Financial Planner for Gen X Families | Brian Plain, CFP® | Chicago, IL

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How We Found More Family Time and You Can Too

Ever wish your busy family had more time together? You're not alone. It's something Michelle & I work on so we can spend more time with the Intern.

Unfortunately, there is no such thing as more time. We get the same 24 hours each day and if we assume sleep & work takes up 18 of those hours, you're only left with 6 hours each work day. And what happens to all those things we don't find time for during the work week? Good-bye weekend family time!

So how does one reclaim time when you've got more things to do than time available?

Here's the great thing about money

You can exchange some of your money for goods and services that make your life easier and free up previously occupied time.

That time can then be spent doing fun things as a family. Here are a few examples that we implemented that you might find helpful:

Become A Better Cook

We like to eat out but eating out can get expensive fast. Especially when you like good food, but are not creative nor do you enjoy cooking.

Enter Sun Basket. You receive exactly the ingredients you need with step by step instructions to prepare 2 to 5 dinners each week.

We've managed to turn something we both did out of necessity into a fun family activity 3 nights a week that the Intern helps out with too. And the food & flavors are still restaurant quality despite our amateur preparation skills.

Eliminate Chores You Don't Like Doing

If you live in a neighborhood full of well manicured lawns and you are not horticulturally inclined (i.e. me), the time and expertise that you lack to maintain your lawn can be exchanged for money. I highly recommend it.

The same goes for our bi-weekly house cleaning service. Weekends spent doing fun family activities are much better than weekends spent arguing over who's turns it is to clean toilets. I've also been told it's much cheaper than marriage counseling!

Now let me address the elephant in the room.

Yes, these are luxuries that cost money and it would be cheaper to do them yourself. To be clear, I'm not suggesting these luxuries as basic human rights. You need to be in a good financial situation to be able to support these luxuries. At the end of the day, your time & money is all about trade-offs and how you manage them. And I'm personally happy to exchange my money for more time with my family.

How about you? Are you looking for more time & freedom for your family? Schedule a call and we’ll talk about it.