Whether pressured by limited income and high spending demands or simply trying to juggle living for the day and saving for the future, families often need help with financial planning.

Today, The Blade offers the second of a two-part series on Financial Makeovers of area people, this time focused on five households with vastly different challenges and concerns.

Most of those featured are families with children aged 4 to 17. One is a divorced mother with three children. And one is a young single women just beginning her career.

Each was provided with free professional help, consulting with planners and then being presented with a recommended financial plan. The program, in which local people agreed to bare their financial souls in return for the free advice, was done jointly by The Blade and the Northwest Ohio chapter of the Financial Planning Association. The group provided the services of 15 of its 75 members.

The recommendations include debt restructuring, credit counseling, tighter budgeting, better saving, and setting up tax-advantaged college-savings plans.

The first part of the series, published two weeks ago, looked at three couples at or near retirement and an 85-year-old widow.

First Published November 16, 2002, 1:50 p.m.