals. After meeting his wife Cindy, they blended their families, and rebuilt their personal and financial lives. On this episode of CFO at Home David, Cindy and Vince discuss David and Cindy’s personal journey, financial lessons learned from their experiences, and more.

Key Takeaways

• Personal financial problems are often the result of life circumstances, not irresponsibility or being “bad with money”
• When working to clean up and bring some order to your finances, a support system is vital 
• Money is emotional. Getting control over your emotions allows you to be systematic in executing on a wealth building plan
• Money doesn’t buy happiness but it can make your life easier if you manage it right
• When someone close to you shares their financial struggles, react compassion, not with judgement 
• Having a fair amount of financial margin (difference between income and expenses), allows you to budget on a less granular level, which can feel less restrictive 
• Paying yourself first is an extremely powerful financial concept. Money that you’re investing for retirement needs to be treated as a long term investment, not like a savings account.   
• When blending  finances and families:
• • Set the rules up-front
  • Establish common goals 
  • Build a new bottoms-up budget that encompasses the needs of your new family
  • • Make sure budget supports long-term goals

Resources

• I’m Not Flipping Burgers When I’m 70!
• Something On My Mind Podcast

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Contact the Host - vince@thecfoathome.com