When most of us go to make an important purchase – a refrigerator, furniture, or a car – we shop around. We want to make sure that we don’t get taken advantage of and that we get a good value for our money. So why is it that when it comes to investments, (mutual funds, in particular) many of us have no idea what we’ve invested in and what it costs? Why would we rather haggle with a car salesman on a one-time purchase, than pay attention to our investment costs and our long-term financial Read on...
Investing Your Time Productively
“Hello I’m a procrastinator,” I may as well have introduced myself in this manner at the training session on time management. It turns out, I was in good company. Though I didn’t realize it at first, the room was filled with others who shared my dirty secret. The instructor stood at the front of the room holding up the calendar/planner and asked us to start our day – as we should every day – with a to-do list. When our pens stopped moving, he asked us to prioritize our list with A for Read on...
Teaching Your Teen Financial Strength
Teens crave independence and want to be taken seriously; and, as parents we have to find ways that they can assume more responsibility in a way they can handle. Money just may be the answer. While we make sure our kids learn reading, writing and arithmetic, there is something noticeably absent from their school education, and that is money smarts. Unfortunately, your teen may be able to go through life with little understanding of geometry but no one goes through life without having to deal Read on...
Motherhood, Money and Guilt
I had a dilemma. My husband’s birthday was fast approaching and I had no idea what to get him; the kids were just 12 months old and were too young to make something cute for him. Worse yet, he told me not to get him anything. He didn’t need anything. Seeing how I was no longer earning any money of my own, should I really run out and buy him something he didn’t want, and that he would end up paying for? Times like these made me miss my paycheck. I had adjusted to shedding my professional Read on...