Kids & Money -- May 2, 2008: The Lost Edition

As you know, this week's Kids & Money Blog Carnival has turned out to be somewhat of a fiasco -- the Blog Carnival site is down and has been down for the better part of 2 to 3 days now. I use the site to manage the submissions I get; a LOT of carnivals are managed there.

In any event, I am manually pulling everything together right now. The future is a little unclear right now as you cannot submit any posts right now to new editions. I apologize for the inconvenience.

So this edition is called "The Lost Edition." Many people's favorite show is lost (I've never watched it) and since we've lost connectivity and all the goodies that the Blog Carnival site brings with it, I think it's an appropriate title.

Without further delay, here are the best of the best.


My Pick of the Week

Ted presents Student Debt posted at CampusGrotto.

Many financial resources are available out there to students looking for College funds, yet many go unused. There are many College Scholarships that go unclaimed. All it usually takes to get this free money for College is writing a simple Scholarship Essay. This is really easy to do and can’t take more than an hour or two to complete, and just think the scholarship you’ll be getting will usually be $250-$2500. This is an option many current and future students overlook and instead, when looking for financial aid, many would rather apply for a student loan.

This is outstanding advice. Go for the free money first (grants and scholarships), then the Federal student loans, then the private student loans. It will be interesting to see how the current credit crunch will affect student loans, especially the privately-funded ones.

I wonder if students actively pursue peer-to-peer loans of the Prosper type? They could very well get lower rates than through a private lender. And has anybody thought of doing peer-to-peer lending specifically for students? Prosper, are you listening?

Raising Children

Mom presents Costs to raise a child posted at Wide Open Wallet. It's a scary proposition, spending $200,000 to raise a child. I have two (does that mean $400,000 and does it include college????). Yikes!

Mom presents Wide Open Wallet: The economics of Raditor Springs posted at Wide Open Wallet. Maybe now I'll go out and rent the movie! My wife and I have been talking for months about a "preview" of the movie before we let our 2 year old watch it.


Credit

Ray brings us Credit Cards For Students and Teens posted at Money Blue Book: Personal Finance Blog. Good resource with some really good recommendations.

Frugal Dad wrote Credit Cards Target College Students on Campus posted at Frugal Dad. The credit card companies really do have a stranglehold on college campuses. It's where I got my first (10 -- kidding) cards.

Finance Tips 101 presents The Pros And Cons Of Personal Loans posted at Finance Tips 101. Basic nuts and bolts about debt, lending, and borrowing.


Budgeting

Leaving The Folks told us about Creating a Budget posted at Real World Advice. Budgeting made simple.

Brice Hogan presents Live Within Your Means | Financialzip.com posted at Financialzip.com. Sound advice that every child should know and live by.

Mitchel Harad submitted Teaching Children About Checkbooks posted at Holy Cash Cow. I fortunately learned how to do this in high school (and haven't written many checks since), but most kids might wonder what a check book is...all they see is cash and plastic.


Earning Money

Steven Chang presents Recycling: A Fun Activity for Kids posted at Gagazine. Great idea!

Heather Allen gave us another fantastic post, entitled The Big £5 Project, posted at The DebtFree Playbook Blog. Teaching kids about money and business is one of the things our society needs to emphasize. I'd say we don't do enough, but then again, do we do any?


Investing

KCLau presents Everything you are looking for about Bursa Malaysia posted at KCLau's Money Tips. It's always good to think outside the US for investment options. The global economy being what it is, one might find it prudent to have 50 percent, or more, of a portfolio invested outside the United States.

Walter W. Fouse tells us to Avoid Large Actively Managed Mutual Funds posted at Best No Load Funds. This is inline with never leaving money on the table. If you invest in an actively-managed mutual fund and you hold it in a taxable account, you'll pay the price in terms of short-term capital gains taxes and taxes on any income distributed. The ONLY place an actively-managed fund should be is in a retirement account where distributions and sold shares don't matter.

Larry Russell shed some light on the weighting of the S&P 500 in The Financial Services Industry is Still the Largest S&P 500 Sector - Even after the Collapse of its Stock Values posted at THE SKILLED INVESTOR Blog. Time to rebalance the index? Financial services is a high percentage of many mutual funds and stock indexes. Will the mortgage meltdown have a lasting impact on this?


Saving

Eric wrote Growing Money posted at Make Money Blog. Puts the urgency of saving and investing in perspective. If every kid invested just $2,000 in an IRA at age 5, that ONE time investment would grow to $600,000, assuming a 10 percent annual return.


Education

Mark Montgomery presents College Fit: How Does the Shirt Look on Me? posted at Great College Advice. Choosing a college is one of the most important things a young adult will ever do. If you want to save money, encourage your children to attend a community college for the first two years and then transfer to a top-notch state college or university; it's really the best of both worlds. Then they can get their Master's, med school, or law degree at an elite institution (that they can pay for).


Conclusion

That's it for now. Hopefully, the Blog Carnival web site will be up before too long and you can start submitting posts again. I thoroughly enjoy all the submissions and I learn something from each and every one of them.

Please do me the courtesy and mention that your blog post was featured in my Kids & Money Blog Carnival. Give me some link love!!!

Have a great weekend. Enjoy the weather, if you can.

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