Welcome to the New and Improved Mom and Dad Money!

Hey everyone! Notice anything different?

As you can tell, Mom and Dad Money has undergone a gigantic facelift. For the past couple of months I’ve been working with the amazing Hannah Loaring of Further Bound to create the website you see here today, and I’m incredibly excited to finally be able to share it with you!

So, why the change? Well, as soon as I started my business I knew I needed to turn this into a place worthy of the resource I’m trying to build. It needed to be professional, but welcoming. A place where people feel comfortable coming to get answers. The days of me cobbling a website together with whatever free resources I could find just weren’t going to cut it anymore.

But more than anything, I wanted to make this a better place for people like you to come and get financial advice. The new design was done with YOU in mind, so today I want to tell exactly what I hoped to accomplish with this redesign so that you know where we’re headed.

Communicate a clearer purpose

From the beginning, my goal with this site has been to make it easier for new parents to find the information they needed to make good financial decisions for their families. That purpose certainly hasn’t changed and it will continue to be the driver behind everything I do here.

What I hope is that the new design makes that purpose loud and clear. When someone lands on this site, I want them to immediately know what it’s all about. For the right people, that will make it a more welcoming and helpful place.

Build a stronger community

One of my long-term goals for this site is to build it into a community where we can all share ideas and learn from each other. I try to provide as many answers as I can, but I know that this will be a better place if you feel comfortable sharing your own experiences, ideas and opinions. No one person has all the answers, but we can make this a pretty amazing resource if we all pitch in and build it together.

With a clearer purpose, I hope that people feel more at home and therefore more invited to share their own thoughts and experiences. The more people who feel comfortable commenting on posts, emailing me their questions and opinions, or sharing their thoughts on Facebook or Twitter, the stronger this resource will become.

Make it easier to get the information you want

Over the past 17 months I’ve written A LOT for this site. From how to build financial security, to how to start saving for retirement, to creating a long-term mindset for success, we’ve covered a lot of ground.

But in the previous version of the website it wasn’t always easy to find all of that information, so we took a few steps to make it all a little more accessible:

1. Right on the home page there are huge buttons that link to guides on three of the most important and confusing topics relevant to new parents: budgeting, investing and life insurance.
2. We created a pared-down “Start Here” page that will help new visitors quickly get to some of the most important content we offer.
3. We added a search field right at the top of the site so that you can find the information that matters most to you.
4. For email subscribers, I’m offering a comprehensive guide to saving for college, a topic that I know is right at top of the list of concerns for most parents.

Click here for your free copy of my ‘New Parent’s Guide to Saving for College‘

I’m also working on putting together a comprehensive road map that will serve as a DIY financial guide for new parents. This is something I’m really excited about because it’s the resource I would have wanted when I was starting out and I can’t wait to offer it to you. Stay tuned.

Better explanation of the financial coaching I offer

I try to give away as much information as possible on this site so that you can feel empowered to take control of your own financial future. That’s why I show you exactly how to figure out how much you should be saving for retirement. It’s why I guide you through the entire process of buying life insurance. I want to give you that kind of detailed information for free because I know how much it matters and I know that you need it now.

But even with all that, there are still those of you that would really like some personalized help. And if that’s the way you feel, I want you to know that there’s an affordable way to get honest, objective and personal financial coaching.

Over the past few months I’ve been launching a financial planning service specifically built to help new parents with your unique needs. But what does that mean exactly? Well, the revamped “Work With Me” page lays out exactly what financial planning is, what I can help with, and what the process actually looks like. And for those of you who like even more detail, there’s also a downloadable FAQ that answers a few more questions.

My hope is that you never feel like you don’t know where to turn with your financial questions. Whether it’s through the information on the site or through 1-on-1 planning, there’s always a place to go for help.

Please share your input any time!

In the end, all of these updates were made with the goal of making this website a better resource for you. More than anything else, I simply want it to be easier for you to get the answers you need.

So please, take a look around and let me know if there’s anything you particularly like, and especially if there’s anything you’d like to see added or changed. I want this to be a community where we all learn from each other, so I would love to hear your opinions. You can email me directly at matt@momanddadmoney.com if you have any input at all.

In the meantime, thanks for stopping by! I feel very lucky that you take the time to visit and I can’t wait to continue to try and make it worth your while.

Take care!

Photo courtesy of Shuji Moriwaki