April is Financial Literacy Awareness Month! This post is my contribution to the Financial Literacy Awareness Carnival hosted by Shannon Ryan from The Heavy Purse. What is the most important thing leading to success? Is it a good education? Having wealthy parents? Is it being a genius like Steve Jobs? It couldn't hurt, right? Or is it grit? … [Read more...]
Use Your Kitchen to Organize Your Whole Family
Want to zip through your kitchen in record time? How about making it easier for everyone to help themselves to healthy snacks? How about getting all your counter space back? Here's how to get the chaos under control for smoother mornings and nights. The kitchen is Grand Central Station for most families. Let's get it under control and … [Read more...]
Interview with Hank Coleman from Money Q&A
I'd like to introduce you to Hank Coleman from Money Q&A, a personal finance blog that I admire. I met Hank at FinCon13 in October, 2013 and thought his story was interesting. Here are the questions I put to Hank recently. 1. What got you started in blogging? I started blogging in September 2007. Believe it or not, I actually started … [Read more...]
How to Raise Successful Kids: What Works Now?
I recently saw a quote: Don't try make your kids have more than you; try to make them better than you. Good advice. Yet our grown children need to have enough money to live on and to raise their families. So we try to teach them about money and about treating others with respect. We live in changing times, so it's a challenge to guide them toward … [Read more...]
Unplug the Kids for Some Downtime This Summer!
Simple CampfireHow's your summer going? If you have kids, you know how hectic summer can be. It can be difficult to carve out a little time when you are not running to this place or that. Time to just be. Even with a family you can make time for some down time. It's a choice. Just say no to some of the requests.It seems we need to unplug from all … [Read more...]
Teaching Kids About Money: Would You Pretend to Be Poor?
I heard of a family the other day that had fooled their kids for years about their true financial situation. They had actually inherited quite a bit of wealth, but they didn't want their kids to grow up being "spoiled." The kids did not go to very expensive colleges. They wore clothes like everyone else. They did not take lavish vacations. It … [Read more...]
How I Taught My Daughter about Credit Cards
I sometimes feel guilty about what I did to our daughter. Was I being mean or wise? I'm still not entirely sure. This goes back a few years to when our daughter, let's call her Penny, was about 8 years old. She was getting a small allowance that seemed to take care of her miscellaneous wants. But there came a day when that allowance wasn't enough … [Read more...]