This article appears as part of Casey Weade's Weekend Reading for Retirees series. Every Friday, Casey highlights four hand-picked articles on trending retirement topics and delivers them straight to your email inbox. Get on the list here.

A money management shift: While the author of this article explains he is in the “plateau” phase of seeing the purpose of money and its meaning, his mindset has drastically changed due to bringing children into the world. Children not only shift your thoughts on money, but time as well. Parents are forced to reprioritize their lives, and for this author in particular, that means viewing financial areas of his life differently. Some of those include:

📌 Retirement: Spending more time with children might mean pushing out retirement or the idea of financial independence longer than anticipated, and for this author, that’s OK.

📌 Frugality: Supporting children requires money, but when you realize you don’t need much to be happy, you can still hold onto your own personal frugal viewpoint, while watching your children enjoy their own experiences.

📌 Motivation: Bringing children into the world means in the beginning, carrying the responsibility to provide for their every need. This can ignite a flight-or-flight mode, and inspire more motivation than you ever knew you had.

📌 Reallocation: Pre-kids, one might focus on paying down debt, contributing to a 401(k), a Roth, etc. After kids, the focus is often turned to child care, 529s, HSA, life insurance and emergency funds. Children are expensive, and can cause your financial goals to shift, but they also bring priceless experiences with your family that last a lifetime.

The power of your pack: The influence of others in your life will have an outsized impact on the way you view the purpose of money. I most often find those that have the deepest of relationships, also have the healthiest relationships with money.