Personal Finance Advice

I remember when I was a kid, my parents would take the time to show me how money worked. (This was in the days before ATM’s and online banking.) My mom would show me how to write a check out to “cash,” hand it to the teller, and get cash in return. She showed me [...]

This week I was trawling one of my favorite message boards and noticed a thread on whether or not a child should have an expensive cell phone and, if so, should it be given as a gift for a big occasion, bought with the child’s own money, or just purchased outright by the parents. The [...]

Kids often view cash and gift cards as things that need to be used immediately. I recall how my now grown son spent all of his birthday money within two days after he had received it, often wasting it on things that he never used. When I voiced concern or suggested that he might want [...]

I went to my share of birthday parties as a child and without exception they were of singular focus – to celebrate the birthday of a friend or relative. All attention was placed on the “person of the day” or persons in the case of twins or triplets. Getting to play games with other children, [...]

School is out and the kids are home. If it hasn’t happened already, chances are it won’t be long before you hear those famous words: “I’m bored.” Now would be a good time to use that boredom to teach kids a little something about finance in ways that are fun. The more kids learn about [...]

What is it about children that invite us to spend money on them? Is it that we see they are cute at everything, so everything is fair game? Is it that we want them to have the best so we better make sure that they have the newest and most recent and most expensive? Is [...]

The most common question my husband and I have been asked since we got married a couple of years ago is “When are you guys going to have kids?” Each time, we give the same answer — that were not ready for a baby yet. We’ve often received the following response: “If you try and [...]

During the last Christmas season, Disney’s Club Penguin website allowed children who played its online games to donate their virtual earnings to help the environment, improve children’s health, or assist children in developing countries. Though players could use the coins to purchase virtual items to enhance the games, more than 2.5 million of them chose [...]

Children live in a very self-centered world as they focus on learning about themselves and how the world works according to them. As they go along, learning how to mimic parents and other adults, observing behaviors through cause and effect, they learn very early about this thing called money. It seems fitting that this first [...]

We recently had our first snow of the winter and now my city is under a blanket of white. Snow sure makes everything more beautiful (except the roads and my car). Many people take advantage of winter sports like skiing, snowboarding and snowmobiling, but these activities can come with quite a hefty price tag. If [...]