Helping Kids Get Smart About Money
I’m so pleased with this piece that CBS News did on our work in the Naperville, Illnois schools. This brief piece very succinctly describes the importance and the benefits associated with teaching financial literacy skills at a young age. Since this is streaming directly from the CBS News website, you’ll have to put up with a commercial at the beginning. Be patient, the clip is worth the wait.
Kids are natural entrepreneurs. They have big ideas and the ability to think outside the box when it comes to taking that big idea to market. Kids are also creative and rarely stop themselves from doing something because it seems too outrageous. All they need to turn their big ideas into cash is a little help and support from us. Read the rest of this entry »
The best parenting advice I ever received was to read to my children. I read to both my girls for as long as they would allow me. We read almost every night. I made twice weekly trips to our local library and each night we would sit down after dinner and I would read aloud. Excluding the hours they were asleep, this was the only time of the day they were still. Still and listening. Read the rest of this entry »
A few years ago our daughters, Allison and Amanda, then ages 12 and 13, began receiving credit offers in the mail. At first I laughed, thinking it was absurd that a middle school child would be receiving such offers. Then I started to wonder why. Read the rest of this entry »
Right after the girls were born, we applied for a Social Security number for each of them, just as the law required. We had no choice, of course. The Internal Revenue Service requires parents who want to claim their child as a tax deduction to obtain a Social Security number for that child before the age of 1. The reports of the increase in children’s identify theft cases in the news made me wonder if my own girls were at risk. I have filled in their social security number on many forms. Was this a cause for concern? Read the rest of this entry »
According to a recent online poll conducted by TheMint.org, men are three times more likely than women to raise their children without an allowance, and when asked how much they would give a 10-year-old, men are four times more likely than women to say ‘zilch.’ Read the rest of this entry »
Here are some ideas to help your child choose some investments: Read the rest of this entry »
First, let me tell you what this post is NOT about. It is not the “be all end all” of investing tutorials for you and your child. It is not a list of stock tips or mutual funds to buy. But it is an introduction for your child to the ideas of long-term goal-setting and investing. Read the rest of this entry »
Did you have a chance to check out the Save the Children website that I mentioned in my last post? It offers 10 tips to parents for helping children cope when they are exposed to news of a major disaster. Among them: Turn off the television to spare younger children; model good coping strategies; listen carefully to determine how well your child is coping with the news of the disaster and encourage your children to do volunteer work to give them a sense of control. Read the rest of this entry »
Long before the President called on Americans to give to the people devastated by the underwater earthquake and resulting tsunami back in early 2005, my husband, Michael, called on us. He wanted and needed to do something to help. So, late on the first night of the disaster, Michael started his research online to find what he felt were safe places to donate our money. Read the rest of this entry »
To avoid the scenarios I described in my last post where it is all too easy for kids to spend money they have not earned, start by teaching your kids how to set a spending goal. Ask your child to get a piece of paper and title it “Gotta have it!” This list should be carried in their purse, pocket or wallet whenever they shop. Encourage them to add and subtract “wants” and “needs” from the list for a week. Read the rest of this entry »
As adults, credit and debit cards are a convenience we’ve all learned to rely on daily. But what are your children learning when you pull out your credit card? Watching parents use credit cards is the most visible money behavior our children see. But our children aren’t ready to use credit and debit cards — not just yet. They first need to learn to use coin and currency responsibly.
Let’s take a look at compound interest as a way to help your child understand why saving is so important. Remember that $4 each day that gets spent on “I wants”? With that $4 of “I want” money, pose this question to your child: At age 12, you decide not to buy soda or snacks. Instead, you save the $4 a day and put it into a savings vehicle, such as a long-term CD that pays 5 percent annual interest, and leave it alone. At age 67 when you are ready to retire, your savings totals: (a) $1,159, (b) $25,355, (c) $80,352 or (d) $427,025. Read the rest of this entry »
It is very important for parents to model the kind of money management behavior we want our children to practice. As experienced parents, we already know that as far as our kids are concerned, our talk is cheap. Our kids watch us and get their education from us by observing our behavior. What we do, they will do. OK, not everything right away, but most things eventually. So, to teach our children about how to save money, we need to demonstrate that behavior and save money. As a nation, our track record on that score is not good. Read the rest of this entry »
Setting a goal will teach your child about the rewards of delayed gratification. What is delayed gratification? It is the ability a child has to control their impulses and wait for a payoff sometime in the future as opposed to right now. Here is the link to the Stanford Marshmallow Study which vividly demonstrates just what I am talking about. http://www.msgen.com/downloads/Marshmallow.pdf Read the rest of this entry »
