The cell phone bill came in. It was a little higher than usual, not by much, but enough to get me looking for the reason why. I consider the cell phone bill a fixed expense. Technically, it’s not since there is always the possibility that we could go over minutes at which point the charges skyrocket. I know this. Two teenage boys with their first girlfriends and, well, let’s just say they finally understood what I meant by girls can…
Excerpted from Beyond the Piggy Bank, a 15-Day Challenge One of the goals for this Challenge is to develop healthy attitudes about money in our children. Since YOU have the greatest impact on what your kids learn about money, it’s important to take a little time to reflect honestly on the money messages you are sending them. Ask yourself the following questions. To help clarify your thoughts, you may want to write your responses down on paper. ~What is my…
We impart our values to our kids through our words and our actions. Mostly our actions. Take a moment to reflect on the things you value. Integrity, compassion, honesty, persistence, courage, patience… Now think about an action that can be associated with each one. For example, returning the unpaid can of tuna you discovered in the shopping cart ~ honesty. Or volunteering to speak at the board meeting even though the thought of speaking in front of people makes you…
We all know that literacy, the ability to read and write, is an important life skill. It’s so important that we often create an environment at home to reflect this. We start reading to our kids from an early age, years before they know how to read themselves. We surround our kids with all kinds of reading materials from books, to magazines, to newspapers, to grocery lists. And then, to underscore the importance of reading even more, we read in…
Teaching kids to be wise consumers requires that we have them reflect on their purchases…before they spend the money. And an easy way to do this is to teach them the Three Money Questions: Do I need it? Can I afford it? Does it add value to my life? Do I need it? This gives kids practice in thinking about the difference between needs and wants. If the item is clearly not a need, and for kids this is the…