Kids and Money -- October 1, 2008

Welcome to the October 1, 2008 edition of Kids and Money. This is a short one, but it's filled with thought-provoking posts.

Jason presents I Was Wrong: Scrapping the Child Chore Chart for a New Allowance System posted at The Frugal Dad.
This seems to elaborate for me, but Jason has undoubtedly thought this through and has come up with a great plan.

Initially, they will be paid each week on Saturday (chore day) because I want the reward of receiving payment to happen soon after the bulk of the work is performed.  As they get older, we will likely increase this to a biweekly payment plan, and then possible monthly, as they improve their budgeting skills.

What a great idea! Positive reinforcement of ANY desired behavior is the best way to instill the value of the behavior! I also like Jason's attempt at mimicking how the "real world" works. Bravo!!

Our kids being between the ages of 1 and 3, my wife and I have yet to put together a plan. But we're clearly in need to do something, since our 3 year old is always saying, "I wish I could buy a [blank] like that!"

Ugh.

Livingalmostlarge presents More money, More kids? posted at LivingAlmostLarge, saying, "Is money the deciding factor in the number of children you have?"
I'm in this boat!

It got me thinking is that how people really decide how many children they have?  They put a price tag on it and say they cannot afford more children because of cost?  But then I heard from others the exact opposite.  That children are only as expensive as you make them.

We have two boys, 1 and 3 years old. We want another (child, not necessarily boy, but that would save us some money!). I'll have to find a way to make a lot more money because for us, 2 is right at the tipping point, financially. If my wife goes to back to work, daycare skyrockets.

Silicon Valley Blogger presents Water Fun Activities To Cool You Off This Summer posted at The Digerati Life, saying, "Squeezing the last bit of fun out of summer."
Great ideas! We live in the land of the sun (often times over 100, most of the summer in the 90s) and we burn/melt...we went to the community pool quite a bit this summer.

KCLau presents Credit Counseling and Debt Management Agency: FREE Financial Education for Malaysian posted at KCLau's Money Tips, saying, "A success story one how one avoided bankruptcy as well as features of AKPK and how u can benefit from the agency."


Joe Manausa presents Bailing Out The Banks? Actually Bailing Out America! posted at Tallahassee Real Estate Blog, saying, "While mainstream media refers to this as the "fat cat" bailout for Wall Street, you might be surprised who really needs this bailout to occur. What would happen to your job if the credit market stopped for even 1 week?"
This market mess and devaluation of real estate and all securities related to it was made by the same type of folks who ran Enron, it would seem! Off balance sheet, backroom deals, and ignoring generally accepted accounting practices...all led to our economy's demise. The question we face now is, What do we do about it?

Michael. presents Consumer Debt Worst Offenders: Banks, Advertisers, and Advisors posted at Michael Emilio, saying, "This is a blog post about how our culture is a consumer-based culture - focused on spend, spend, spend. Unfortunately, our kids feel this impact through the barrage of commercials encouraging them to buy more and more."
Debt is clearly the scourge on our economy. Individually and collectively, we are on the hook for trillions. It will NEVER be paid back. However, we can whittle away at it and make it a smaller percentage of our "income" (GDP or individual income).

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Money isn't everything. It's the only thing. Wait. That's only for football.

Enjoy life. Spend time with your family.