It’s the start of the school year and with that comes the many school supply requests from the teachers and/or the school – and your kids as well!  With the back-to-school sales in full swing, it’s enticing to get these supplies in volume – much greater than actually needed because, you know, it’s on “sale.”  It is so easy to go beyond your budget just to get the best deal.  This year, try these ideas to help save you and your family time – and money.

Continue reading

Talk to any educator and they are likely to agree the “summer slide” is real.  Often, the first two weeks (or more) of school are spent “reteaching” the concepts taught the previous year. So how can you help prevent this from happening to your kids?  Try reading. Taking time to read to or with our kids is a great way to help prevent that learning loss. And reading as a family is one of the best ways to spend quality time together and to strike up some meaningful conversations – especially during the summer.

To help you get started, I’ve assembled a recommended reading list of great money books for preschool to adult.

Continue reading

My early lessons in life were all around saving – not spending. Somehow, I have managed to find a balance with the money in my life and have both saved and spent wisely.  This has proved to be the key to having my cake and eating it too.

I have often mentioned in this blog how I grew up with my grandmother living with us in the upstairs apartment of our home.  I absorbed many money lessons by listening to her and my parents talk about money during our mid-day weekend meals. The overriding theme of those conversations was the need to save.

Money & fear

Continue reading

For the past 25 years I have been teaching people how and why to teach their kids about money.  And yet, many still struggle with how to teach their kids about their money choices.  I think I know why.

Most of the adults I work with, and listen to, are genuinely wonderful parents.  They LOVE their kids.  They want to give their kids everything they did not have.  And therein lies the problem.  The “giving” is more about the parents than it is about their kids. This genuine desire to “give” everything their kids want or need is actually filling a hole parents fell in to when they were kids. Adults don’t want their kids to suffer or struggle as they did growing up. So, now that parents or guardians have the means to “give”, they want to do so.  And I totally get that.

Continue reading