Being a single head of the family can totally wreak havoc on your finances if you don’t have proper planning. This, in turn, ends up affecting other aspects of your life and the lives of your kids. Just because you are the sole earner in the family it doesn’t mean that you have to be in constant financial crisis because you are a single parent. Around you, there are many people who have managed to be successful single parents and succeeded at bringing up their kids with zero financial crisis, and not because they have careers that are high earning. According to Romper, the average annual salary of single mothers in 2014 was $36,780. This was a third of the combined earnings that married couples with kids earned. There are a few pointers that single parents can use to help them attain financial success.
Believing In Your Future Plans
Having to deal with the reality of being a single parent can sometimes cause self-doubt. This affects your self-confidence, makes you lose hope in your future goals and sometimes results in you shelving those goals. The more you procrastinate your goals, it just makes them harder to achieve. Take your time to think, plan and have a strategy to help you in actually achieving your goals. You can get moral support by surrounding yourself with people who are optimistic, will help you to be accountable, and who play an important role in helping you achieve your financial goals as a single mother. Self-confidence will help you in protecting yourself from the impulses that most single parents are vulnerable to.
Setting a Budget and Sticking to It
One of the important steps towards attaining financial success is having a budget. Having a budget for everything will help in making sure that you have control over how you spend your money. Most people assume that you only need to budget for your household expenses and forget important things like leisure activities. Online gambling is one of the most common leisure activities that people engage in. A clear understanding of how much money you can spend when playing online slots, roulette or any other online casino game will prevent you from overspending. When setting up a budget make sure you take into consideration how much money you are earning and the amount you want to save. Remember the best way to enjoy leisure activities without having regrets is by making sure you stick to your budget. Huffpost gives clear and simple guidelines on the important numbers you need in your budget as a single parent.
Talking To Your Children
Most parents make the mistake of fearing to talk to their children about their financial situation. This, in turn, causes frustration as parents struggle to maintain a certain lifestyle while kids wonder why they can’t live like their friends. Talking to your kids about money and how to living within a certain budget will play an important part in helping them understand your financial situation. Once your kids are in the same boat as you, they will have proper financial expectations. Remember the most important thing you can do for your children is to show them love; there are times when you will not be able to do everything you want but then talking to them will help them understand. All you need is your children’s support to help you make it as a single mum.
Don’t try to keep up with your neighbors
The hard truth is that as a single parent you might not be able to enjoy the same lifestyle or keep up with your neighbors on some aspects of life. If your neighbors can manage to enjoy leisure activities like traveling overseas, it doesn’t mean you should indulge in the same. Your family can still enjoy leisure activities but at a more affordable rate. Why travel all the way to Las Vegas in order to enjoy a gambling experience in a casino, when you can log on to a casino homepage and play online slots and roulette in your own home. The whole point is to practice discipline, be frugal and avoid falling into the temptation of doing what your friends or neighbors are doing. Let every day you spend with your family count but not at the expenses of your pocket. Your family can still live a very comfortable life without the expensive lifestyle your neighbors might be living.
