Real Money, Real Experts: Yours, Mine, and Ours: Navigating Money in Blended Families with Mikel Van Cleve, MBA, CFP®, FBS®, CEBS
Money conversations are emotional for any family, but in blended families, they often come with additional layers of loss, loyalty, and complexity.
In this episode of Real money, real expertsHe is joined by Dr. Brandi Baxter and Rachel DeLeon Mikael Van Cleef, CFP®a doctoral candidate at Texas Tech University and a U.S. Coast Guard veteran, deconstructs the unique financial and emotional dynamics of blended families.
Utilizing both research and life experience, which is what Michael calls… “Find me.”– The conversation explores why traditional financial advice doesn’t always work for blended families, common emotional landmines around money, and how assumptions about “joint finance” can unintentionally create conflict. Mikkel shares practical tools that financial professionals can use, including the Three Money Approach, Genomics, Money Histories, and Role-Playing Exercises, to enhance communication, transparency, and trust.
Whether you’re a financial practitioner working with blended families or someone navigating your own, this episode offers actionable insights, empathy-based strategies, and a powerful reminder: blended families aren’t broken or abnormal—they’re simply different, and they deserve planning approaches that reflect that reality.
Show notes:
01:26 -Meet Mikael Van Cleef, CFP®
03:05 – How Mikkel’s lived experience shaped his research
05:18 – Why blended families are often overlooked in financial planning
07:52 – Emotional and financial mines that blended families face
11:48 – Reconsidering joint financial affairs in mixed families
13:02 – Explaining the three-bucket method
18:44 – Why practitioner bias matters when working with blended families
23:36 – Tools for navigating emotionally charged financial conversations
26:08 – Mikel 2 cents
Show notes links:
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