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Real-life money lessons

How to Give Your Middle-Schooler Additional Freedom in Making Money-Related Decisions

Last week, J and I had a conversation about what else he would like to learn about money. He’s going to middle school in the fall and I mentioned it would be a great opportunity to give him some extra responsibilities.

We talked about how additional responsibilities will actually give him more of a chance to make decisions on his own, better known as freedom. So he suggested I use the word freedom in the title because freedom sounds better than responsibility.

We brainstormed some possibilities and came up with the items below.

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Money mindset

Parents, please don’t say you’re bad at math

Awhile back I wrote about being bad with money. My argument was that no one is bad with money — if you want to learn and get better, you CAN do it.

Today I want to talk about something similar — being bad at math.

Think about this — if you believe that you don’t like or aren’t good at math, what are the chances you’ll like and be good at personal finance?

And the same with your kids. If they hear you say this or worse, they say it themselves, how likely is it that they’ll be rockstars with their money later in life? I’d say slim.

Here are three questions to consider.

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Money conversations

Letters from Mom: Financial Health is Only One Piece of the Puzzle

Today I’m starting a new series called Letters from Mom. At 10, there are only so many money lessons I can teach and that J can practice. However, there are things he’ll need to know later, and that’s what I want to focus on today.

Dear J,

I’m hoping that by the time you’re older, you’ll be very financially healthy.

The markers of financial health and success (in my opinion) are:

  • Managing your money well – what comes in and what goes out
  • Figuring out what’s important to you and spending wisely there
  • Saving, in general and for specific future needs and wants
  • Giving and being generous
  • Having what you need, being able to provide for yourself (and your family if you choose to have one) and being responsible

But financial health alone won’t give you the happy, fulfilling life I wish for you. There are several other areas that are important.

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Real-life money lessons

How to Work Money Lessons Into Your Family Vacation

Does your family take a vacation every year (or every few years)? It doesn’t have to be a big trip or far away, but something special and out of the ordinary.

Last year I participated in a round table discussion on the Stacking Benjamins podcast about family vacations. I had more to say on the topic and it’s a great time to start planning your next vacation, so let’s talk about how you can get your kids involved and work in some money lessons, too.

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Real-life money lessons

Teaching Kids How to Earn Money with a Side Hustle

10 years old is a great age to teach kids how to earn extra money — they’re still young enough to listen to you, but old enough to do some actual work. Here’s the story of J’s first side hustle — selling Christmas cookies to family and friends.

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