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Start saving young

Missing the mark with a cash-filled photo album

The other day my son’s karate teacher told a story about a graduation present she received from her grandmother — a photo album filled with $20 bills.

The grandmother had started saving when her granddaughter was born — adding a $20 bill each month until the 200-page photo album was filled. (It would take 17 years and 2 months to fill it and the album would contain $4,000.)

She’s not the only one who has received a gift like this — check out this woman’s story.

There’s no denying that a photo album filled with cash is an extremely thoughtful gift. There’s also a big WOW factor — who wouldn’t want to receive $4,000 in cash?

I think this gift misses the mark in three important ways, though.

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Real-life money lessons

Our homemade school lunch frugal fail

Peanut butter and jelly

During his years in elementary school, J packed his lunch almost every day. When he started middle school a few months ago, he wanted to buy; apparently the food was THE BEST EVER.

We started putting money on his lunch account but found it going really fast — and honestly it’s because we weren’t paying attention.

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Real-life money lessons

Teach your kids to give back this holiday season

Christmas tree and ornaments

The holidays are a great opportunity to teach your kids about giving back. Whether items, money or time, giving to those less fortunate not only helps them but it feels good.

Think about what’s important to your family and how you can make an impact this holiday season.

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Financial education

Money advice for kids that fits on an index card

Path to ocean

There’s a great personal finance book by Helaine Olen and Harold Pollack — The Index Card: Why Personal Finance Doesn’t Have to Be Complicated. The idea is that “everything you need to know about managing your money could fit on an index card.”

Olen and Pollack aren’t the only ones who have created an index card full of money advice. Bill from FamZoo has one — The 5 Things I Want To Teach My Kids About Money Fit on a 4×6 Index Card. I also love these slide shows from the New York Times — one and another.

Reading all of the different ideas and loving the simplicity of the project, I decided that it was time to create my own.

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Categories
Start saving young

How I streamline my son’s allowance, interest and recurring payments

It’s been a few years that I’ve been working with my son on personal finance. Like with other aspects of life, things have gotten a bit complicated.

  • He gets an allowance — a percentage goes to his FamZoo card and the rest to his savings (it sounds simple, but the latter has an extra step)
  • He earns interest on his savings
  • He’s now paying ME for recurring expenses including his cell phone and Duolingo Plus

Maybe you’ve experienced this with your own finances — you put different processes in place and over time, you can’t remember how the whole process works and are afraid to touch any one thing.

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