I have two boys ages 1 and 5. My wife is a physician. Before we had children some told us that we need to get financially ready: think about a budget, get life insurance, set up a will and trust, and start saving for college. Five years later I have half of those things done, and I have an MBA and work in the financial services industry! I think these things are just a lot harder to get done than buying a crib and figuring out how to install the car seat. What do the rest of you dads think? Do you have those things set up?

Anyway, because of this I started an online financial advice company focused on helping families. You can read some of our content at http://blog.cloudfi.com.

We are currently market testing a Personal Financial Coach service and a New Parent Kit (new parent budget, life insurance, will and trust, saving for college). It would be great to get some feedback from hands-on dads. Your feedback will help shape our service and as a token of our appreciation, we're giving away Amazon gift cards.

Here is the link to the qualification survey: https://www.survs.com/survey/MUPZ0Z5Q51https://www.survs.com/survey/MUPZ0Z5Q51

Thanks for stopping in to get some feedback. Did you see our recent video on setting up a will? It took me several YEARS to get a will finalized, even after I got it drawn up. New parents have some many tangible demands on them that abstract financial arrangements almost always get put at the bottom of the list. I hope your kit will help parents move these essential items up the to-do list.

Hey thanks for your support. Any thoughts on how to make such abstract financial arrangements less abstract? What finally got you to get it done?

We are currently testing our product with moms of young children and "hands-on" dads. I saw your article on USA Today and thought you would be well connected with dads communities (there are so few). Any ideas would be appreciated!

- George

Got2boys I have three children, an MBA, a working wife and am in the same boat as far as having half of my financial plan in place. With each day's to do list as long as Gandolf's beard, it's tough to get extra's like planning for events in distant future wrapped up. But it is so important. I look forward to visiting your site and giving some busy dad feedback. Thanks for reaching out.

Like everyone else, I've also got some items left on my financial plan, namely the will. I'm not so sure its a matter of finding the time, however. My experience with much of the financial 'stuff' has been better than I expected. Adjusting our budget was a snap (we're long time users of Quicken) and setting up a college savings plan was actually much easier than I expected (it took less than 20 minutes online via my 401(k) provider). But despite having a piece of software already installed on my home PC aimed exclusively at creating wills, I haven't done so. Perhaps this is a matter of desire, and not so much a lack of time.

Based on our interviews and surveys, as well as secondary research, it appears that moms are more effective than dads when it comes to getting the financial basics cover. Perhaps it is their maternal instincts to take care of the children or greater willingness to ask for help. What do other dads think based on your own home situation?

It was my wife who said "hey, you're helping other parents plan for their college funds, picking 529 plans and investments, etc. what are you doing for our kids?" - That finally got me working on ours.

My wife is due in August. I am the only one who works on future financials. I am seriuosly looking at wills, life insurance, and keeping a larger emergency fund in the bank. All this, while I am paying off the last bit of credit card debt I built up in my single years.

@JustJustin

Sounds like you are on the right track. I was on to my second kid before I started working on this stuff. Nice work and keep it up!