In the past few weeks, I have been writing a lot about the effect that having Children has on your decision making process.  Michelle and I have two boys, ages 12 and 8, and a sweet little one year old girl.  Every day I come home from work and try to give all of them a little bit of my attention.  I try to remember to hug them and tell them that I love them every night, and I consider it “mission accomplished” if I somehow find a way to make them laugh at some point in the evening.  As I look into their beautiful faces, I know that these tiny humans and our ability to provide a positive future for them, really does mean everything to me.

We try to teach them how to make friends, how to be good people, and how to make the world a better place.  We share with them our loves and our passions, our hopes and our dreams, hoping that seeing the fire inside of us, will motivate them to be willing to work for their own goals one day.  As we have spent the past year struggling to learn about money and working to get rid of this burden of consumer debt, we have shared this journey with not only you all, but also with our kids.  At the same time, we have taken steps to show our children the correct way to relate to money, and to understand the difference between wants and needs, so that they can avoid going down the same rocky paths when they enter adulthood.

While they are small, these little ones are our responsibility, and ours alone.  All these mouths to feed are relying on their mommy and daddy’s willingness to work as hard as it takes to provide for them a better life.  They are utterly and completely dependent on us, and what we do with that responsibility- will go a long way to determining what awaits these sweet children in the future.  This responsibility influences every decision that I make, financial and otherwise:  from deciding whether or not move to another city (unlikely) to considering whether or not I should ever make the jump to entrepreneurship (probably not).

Our children are also key in the decision making process when purchasing Insurance.  Life insurance is an absolute must if you have children, and you should at minimum have a term life policy that is enough to pay off your mortgage and send your kids to college.  If you are a parent and don’t have life insurance, I would strongly recommend that you go to lifeinsurance.org.uk today to see what your options are.  The cost is much less than you probably think.  Kids also effect your choices for other types of insurance as well. They were a strong motivator when I decided to open a healthcare FSA this year and to get an income protection insurance policy.

My children are by far my greatest accomplishment in my life.  Becoming a parent takes everything in life, and wraps it up in a neat little package of purpose and meaning.  That in and of itself, changes everything.  I love being a dad, and my kids will continue to shape every choice that I make, day after day.