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Teaching Kids about Money

Do you give your child an allowance? Do they know how to save? Do they know how to earn? Money is one of those necessary evils of life so it is important that you teach your child the basics while they are young. Most kids get a little money here and there, whether it is from a weekly allowance or money from the tooth fairy, but do they know what to do with it? What do they really need to know about money and how do you teach it when you hardly have any money yourself? Here are a few … Continue reading →

Basic Financial Education for Kids

When I was growing up, money meant security. I grew up with the fear of not having enough, not because there wasn’t enough but because that was the gist of my parents’ conversations around money. I learned that you needed to get a good job, which meant one that paid well. Even though I was a fairly talented musician, this meant that a career in the arts was certainly out. When I was growing up, I also had positive experiences with money. My parents balanced their checkbook every week in full view of the kids. I got an allowance and … Continue reading →

Get Your Kids Investing

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Want to start your children on a good path towards financial freedom? Start teaching them investing skills now. As soon as they are old enough to talk, they can start getting involved with the basics of money. Once they are in grade school, you can begin to teach them the valuable skills of investing. Some tips on just how to teach your kids some investment skills are: 1. Start by explaining what investing is. Not exactly sure yourself? Typically most kids understand saving — where you are putting money aside to buy something later, adding to that money as you … Continue reading →

Homeschooling Middle School Kids

Homeschooling during the elementary school years means teaching kids the basics. It involves teaching, reading, writing, and basic math. Homeschooling during these early years also means setting your kids in the right direction in areas of emotional and social development. Homeschooling during the high school years means preparing your kids for adult life. This means intensive academic preparation for the college bound. It means internships for trade bound students. It also means slowly transferring adult responsibilities to your children and helping them learn to step into an adult role. Homeschooling middle school students are a different animal altogether. You have … Continue reading →

Doing the Right Thing

Imagine how you would feel if your child scored a $54,000 scholarship to UCLA. For many parents, it would be akin to winning the lottery. After all, college ain’t cheap… well, unless you are a multimillionaire. What? You don’t think the wealthiest of the wealthy have to watch their Benjamin? It’s hard being rich and famous. Just ask Sean “Diddy” Combs. The rap mogul is considered one of the richest men on the planet with an estimated fortune of more than $550 million. With all that cash flying around, you’d think Combs could easily fork over the money needed to … Continue reading →

Is Your Kid a Spendthrift?

We’ve entered a new dimension at Casa Cheplic: Cashdom. Now that my daughter is 7, we’ve bid adieu to threats and time outs and are embracing the wonders of using cash as incentive for good behavior. So, yeah, basically I get my kid to behave by bribing her with big bucks. Actually, it’s mostly coins, but the occasional dollar bill makes an appearance if she achieves a monumental accomplishment. We’ve got the wall chart, the stickers, a list of jobs and rules and, of course, a jar full of shiny, jangly loot. Using monetary rewards as a method of behavior … Continue reading →

Genetic Potential Can Be Stunted By Poverty

Think for a moment about your ancestors. Some of them might have lived their lives in utter poverty, especially if that ancestor was a child during The Great Depression. Other distant relatives might have been financially well taken care of. Why does this matter? It turns out that children who grow up in conditions of poverty may not reach their full genetic potential. The United States is a rich nation when compared with many of the other countries in the world. This does not mean that there are no poor people here. We have a large number of people who … Continue reading →

Checkbook Registers and the People Who Hate Them

I have a love-hate relationship with my checkbook register. Okay, let’s be really honest – I have a hate-hate relationship with it. I dislike writing everything down on those tiny little lines, and then not being able to read my own handwriting, and then wondering if that is a 7 or a 1, because if it’s a 7, then it’s a different purchase than the one I made which ended in a 1, and the whole thing won’t reconcile anyway, so what’s the point? In a fit of pique this morning, I said to my husband, “Why do we even … Continue reading →

The Allowance Quandary

Should you give your children an allowance? I do. For small children who can’t make a lot of money, an allowance gives them a sense of autonomy and choice. I use the allowance to divert my daughter’s “I wants”. Instead of buying items for her, when I do not feel like the item is necessary I suggest that she get it with her allowance money. For older children, there are a number of questions to consider when you begin to give an allowance. What constraints will you put on what is purchased with the allowance? While we might hope that … Continue reading →

Another Reason Not to Put Your Kid in Daycare

For some parents there is simply no other choice. They either place their child in daycare or live on the streets. Still, opponents of outsourced childcare insist that the amount of money parents spend paying for someone else to raise their children basically negates the income they are generating from working outside their home. My take is that it is an extremely personal decision; one that takes a huge amount of sacrifice regardless of whether you give up your chosen career and stay home with your child or you remain at your job and pay strangers to watch your kid. … Continue reading →