Posts Tagged ‘financial plan’

[Family Finance] How to Teach your 3 yr Old Son/Daughter to Save Money

Tuesday, April 21st, 2009

It is time for another family finance guides, guys :) If there’s a new family member in your house, you can bet that in his/her three year’s anniversary your beloved son/daughter will gather quite a few dollar bills from other family members or relatives for events like anniversary or Christmas.

Some of us chose to allow our kids to spend the money immediately for some low-cost toys/food such as hot wheels or something. It’s a simple lesson we teach to our son that money is something that can be exchange for goods and services.

Although I do agree with that statement, I prefer to teach my son/daughter on how to save some of them. Why? Because he once asked for a more expensive toy and if he keeps spending the money the way he is now, he won’t be able to buy the toy with his own money…

Here’s an easy example: You take your son (with 2 dollars with him) to the store, and instead of wanting a 2 dollar toy, he prefer the $7.99 toy.

So here’s how I will deal with it:

I will tell him: “the toy costs eight dollars. You only have two dollars. You don’t have enough dollars to buy that toy.” We will work through the counting using our fingers so that he understood that he needed six more dollars.

That won’t shake his interest in the toy, however. I bet that he still wants it.

Then explain to your child that if he/she doesn’t spend the dollars he has today, we can take them home and then we wait for another 6 dollars and then we buy the toy. It will take some more explanations, but do not give up yet :)

In your home, prepare a jar lid to store your beloved son/daughter’s money. Transparent jar lid would be better :) Hopefully, your son has been able to add some money to the jar – he can clearly see his savings as it builds up. He knows what it’s for and he’s excited to contribute to it whenever he can.

To put it simply, saving money has now become relevant and exciting for him. It’s very tangible – he can see his savings grow. He also has a goal that’s small enough that it seems reachable – he only needs to save up to $8, after all.

So what’s next? The near future points us to our child’s next lesson: how do you earn money? That will be a whole new adventure.

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How to Prepare and Build Big, Healthy Emergency Fund [Finance Secrets]

Saturday, April 4th, 2009

Some of us are might having difficulties in starting to build emergency fund. Sometimes when we want to have an emergency fund, we tend to spend the money on something else. But when something happens, we regret that we don’t prepare and build an emergency fund.

There are plans from some financial advisors like Suzie Orman, who have the 8-months emergency fund. It is achievable (difficult but achievable as long as you are focused on it), but at the same time it’s kind of intimidating for some people.

It seems that, in this economy, a lot of people are thinking seriously about their emergency funds. Frankly, I think that’s a very good thing – emergency funds are a key part of a healthy personal finance situation. The biggest problem, though, is that it’s intimidating – eight months? That’s a lot of savings.

But hey, it’s not that hard… So here’s the guide on how to prepare and build a big and healthy emergency fund:

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