Teach Kids to Set Financial Goals – Video

Here’s the next in my Kids and Money video series:  Setting Personal Financial Goals

How Does a 15-year old Save for a Car?

Ryan just bought a car. And she’s a beauty, too. 2002 baby blue Toyota Prius with only 57,000 miles. Owned by a 91-year old grannie who used it mostly to drive to church and back. No kidding. Problem is, Ryan can’t drive it; never mind he doesn’t have his license. He barely has his permit. [...]

How To Encourage Kids to Save Money

This is the first in a series of Kids and Money Quick Tips videos that I will be putting together. This first one is on getting kids in the habit of saving money.

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 [...]

Is It Worth It?

Ryan just spent $204.44. He didn’t do it lightly. That’s because he knows just how long it took him to earn that money. His one-day-a-week paper route earns him $11/week. That’s 19 weeks of folding and throwing papers. But he also gets $10/week in allowance. Enough to help him get some of the things he [...]

Saving: It Takes a Plan

I’ve been doing a little work with a group of foster kids ages 17-19. One of my goals has been to get them to see that their daily actions can influence their future. So at one of our last group meetings we talked about goal setting. I had them write down their goals for one-, [...]

The Goal Sheet

I was in Ryan’s room this morning looking for his graphing calculator (that’s my next blog entry!), when I discovered a piece of paper that, apparently Ryan needs to fill out.  It was titled, Whitney High Track and Field Goal Sheet. Very cool.  His track coaches are making the athletes think about and write down their [...]