The holidays give us a chance to focus on the people in our lives – family and friends.  It’s more about gatherings than it is about deadlines – at least for some of the time.

Take this gift of a season of celebration and spend time with your loved ones. Play a game.  Bake together.  Take a walk and talk. Fix a meal together. Have a meal together. Create gifts by hand with whatever you have on hand. Talk about a family giving goal and pick a charity and not only donate money, but if it’s local, visit and help if allowed at the charity.

Your kids will be grateful for the time you spend on activities suggested above.  Gifts on a wish list are long forgotten after the season, but time spent together creates memories – and memories last forever. Continue reading

Looking for great money gift ideas for the young – and older – child in your life this holiday season?  Terry Savage, nationally recognized expert on personal finance, the economy and the market shares her top 3 holiday money gifts for kids on WGN this morning. (See clip of her recommendations below.)

See more at www.terrysavage.com

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Next week is Thanksgiving…a time for my annual chat about gratitude. Money and gratitude are a powerful combination. Joined hand-in-hand, they keep us grounded.

When is “enough”, enough?

Jean Paul Getty, the American-born British petroleum industrialist who founded the Getty Oil Company, was worth more than $6 billion at the time of his death (which would be approximately $21 billion today).  But once asked how much money he needed to feel secure enough to pay the ransom requested by the kidnappers of his grandson, he responded, “More!”

When is what we have “enough”? When do we stop wanting more and start being grateful and content for what we have? And how do we teach our children to feel that what they have is enough?

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You no doubt have read many articles on the pros and cons of financial education.  Well, as a parent you already know the truth.  Financial education works, like any other education we give our kids on the right and wrong way to do things.  What we teach them now, they will use – eventually.  And teaching them about the choices they have for money when they are young is a surefire way to insulate them from unintended financial consequences.

Proof in the Research

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