Both my daughters wanted to work as soon as they could by getting a summer job.  I did not have to push them – they wanted the experience and the money.  I suspect it was also about independence.  To get her first job, Allison created a resume-without my help or knowledge – and walked around the town dropping it off hoping to get a call back for a summer job.

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The conventional wisdom is that in polite company one should never talk about money, politics or religion. I disagree with at least one-third of that advice; not only do I think that it’s OK to talk about money, I think that it’s vitally important to do so. Some of the best financial knowledge that I have accumulated over the years started in conversations with my parents, spouse and financial advisor.

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This week, I asked my daughter Allison if she would share her perspective on the plans Michael and I made to help her when her wedding day arrived. Did it work – or not? Here is what she had to say:

Susan Beacham is a nationally recognized children’s financial literacy expert and co-founder with my dad of Money Savvy Generation – and she’s my mom. So it will likely be no surprise to you, that she was putting a plan into action for (potential) future wedding costs way back when we were in our freshman year of high school. More importantly, she shared these plans with my sister and I many times over the years whenever weddings and cost came up in conversation.

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Believe it or not, Michael and I started the wedding cost conversation with our daughters way back when they were in high school. I’d been at a local small business gathering and listened to a friend talk about the cost and the conversation he had recently with his daughter about her upcoming wedding. He explained that he’d given her a check with a set amount and said she was free to do what she wanted with it. But that the check was his full contribution to her wedding costs. With this method, he would not be in the position of managing the budget or have to be the one to say “no” to things that would be outside what he wanted to spend on the day.

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