The Family Resource Simulator shows how earnings, benefits, and expenses interact as circumstances change. It makes “what if” scenarios visible in a way that is difficult to capture through conversation alone. In Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) settings, the simulator can support planning discussions by helping families see how small changes in work hours, income, or benefits affect overall stability.

The National Center for Children in Poverty’s Basic Needs Budget Calculator breaks down what it actually costs to meet essential needs like housing, food, childcare, and transportation. It highlights gaps between wages, benefits, and real household expenses. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) practitioners can use it to support budgeting work that feels concrete and locally relevant, helping families understand what stability requires in practical terms.

Research from SmartAsset explores what it takes financially for one parent to stay home and the other to support the household. It adds context to the tradeoffs families face when making caregiving and work decisions. Within Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) services, it can support more realistic financial planning discussions and help families think through how income choices affect stability, caregiving roles, and long-term goals.

The MIT Living Wage Calculator estimates the income families need to cover basic expenses based on where they live and family size. It helps clarify a common disconnect in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) work—employment alone does not always equal economic stability. Practitioners can use it to ground conversations about self-sufficiency in local reality, making it easier to connect job planning and financial goals to actual household needs and improve family stability.

This resource by Chapin Hall takes a closer look at how adoption systems can better support children and the families who step in to care for them. For Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs—which often work with relative caregivers and families connected to the child welfare system—this resource offers useful perspective on where families tend to encounter barriers and what more effective support can look like. It highlights opportunities to improve coordination and reduce confusion during what is often a complex and emotional process. TANF practitioners can use this information to better guide caregivers, strengthen collaboration with child welfare partners, and ensure families have access to both financial assistance and the broader supports that help foster placements remain stable over time.

This resource explains how state and federal policies may create “marriage penalties” (financial disincentives to marry) or “marriage bonuses” (financial incentives to marry) for low-income families. For Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs, this highlights a key challenge: families may face tradeoffs between financial stability and forming or maintaining two-parent households.

This report can be a useful tool for practitioners to better understand why clients may hesitate to report household changes or pursue marriage. The report helps staff have targeted conversations about program impacts and the benefits of marriage, anticipate barriers, and think through ways to better align TANF services with family stability goals.

This Administration for Children and Families paper examines how certain means-tested tax and transfer programs may create financial disincentives for marriage. It outlines how eligibility thresholds, benefit phase-outs, and combined household income calculations can affect family decision-making.

This California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation guide provides practical tips for couples on managing money together. It covers how to communicate about finances, set shared goals, create a budget, and decide whether to combine or separate accounts. TANF programs can share this resource with participants to help strengthen financial communication, planning, and teamwork in households to support family stability and long-term economic security.

These episodes from the Made for Love podcast explore how faith and financial decision‑making intersect: from personal money management to how couples and families navigate budgeting, communication, and shared goals through a spiritual lens. Part 1 focuses on the role of faith in financial perspectives and habits, while Part 2 connects that conversation to family life and long‑term planning.

For TANF programs partnering with faith‑ and community‑based organizations, these discussions can be great conversation starters or supplemental content for financial coaching, workshops, or support groups. Sharing them with participants who value faith‑based insights can deepen engagement around budgeting, planning, and family goal‑setting in ways that resonate with their values and community supports.

This resource shares ten principles for managing money in marriage, covering topics like communication, shared goal-setting, debt management, and long-term financial planning. TANF programs can partner with faith- and community-based organizations to use these principles in workshops or coaching sessions, helping participants explore values-driven financial practices while strengthening family stability. By integrating faith-informed guidance with TANF services, programs can offer participants practical tools for budgeting, planning, and shared decision-making in ways that resonate with their beliefs and community supports.