You’ve been misled for years.

It’s nothing personal.

Actually, it is personal. And that’s the problem.

Personal finance is over; The age of “family finance” is here.

Personal finance is practiced alone with little consideration for concepts/people/ideas apart from your “person.” It’s inherently selfish; personal finance is about me.   

But, if we’ve learned anything following the Great Recession, it’s that personal finance decisions are never solely personal. They aren’t made in a vacuum. They are made with top consideration for those around us – spouses, children, parents, partners, cousins, friends, colleagues, enemies, neighbors, schools, churches, heck, even cities, states, countries and planets.

Eighty-five percent of parents in a recent CBS News Poll say that the economic turmoil has affected plans for their children’s future and nearly sixty percent have discussed these financial facts with their kids who are old enough to understand. We’re all in it now.

Financial decisions affect your networks near and far in ways that you may have never considered. Family Finance at FiLife represents financial decisions that are more than personal and greater than the narrow, traditionally defined American family.

Family finance is as much about mindset as it is practice. Today, there are plentiful resources, both off- and online, to associate with experts and novices alike on major issues in family finance. With the openness of the Internet, you can be as upfront or as guarded as you like with these topics.

No doubt, we’ve all had or will have similar experiences and concerns. But the only way we can collectively improve our family finance acumen is to talk about it. Your story may be unique, but by talking together we’ll find the common thread.

Would you make different financial decisions by considering spending, saving, borrowing and investing in the context of those around you? Perhaps by doing so you’ll validate your choices. Either way, it won’t hurt to expand your thinking.

Consider the “old” Personal Finance thinking in comparison to the “new” Family Finance world:

Personal: I don’t have any children, so I don’t need to start a 529 plan.

Family: A 529 plan offers extra tax-deferred savings, over and above retirement accounts, and I can transfer the benefits to anyone I want or use them myself.

Personal: Our kids are no longer financially dependent on us. There’s no need to include them in financial decisions.

Family: Our kids may have to look after us one day, putting their OWN money to work. We all need to prepare.

Personal: My spouse is the keeper of the family budget. I’m not really sure where we are right now.

Family: Our household budget affects everyone – kids, parents and more. Even if we aren’t looking over each other’s shoulders, we need to get coordinated in order to anticipate financial “surprises.”

While we admit a family finance spin on money matters can bring a lot more weight on simple decisions, let’s not kid ourselves. We hate losing even more than we love winning. So why not make more informed choices up front and save yourself – and your family – from losing later?