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ARTICLES
Good Investments for Children
I have clear childhood memory - of a man coming to our school when I was only eight years old to talk about investments for children. He showed us what saving just five dollars or pounds a week could do for us from that point until we were adults. The amount of money made from interest was astounding, and had I been smart, I would have started such a program once I was earning my own money. I made the mistake of thinking I had plenty of time. Now that I am in my mid-thirties, I wish I would have thought about savings and retirement much sooner.
Investments for children came to my mind in full force when my daughter was born. One of the first things I thought was that I didn’t want to her to struggle with money as I have in the past. Though her choices will be her own, I can do my best to teach her about savings and learning that not all money should be spent right away, even when you think you have nothing to save. Just five or ten dollars each check can make a huge difference years down...
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Organize Finances With A Monthly Budget Planner
If you feel you are not as responsible with money as you should be it can be even worse when you multiply it up when you have a family. If you want to gain control of your family finances then a monthly budget planner would be a good idea.
Read any advice from personal finance experts, and every one of them would say that the most important thing to do is use a monthly budget planner to track inflows and outflows of cash. Doing this will help you identify areas where there's a bit of room to cut corners and save money. There are a bunch of free monthly budget planners available online, so I pick one, print it out and start to use it as a family.
Fill out the monthly budget planner as best you can, maybe using old receipts if necessary. Come up with average expenses for electricity, gas, water, groceries, cable, cell phone, insurance, and rent if they are billed more regularly than monthly. Check you paycheck stubs to calculate your average monthly income, and compare with your expenses. If showing a deficit identify areas you can cut back.
The beauty of using...
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