Kids Earning Money? Set Up a Roth IRA

I took Nathan and Ryan to our broker this morning to discuss Roth IRAs. Both boys have jobs and I thought it was time to have them begin thinking about their retirement. John and I decided to match any money they made this summer, dollar for dollar, and, well, my boys have never been known [...]

Teaching Kids to Set Financial Goals

Long story short, kids who know how to delay gratification tend to grow up to be adults with higher paying jobs, have happier relationships, are physically healthy, and are persistent in their pursuits. Let me know if you want the details to this longitudinal research. Using money, we have an unbelievable way to help our [...]

Getting Kids EXCITED About Saving Money

When Ryan was seven years old, John and I discovered he had a spending problem. As serious as a seven year old can have. It was all about Pokemon cards. Each week he would drain his money on the cute cards in hopes of striking it rich with a rare Charzard. But not wanting that [...]

Yippee! I’ve Got Money! A Letter to Teens

I was asked to contribute an article to a book being published on kids and financial literacy (will share more on that later). Apart from being thrilled to have been asked, I happen to love writing, so I jumped at the chance. My given topic was ‘kids and budgeting’ and is a little longer than [...]

Fees Make a Difference

I was so excited this morning after reading an article in the business section of the Sacramento Bee.  It was describing how Wal-Mart is having a positive impact on the environmental practices of companies it does business with, particularly in China.  Apparently, if you want to partner with Wal-Mart, you’re going to have to be eco-friendly.  Nice. [...]

A Blog Worthy of John

As I jumped up from the dinner table last night to jot down something that Nathan had just said about all the extra packaging that things come in (he’d rather save the money than have it spent on stuff that gets thrown out), John announced that he was glad he was not blog worthy.  My [...]

Investing 101

I just finished reading the book, Investing 101, by Kathy Kristof.  I consider myself somewhat knowledgeable about basic investing…enough to have a diversified portfolio.  And certainly enough to be able to have investing discussions with the elementary and middle school students I work with. But continued education is always a good idea.  Besides, in the financial [...]

Divots and Entrepreneurs

“How much do you think I could get for this on eBay?”  Ryan was holding up a  chunk of sod and grass that, in golfers lingo, is called a divot.  It’s what’s left after a golfer takes a hard shot at a ball lying on the grass. We were at the President’s Cup in San Francisco [...]

The Risk Continuum

Nathan finally did it.  He bought his first shares of a public company.  Not the company he was orignially looking at.  That was Pacsun and those shares have tripled in value in the few months he waited. No, instead, he bought several shares of Walmart.  He likes how environmentally conscious they are and believes that they can have a big [...]

Discipline Required

Here’s the thing about the stock market.  Rarely can it be timed.  I may even go a step further and say that never can it be timed.  But I’m not an expert.  What I do know is that over time, the stock market seems to do pretty well.  Statistics say that it averages a gain [...]