Insurance
The insurance you actually need
The test is not whether something might happen. It is whether you could survive it financially if it did — which is why most people are over-insured…
Family finance is where the boring paperwork turns out to matter most. A beneficiary form filled in a decade ago outranks the will you paid for. A term policy bought at 30 costs a fraction of the same cover at 45. A 529 opened when the child is two does most of its work before anyone thinks about applications.
These guides cover the decisions with the longest tails: what actually changes financially when a baby arrives, how college saving works and what happens to the money if the plans change, which insurance is worth buying and which is sold to you because it pays well, and why the accounts you never look at should be checked once a year. The last one is about you — the money beliefs picked up at home that quietly steer every decision above.
Calculators for this
Savings goalWork backwards from the number you want. Tell it your target and your deadline, and it tells you what to put away every month.
Emergency fundThree months or six? Answer four questions about your job and your dependants and get the size your situation actually calls for.
Net worthOne number that tells the truth about your finances. List your assets and debts and watch it move year after year.
Compound interestSee what your savings turn into over time. Add monthly contributions, pick how often it compounds, and compare it against simple interest.
All 5 family & planning guides
Family
529 plans: saving for college without guessing
Growth is untaxed and withdrawals are tax-free for education. The common objection — "what if they don't go?" — has a straightforward answer.
Family
The money checklist for a new baby
Some of it has deadlines measured in weeks. And the designation that decides where your retirement account goes is not in your will.
Planning
Beneficiaries override your will
Your retirement account does not pass through your will. It passes to whoever is on a form you probably filled in years ago and have not read since.
Mindset
Money scripts: the beliefs that sabotage you
Your decisions about money were not reasoned into place. They were installed before you were twelve, by people who never explained them.