Financial Planning for Young Families
We work with busy young professional families throughout the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. Whether you're building your career, raising children, buying a home, or trying to make smarter financial decisions, we'll help you make good decisions about saving, investing, taxes, and your employee benefits so you can feel confident about where you're headed.
Life Doesn't Leave Much Time for Financial Planning
You're earning more than you used to, but it can still feel like every dollar already has a job. You know there are financial decisions that deserve more attention, but you just don't have the time or interest to research every option.
Between work, kids, and everything else competing for your attention, it's easy for financial planning to become something you'll get to "later." That's where we come in. We'll help you prioritize what matters now, avoid common mistakes, and make decisions with confidence instead of second-guessing yourself.
Some of the planning decisions we help families work through include:
- Deciding how much to save and where to save it
- Planning for children's education funding
- Getting the most from your workplace benefits
- Finding tax-saving opportunities
- Evaluating and adjusting levels of tax withholding
- Assessing appropriate levels of life and disability insurance coverage
- An investment strategy that matches your goals
The Season of Life You're In
At this stage of life, it's common to feel pulled in several directions at once. You may be balancing:
- A rising income alongside rising expenses like mortgages, childcare, and the cost of raising a family
- Multiple accounts scattered across old 401(k)s, new employer plans, and personal savings
- Big, looming questions, such as: How much should we be saving? Are we saving in the right places? Will we be able to afford college? Are we adequately protected if something happens to one of us?
- Competing financial priorities with no clear framework for deciding what comes first
Rather than treating each decision separately, we'll help you see how they fit together and what deserves your attention first.
How We Help You Build a Strong Foundation
Savings and Investment Strategy: Every savings decision competes with something else. We'll help you decide how much to allocate to retirement, emergency savings, education, or other goals, based on what matters most to your family.
Education Funding: We'll help you decide whether a 529 plan makes sense, how much to save, and how to fit college alongside your other financial priorities.
Employee Benefits: Many people don't take full advantage of the benefits available through work simply because they aren't sure which options make the most sense. We help you evaluate options such as retirement plan contributions, health savings accounts, stock compensation, and insurance offerings, so you make the most of what your employer provides.
Tax Planning: We look for opportunities to lower your taxes today while giving you more flexibility in the future.
Insurance and Risk Management: We'll review your current coverage and help you decide whether it's sufficient to protect your family if something unexpected happens.
Investment Approach: Your investment strategy should align with your goals, timeline, and risk tolerance, not whatever has accumulated across different accounts over the years.
What Working Together Looks Like
We'll start by understanding where you are today in terms of your income, savings, benefits, debt, and the goals you're working toward. From there, we'll prioritize what matters most and build a financial plan around your family's needs. As your career, family, and finances change, we'll update the plan so it continues to fit your life.
Financial Planning for Young Professionals: Frequently Asked Questions
1. We feel like we're behind. Is it too late to get on track?
Not at all, this is exactly the stage where the right plan makes the biggest difference. The sooner you have a clear strategy for savings, debt, and goals, the more time that strategy has to work in your favor. Most of the families we work with come to us feeling behind; our job is to help you see where you actually stand and build a realistic path forward.
2. Do we need significant assets to work with you?
No. We work with young professional families at all different starting points. What matters most at this stage is having a clear plan and good habits in place; the assets tend to follow.
3. How much should we be saving, and where?
This depends on your income, goals, timeline, and what accounts are available to you (employer retirement plans, HSAs, taxable accounts, and so on). Rather than a generic rule of thumb, we look at your full picture and help you prioritize where each dollar should go.
4. How do you help with saving for our kids' education?
We help you evaluate education savings vehicles like 529 plans and weigh how much to allocate there relative to your retirement savings and other goals, so one doesn't come at the expense of the other.
5. We both have employer benefits and stock options. Can you help us make sense of those?
Yes. Evaluating work benefits like retirement plan matches, HSAs, insurance options, stock compensation, and more is one of the areas where we spend the most time with young professional clients, since these benefits are often underused or misunderstood.
6. Do we have enough life and disability insurance?
It's one of the first things we look at. We assess your current coverage against your family's needs and income, and help you close any gaps so your plan is protected if the unexpected happens.
7. How often will we meet with you?
We meet with you regularly to build an initial plan as a new client. As your career, income, and family evolve, we revisit and adjust the plan with you. We meet with all clients annually to fully review the plan, but there are no limits on other meetings throughout the year.
8. What does it cost to work with you?
Fees vary based on the scope of the relationship. We're happy to walk you through our fee structure on an initial call, visit our Process & Fees page for more details, or schedule a call below.
Approaching Retirement Instead?
If you're closer to retirement, visit our Financial Planning for Retirees page to see how we support you at this stage of life.