Hope for your financial life and beyond

Dealing With My Daughter’s BIG Milestone

October 23, 2013 by 34 Comments

Growth AheadMy oldest daughter, Miss LukeTeen28 (MLT28), is quickly approaching a major milestone. To be honest I’m having difficulty believing my wife and I have reached this point. It seems like only yesterday we were meticulously buckling her into the car seat at the hospital (as only newbie parents can), readying her for the first car ride home.

Boy, did I take that trip carefully.

Now 12 ½ years later, we are about to cross that invisible yet unmistakable line that serves as a right of passage for kids as they grow towards young adulthood. Most parents dread this moment because it signals their child is becoming capable of deciding his or her own path. While I will admit to a certain level of anxiety, I’m really looking forward to it. I want to see how all these years of teaching, training and modeling will play out as she makes decisions.

The right of passage to which I refer has nothing to do with my daughter becoming a teenager though. It’s a much greater issue that will provide her with great lessons as she matures into adulthood. What could possibly be this big a deal for an almost 13 year old?

Making her first BIG purchase with her own money. Here is what she wants:

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Filed Under: Kids and Money, Saving, Spending Tagged With: , , ,

I’m Saving Thousands in 60 Seconds or Less

July 24, 2013 by 22 Comments

60 seconds or lessPersonal finance bloggers love to help people develop sound money habits that will yield positive results if consistently applied over time. Many of these habits are hard to develop especially when they require great amounts of sacrifice. It took me a long time to realize I had issues with spending and an even greater length of time to bring that habit under control.

But success with finances doesn’t have to be difficult or take years of intense work learning how to budget or invest properly. In fact, there are some simple, everyday activities that take 60 seconds or less that could greatly impact a person’s future financial well-being. These require only minor preparation and even less time to execute.

Four 60 Seconds or Less Activities

Here are the four, everyday money-saving activities I’m doing right now that take me 60 seconds or less to accomplish:

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Filed Under: Saving, Travel & Health Tagged With: ,

Students Comparison Shop for Generics and Save Big!

April 30, 2013 by 17 Comments

comparison shopDoes your child ever groan when you buy generic brands at the grocery store? That’s what happened recently on one of my shopping trips. I was trying to comparison shop when I reached for the generic brand peanut butter.

“Dad, do we have to get that?” whined my 12-year-old daughter. “We always get Jif.”

“You don’t even eat a lot of peanut butter,” I replied. “Besides, your sister is the peanut butter connoisseur of the house. Let’s test it out and see what she thinks.”

Much to her chagrin, her five-year old sister loved it! Oh, did I mention our food budget also liked it?  There’s a $1.80 difference between comparable jars of Publix peanut butter and Jif and a $2.50 difference between the Publix brand and Skippy or Peter Pan.

This led me to do some field research on food prices, using my high school personal finance class as data collectors. I gave them a list of about 20 items and asked them to comparison shop the difference between name brands and generics at their local grocery store. They were then to calculate the difference they would save by buying the generic brand.

The result was a real eye opener for them.

Comparison Shop Data: Name Brands vs. Generics

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Filed Under: Kids and Money, Saving Tagged With: , ,

2 HUGE Reasons We Need to Save to Build Wealth

February 26, 2013 by 24 Comments

build wealthIf you have been following my posts recently, I have been discussing why it is important to save money. I talked about saving for emergencies and then outlined saving for purchases and bills. These serve as a solid foundation for our financial health and to build wealth for the long-term.

They are foundational because we have to work through a lot of emotional baggage. We have to re-wire years of incorrect thinking about our saving habits. That’s not easy because we have to admit our mistakes. But once we have succeeded in changing our mindset about saving, we’ve conquered a giant obstacle. As I’ve said before most people aren’t thinking this way.

These saving concepts are foundational because they allow us to move on to the next phase of money management – to build wealth.

What Does It Mean to Build Wealth?

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Filed Under: Saving Tagged With: , , ,

The Un-American Way: Saving for Purchases

February 19, 2013 by 20 Comments

Light bulb penniesSeveral weeks ago I wrote about the #1 reason why saving money is important. In “O Lord Jesus, It’s a Fire!” I discussed how saving is vital because we are guaranteed to face emergencies in our life. Having some cash set aside reduces most emergencies to minor inconveniences.

The coolest part about having an emergency fund is that it causes us to emotionally and mentally relax. We realize, with some money reserves in place, that we will be able to move through the crisis with relative ease.  We no longer have to stress out as we scramble to come up with cash or go into debt to fix whatever problem has come about.

I’ve believed my whole life saving money was important, especially for a “rainy day.” But in my saving money belief structure, I was missing a vital element. To incorporate this missing link it into my life, I would have to do something very un-American. I would have to come face to face with what I really didn’t want to do…

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Filed Under: Planning, Saving Tagged With: ,

“O Lord Jesus It’s a Fire!” – Saving For Emergencies

January 24, 2013 by 15 Comments

o lord jesus its a fireEver walk to the refrigerator, maybe to get you a cold pop, and when you opened the door the light did not come on and there was no cold air? Or maybe you’ve been BBQ-ing, the fire got too hot and you burnt the chicken. Guess we are going out for dinner.

Maybe you’ve had an unexpected bout with bronchitis that required expensive medicine. Or you suddenly remembered it’s back to school time and the kids had no shoes to wear for PE class. Perhaps something bigger has happened like a house fire where you were displaced from your home and possessions for a time.

Our reaction when crazy life events happen is basically to say, “O Lord Jesus, it’s a fire!” and then we do our best to put the fire out. Usually that requires the spending of money to make the situation right or normal again. The question for us then is “How can we be prepared when the fire comes?”

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Filed Under: Planning, Saving Tagged With: , ,