Mortgage, minivan, three kids, two 401(k)s, and a college fund that got started with the best intentions. The problem isn't discipline — it's that nobody ever told you the sequence.
Most family money stress isn't a spending problem or an income problem. It's a sequencing problem — trying to fund six goals simultaneously and funding none of them well. Math has an opinion about the order. Here it is, in plain English, with Utah's actual numbers.
I'm Ryan Hammett, an independent fiduciary in Layton. Davis County is where I live and where a lot of the families I work with live — young households doing everything at once: the starter home that became the forever home, the callings and carpools, the my529 accounts opened at a kitchen table, the life insurance bought from a guy in the ward. The raw material is almost always good. What's missing is the order. What follows is education, not personalized advice — the sequence I'd want my own kids to follow.
Every dollar you save can only go one place. Put it in the wrong place and it still feels productive — that's what makes sequencing errors so sneaky. The classic Davis County version: diligently funding a college account while carrying an unmatched 401(k) and a credit card balance. Every one of those dollars is working hard in the wrong job, leaving free match money unclaimed and expensive debt compounding.
The fix isn't more effort. It's a queue:
One month of expenses in savings, fast. This is the shock absorber that keeps a dead water heater from becoming credit card debt — the thing that protects every later step.
If your 401(k) matches 4–6% and you're not contributing that much, you're declining a raise. Both spouses, both plans, before anything else. This is the highest guaranteed return available to you anywhere.
Credit cards and anything with a rate that would make an investor blush. No portfolio reliably beats that interest rate; paying it off is the best "investment" on the menu.
Three to six months of expenses — one income, young kids, or a variable job pushes you toward the high end. Boring, and the foundation everything else stands on.
Work toward roughly 15% of income across your accounts — 401(k)s, Roth IRAs, HSA if you have one. This step comes before college, and yes, that's deliberate. The reason is one sentence: kids can borrow for school; nobody lends for retirement.
With retirement funded, college money goes into Utah's my529 — one of the best-rated 529 plans in the country — and collects a state tax credit on the way in.
Extra mortgage payments, a taxable brokerage account, the bigger house fund — genuinely good goals that belong at the end of the queue, not the beginning.
Two honest footnotes. First, the credit is per beneficiary, per year — a family with three kids contributing steadily collects it three times annually, and it compounds into real money over eighteen years. Second, the old "what if they don't go to college?" objection has mostly aged out: beneficiaries can be changed within the family, trade schools and apprenticeships count, and the $35,000 Roth rollover escape hatch (account open 15+ years, annual Roth limits, beneficiary earned income required) means a well-funded 529 is no longer a bet on one specific future.
A young family's plan has a single point of failure: the earners. Term life insurance is the cheap, boring fix — for many young parents, roughly 10 to 15 times the primary income in level-term coverage, plus genuine coverage on a stay-at-home parent, whose work would cost a fortune to replace. Add disability coverage if your employer offers it cheaply; a working-age parent is statistically more likely to be disabled than to die during the child-raising years.
One more cash-flow note while the kids are little: the child tax credit is worth up to $2,200 per qualifying child for 2026. That's not a windfall to spend twice — it's a ready-made annual funding source for step 5 or 6 that arrives with each tax return.
Retirement first, almost always. Kids can borrow for school, win scholarships, or work — nobody lends for retirement, and arriving at 65 underfunded makes you their financial problem later. Fund retirement to a healthy rate, then point college money at my529. It feels backwards to good parents; it's still correct.
For 2026: a 4.45% state tax credit on contributions up to $2,560 per child (single) or $5,120 (married filing jointly) — up to $113.92 or $227.84 per child per year — plus tax-free growth for qualified education costs, in one of the country's highest-rated 529 plans.
Change the beneficiary within the family, use it for trade schools or apprenticeships, or roll up to $35,000 lifetime into the child's Roth IRA under SECURE 2.0 (account 15+ years old, annual Roth limits, earned income required). The "wasted 529" fear is mostly obsolete.
Enough to replace the income and care your family would lose — commonly 10–15× the primary income in cheap level-term, plus real coverage on a stay-at-home parent. Blended savings-plus-insurance products usually do both jobs worse than term + my529 doing their own jobs. The plan sets the number; the policy fills it.
If a target-date fund and steady contributions genuinely cover you, ongoing management would waste your money — and I'll say so in the first call. Where young families get real value is a one-time flat-fee or hourly plan: sequence, insurance sizing, my529 setup, revisited yearly. You grow into the rest.
A free 30-minute conversation about where your family is in the order of operations — and which step deserves your next dollar. No pressure, no product pitch.
Schedule a Free Intro Call Close to home: Davis County · Want the full-plan version? The Utah family financial planEducational content only. This article is provided by Kimberlite Financial Services for educational and informational purposes. It is not personalized investment, tax, legal, or insurance advice. Tax credits, contribution limits, and program rules change; figures reflect publicly available information as of July 2026 and may become outdated. Consult a qualified professional about your specific situation before acting.
Kimberlite Financial Services is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by my529 or the Utah Board of Higher Education. Insurance products are offered separately through Kimberlite Insurance Services LLC, subject to applicable licensing, and are never a condition of advisory services. Guideline figures such as "10–15 times income" and "15% savings rate" are educational rules of thumb, not recommendations for any specific household.
Kimberlite Financial Services, LLC (Firm CRD# 342159) is an investment adviser registered with the Utah Division of Securities. Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training. Investing involves risk, including possible loss of principal. Past performance is not indicative of future results.