Teaching Kids about money, budgeting, paying bills....

Teaching kids about healthy financial habits can be daunting when you are still struggling with healthy habits yourself. It doesn't have to be daunting though, discussing some of those hard issues in terms that they can understand can be healthy. It's sort of like saying "look see mom/dad made some mistakes, we all do, and we are working on fixing them" and then explaining how people fix their financial mistakes.

All of that being said I have an older daughter she is *almost* a teenager *yikes*, at 12 she gets a lot more than she did at say 3. She sees and hears me talking about budget and bills often. A few weeks ago she asked me about how a budget works and "how do you pay your bills?" I was surprised by this. She has always been a fairly observant child. Her father and I are not together, he is no better with money than I used to be he just had lots more of it than I did to spend. Our daughter has never really seen a good example of saving, spending, and paying bills... until now.

Mint.com has a really great blog/article about teaching kids budgets, I encourage you all to read it. In fact Mint.com is a really great (and free even!) website to check out and familiarize yourselves with. I think for my child though going more in depth is what she is asking for.

With my daughter's needs/wants to learn personal finance and budgeting this week we are starting something new. I will give her an allowance for time she has worked over and above family chores that everyone does, she will work with me to create a budget on saving to spend on a goal, savings for college, and spending money. I will take her to the bank and help her learn to fill out deposit slips (and when the time comes withdraw slips) and how to balance her savings accounts and keep track of what money is for what things. I am also going to show her my pay, where things go to, where they come out and how much is left at the end of the month/day/week... Not all kids can handle that I don't think nor should they, my child seems to have a need/want for that to understand. This need/want stems a bit from how she learns anything new and her abilities to really take the information in.

Most of all, I want my child to have a better understanding of personal finance than I did so when she makes mistakes she knows how to correct them. I was never taught anything about budgeting, making money, paying bills, writing checks, or balancing a check book. Nothing at all, I was thrown into it and failed miserably, I'm working at teaching myself now but I'd like for my daughter to know better. Whether she makes the right choices by having the right knowledge is totally up to her. I can instill the right things and educate her with the knowledge and then it is in her hands on how she applies all of those things.

Photo By: Matt McGee

More shout outs.

The other day I did a post that was supposed to be about Making Extra Cash it really turned into a shout out. I wanted to continue to do the shout outs so here they are.

Another single woman (and single mom too boot) Jen at Lifestyle of a Divorced Single Mom, she not only knows how to juggle one income but doing it with more than one kid. She knows the unexpectedness that can come up and the expected that does but you just don't have it to plan for. Not only that but Jen is one of the main reasons I realized I could really do this budgeting thing, she gave me a great spreadsheet that really is detailed and works. She has been doing great at her goal setting and holding herself accountable each month, again she inspired me so look for something new from me soon.

There is Brian (oh, yes a man who happens to be married even so far he has broken the mold on my shout outs), he is the author of Over 40 Overweight and In Debt, I think he's got a correlation there indeed. In fact, I haven't read it yet but Frugal Dad (another great PF blogger) just posted an article on being overweight and in debt. Brian has just gotten back to blogging again and I hope he stays around I always enjoyed that he is just real in his posts he doesn't putz around and make excuses we are both in the same boat here overweight and in debt, maybe with some blogger collaboration we can both attain our goals together. I'm so excited to read Frugal Dad's article today and hopefully Brian will see it too.

One of the more successful single moms in the PF blogosphere is Single Ma at Fabulous Financials. She really is an inspiration about being all you can be and striving for the best. While I can tell we don't have the same career interests we do have similar mind frames. When I see that she has gotten so far and worked hard but I can go back and read that she too made mistakes along the way I'm inspired. Like Jen at Lifestyle of a Divorced Single Mom, Single Ma is a great goal setter and a true inspiration. Single Ma is a the point I could be at if I had worked things differently, while I was in a feel sorry for myself phase about being a single, unwed, teen aged mom she was out working her goals for the future and it shows. In fact, her blog is ear marked and her about me section is shared with any new teen mom I come across.

There are so many that deserve a shout out but many of you probably already know about Trent at The Simple Dollar, Weakonomics, The New Frugal Mom, not to be confused with The Frugal Girl, Spilling Buckets, Smarty Pig, My Money Shrugged and many more you can see on my blog roll.

If you know of others not on my blog roll or in my shout outs I'd love to read them, many of the people I read daily are found through others blog rolls so I encourage all of you to update yours frequently. I plan on making it a periodic thing I do.

Making extra cash

Recently, I posted about earning some extra money and starting a side business. I was really excited, and I'm still in the beginning stages of starting what Samantha Gregory @ Rich Single Momma calls a Side Hustle (I just love that name for earning extra cash).

Samantha isn't the only blogger I've been reading who posts about earning extra income Dawn at Fighting Foreclosure has some really great ideas too. In fact I'm having a garage sale this weekend, she just had one too. I was going to sell books online with what I read from Dawn's blog but decided against it, I don't have the space to store them so off they go into the garage sale. I will be selling my textbooks online though and it will be helpful to re-read Dawn's on-line bookstore posts.

I really enjoy reading blogs from other single women making it by budgeting and being financially healthy, by far because I have been a single woman making it on my own I relate far more to them. Others out there have some great advice but I have to take it in and apply it to my situation with a little more attention than that of advice or words I've read from another single blogger.

For instance, Immer at Mein Taglich Brots who is starting her journey down the Bankruptcy road, she is a little ahead of me plus its great to know I'm not alone. I'm hoping this garage sale will in part help pay for my attorney to file. Then there is Betty at Bouncing Back from Bankruptcy who has completed the Bankruptcy process and it is refreshing to read her posts to see what life is like for someone afterwards. Oddly, it just occurred to me like both of the other bloggers they are single women too. I think I may come up with a blog roll for people in the PF blogosphere that are single. I find I get the best/most applicable PF information right in those types of blogs.

I read each blog I read though because I enjoy them. This post wasn't meant to be a big shout out but it has turned into one. Perhaps I should change the name, but I think I will leave it alone for now... maybe I'll do a part two later on with more of my thoughts... yes, yes I will.

Disclaimer... if you did not make it in this blog post it isn't because I don't love reading your blog its just that its still early when I started this and the reason I'll be doing a part 2... not everyone will make it but eventually I'll likely have posted your blog at least once on mine because you all have made me think and ponder and evaluate... soon enough you'll write a post and I'll say oh yeah, how cool is that? And I'll want to shout it out to everyone who reads my blog. That's just who I am. Holy, run on sentence.... I'd fix it but if you know me personally you know I probably would have just spoken all that in one big ole run on sentence ha.

More to come on my earning extra cash and thoughts on it....

Photo by: Julie92881

I got my first bite

I think there was a time where I mentioned doing a side business of my own. Well I got my first real bite from a co-worker. YAY!!

In the past I have done some work writing resumes and cover letters for friends. This time it was a paid job, I got paid $25 for less than two hours of work doing a cover letter for a co-worker who is moving to a new state and looking for a job there.

Currently, my next phase in this business venture is to get a website up and running. I'm in the process of educating myself on that whole deal. This includes seeing what the costs are for my own website and if I can do it on my own or if I need to hire someone to do that for me.

I'm pretty excited to have my first paid job and he is extremely happy with the results. Now I will have a paid testimony as well as several unpaid testimonies to put onto my website as well. I'd like to get that going and up and running by the end of the month.

My ultimate goal with this is that I will be able to generate enough income to help support my household and purchase health insurance while I finish school. I have enough incentive to really make a go of this and try to make it work.

I found in helping people I'm good at it, I work in customer service as it is. I know what people want and how to make them happy but further I know how to help people turn things around and find resources while they are trying to do so. I was thinking with background and education one of my thoughts is I would be a really great career counselor. Its just a thought right now but I'm on my way to seeing if that is something I would love to do paid by starting this side business.

Financial Security

Those two words financial and security have never been two things combined I thought were ever in my path. That was the past, today I do know they are but I need to do a lot of work.

I found with the stresses in life right now I'm not necessarily reverting to my old ways, however... I'm not exactly financially healthy right now either. I may not be rushing out to shop till I drop but I still made some costly mistakes. This is a learning curve though, I learned I need to watch more than just shopping, using extra gas to go somewhere (even somewhere free), and just plain ole not preparing for upcoming expenses (ie. kiddos softball expenses which I underestimated by a long shot).

So, with that said I'm making a very conscience effort to try and blog more often even through the time crunch and stress. This is what I need to make time for and no excuses. I am not going to be doing WWYD Wednesdays mostly because I don't want to put a specific day I have to post a specific something as I don't need to add to my work load at the moment, but also because I was having trouble coming up with more scenarios. So I decided that I am going to start writing ideas as they come to me and when I have a list of them, I'll start them back up again. Maybe when I have writers block about that I'll find a new 'segment' to replace it but I want that planned out too. Organization is what it is all about, really everything important in life. Organization is also something that I was never good at.

With organization in mind, I have two days off this week but they are not my normal days. I will take one of the days to organize at least one of my closets at home. This needs to be done, I need to find ways to organize things and the practice will be good. Also, I need to get ready for a garage sale and I can't even begin to go down to my storage cage in the basement until I organize. On the same front I'm organizing at work too, I'm cleaning up the tech library and organizing it to fit company needs and customer needs as well as creating a safer/healthier work environment.

Wish me luck and please cross your fingers I don't get lost somewhere in the abyss of a closet ha!

Mad dash for cash.

Since the economy started taking a nose dive I've noticed more and more incentive for using cash. Or rather businesses want your cash not your debit card not your credit card, this is because it cost them to run those darn things plus cash in hand especially for a small business just makes sense.

I first noticed this happening at the gas stations, one by one they all jumped on board the other day it was $2.31 for cash and $2.37 for pay at the pump service. I suspect other businesses have other incentives for doing this too (other than it cost money to run those cards through), see if you pay at the pump you don't go inside and buy that coffee or bag of chips they (the gas station) loses out. If you pay cash you must go inside and that increases your chances of a purchase (either planned or impulse). The gas station is one of the few places I'd rather not pay cash but I think I'm going to start doing so. See I'm kind of lazy and in a hurry when I get gas, going in and giving them a $50 bill then pumping and going back to get my change is really just a pain when I'm most likely on my way somewhere.

I read an article at The Wall Street Journal, Paying with Cash Could Soon Payoff it talked about something I wasn't aware of: There are restrictions imposed that make it difficult for some retailers to let the consumer know the fees paid to the credit card companies for credit/debit transactions. This results in cash paying customers paying higher prices so that other customers may use credit cards. The article goes on to state; "Retailers generally pay credit-card companies 1.5% to 2% of the purchase price -- more for credit cards that offer rewards or other benefits. Debit cards generally cost retailers up to 1%."

Now at first I wasn't all that miffed, until I got to the above comment. Why you ask? Well, I don't carry a credit card and I don't make purchases with one either. I do use my debit card though but only so I don't have to carry the cash, I get nothing in return for doing so and if I process as a debit (using my PIN) instead of a credit card purchase (signing for the purchase) I get a fee by my bank. Anyway, back to why I got upset this portion of the quote in the above paragraph "more for credit cards that offer rewards or other benefits." Am I really paying for the rewards someone else gets for using their credit card? Whoa boy! Nothing like getting my blood going now. Personally, I don't want to pay for that.

These are things I never thought about before, in fact I would have never read about before.

Is this a sign of things to come? I wonder, if more knowledge about this will put us back into a mostly cash only society. Where things weren't purchased on credit and debit cards were not even in existence. Certainly if you are getting rewarded for using cash (a retail discount) then unless your card is giving you a better benefit most people are going to use cash right? My mind starts going in a million directions really when I start thinking of things like this. For instance it just popped into my mind that if we go from mostly an electronic transaction society to a cash society then perhaps some of the swipe, sign and its mine troubles people get in might decline. Hmmmm... thoughts to ponder that is for sure.

Photo By: Dave Gorman

WWYD Wedensday: Retirement Investments vs. Debt

In light of most people who had significant investments for retirement losing a good portion of them this year, I thought this would be a good topic to discuss this week.

I read a short article at Comcast Finance about borrowing from your 401k or 403b to pay off debt. I once did this since it was considered a hardship and I lost the job where I was contributing to it I didn't have to pay it back. However it didn't come without steep tax penalties and I only took about something to the tune of $1200 at the time.

Currently, I have no retirement investments (yes, I know I need to). So it really isn't an option for me but it is for many out there who may have enough left after losing portions of it during the credit crisis etc...

But should you? Should you borrow against your retirement to pay off debt? Should you borrow from your future to save the present?

Personally, I say no, at least not in most situations.

What do you think? Would you borrow from your retirement if you were in hot water financially? How much is too much borrowing if you would use retirement to do so? What would be the circumstances you would borrow from retirement?

Photo By: Juan Marketing

Banking Day The New Financial Life Has Begun

In my last post, Making Uniformed Decisions When Banking, I discussed in part the old me and how I went right to that when I was excited I was approved for the bank account at a certain banking establishment. Instead of researching I just willy nilly applied at one got approved and went woohoo!! I should have researched then applied.

So I did my research and wrote my lists of pros and cons. I found only one bank in my area where banking would be convenient as well (an important factor for me as it is part of keeping me organized enough) that had a promotion $50 to start a new account. That's a pretty good promotion. None of the other banks even had those little gifts they give you but that's not really what is most important in the grand scheme of things I was soon to find out. The bank that did have the $50 for opening an account also did not have half of the features I was looking for and their fee schedule was a bit much for me, when I look at what fees I usually encounter I wanted to find a bank that had no fees or low fees for those items.

After all my research at about 5 or so different banks I came to my conclusion and guess what? It was the original bank I hastily applied at and went woohoo about. I opened two checking accounts with them and a savings account (which is also linked to both checking accounts as an overdraft protection). I think I will open another savings with ING Direct as well but I'm going to wait a bit on it.

While I still ended up in the same place I am so glad I did do the research and did it all the right way so that I could practice safe and healthy financial decisions. Part of becoming healthy financially is doing those things consistently.

Now I must really try and reach my goal of creating a budget so I know what goes into what account and work on keeping it balanced. I need to pick a day to do that weekly balancing and going over the budget that will work for me.

Picture by: Terri Zwierzynki

What I'm doing wrong... or it takes 30 days to make a habit!

There are several things I know I'm doing wrong and why I've always had financial crisis. Its not that I'm totally frivolous but that I do indeed have a limited income. Although, I do make enough money to make it and have some savings. So what am I doing wrong?

I know I get caught up in the save a little here and there theme of frugality and it does save, but it frustrates me and I quit. Mostly, what I'm doing wrong Sisterly Savings spoke about in her post today Organized Bill Paying. I know I'm not organized at all it is part of my ADD I spoke about in my initial post.

My first goal is to get organized to kick that off I'm going to organize my finances this week by creating a new budget. I have opened a new bank account that has two checking accounts. One has certain features which were appealing and the other has other features I found appealing. I am also going to open an ING Direct account and will have my savings at the credit union for my loan payment. Oye! Just posting the amount of accounts to keep track of has me in a panic. Never fear though, that is the best way for me to stay organized. Sounds backwards doesn't it? Well each account will be for something different. If I mix my bill money in with my emergency fund I WILL spend the emergency fund because I'm not organized enough to not do it. I must organize myself in a way that will be effective for me.

I already have one of the spiral books to hold bills in it that Sisterly Savings speaks about in her post, the problem is I have never actually used it. So that is on my agenda for my budget and financial organization plan. I am also going to make a plan for some of my wants and needs. I'm not ready to post about those quite yet because the plan isn't ready by a long shot.

My newest motto is it takes 30 days to make it a habit. I need to start making healthy financial habits, I have identified my biggest problem which is the organization now I must tackle the issue.

My next step will be to organize my home, in small steps. Big steps overwhelm me so small steps are the way to go a project every weekend is good even if it is just one cupboard or two eventually the kitchen will be organized in an efficient manner.

What are some of the best ways you organize?
Do you have a financial system that works for you? Feel free to share.