Category: Family & Relationships

Learn how to talk with your loved ones about money and deal with family financial issues

Family & Relationships

Why Behaving Like a Teenager with Money Is Only Allowed When You Are Actually a Teenager!

Is it any wonder why whenever you see someone acting like a teenager you sometimes shake your head? It’s “not that there’s anything wrong with that” as Seinfeld famously said, that is as long as the actions you’re observing are actually being done by a teenager. After all, most teens have very few hardcore responsibilities and so they act like children often do, without much thought and care. That’s especially true when it comes to money and that’s fine when you’re 15, 16, or even 18. But there’s a reason why behaving that way with money is only allowed when you are actually a teenager! And so it is important to teach teenagers about money.

Teenagers and parents gathered around a laptop representing how to teach teenagers about money

When I Was a Child I Spoke as a Child…

I am not especially religious, but here I need to point out that even the Bible (1 Corinthians 13:11) talks about when being a child, we all act like them. And so by inference here we can take the leap that when you are grown up, you should begin to act like an adult. But what does that really mean?

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Family & Relationships

Financial Compatibility with Your Significant Other? Why It Matters

It matters not whether you are young, at mid-life or even older; we all seek compatibility when we choose our friends. That becomes even more magnified when it involves more than just a friendship. When you’re dating someone and wondering if they could be “the one”, how do you really know? You may be compatible in many areas, but what about financial compatibility? How do you know when (and how) to talk about money with the person you are thinking about spending the rest of your life with? Why does that really matter?

Young couple representing financial compatibility

Falling in Love Isn’t Logical

Since I have been in love and also had financial issues in my own life, I feel like this is a subject I can talk about with some authority.

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Family & Relationships, Shopping

What Dad Really Wants for Father’s Day

If I tried to write a new post for Father’s Day, I wouldn’t really be able to say it better than this one which I first published years ago. It’s how I felt then and it’s how I feel now. It may not be my best work, but it comes from the heart.

In 2016, I wrote a post about my thoughts on Father’s Day and I haven’t changed my mind yet. It really did come from my heart. I think the message in it says what every dad (and mom too) thinks and feels about a day like this. Even though the environment we live in makes us feel like honoring our dads and moms is all about buying gifts and making a big deal out of just the one single day a year, I can tell you from personal experience, that’s not what dads (and moms) really want from their kids.

Father's Day is coming on June 20th. I'll share with you the secret of what Dad really wants for his special day and you won't need to spend the big bucks.

I hope you won’t mind if I repeat my real feelings today about Father’s Day, in anticipation of this Sunday, June 20, 2021. I am republishing this old post so if you didn’t see it then, I hope you will read it now. I also hope that it says what you are feeling the same way it does for me. Here’s hoping all the “kids” of any age out there read and get the message I am conveying. Have a great Father’s Day and make it last all year long!

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Family & Relationships, More, Retirement

Why Future Shock Is So Scary and What You Can Do About It

Back in 1970, Alvin Toffler wrote a best-selling book entitled “Future Shock”. The book is about our present. But that present was based in a world of 1970 and the author’s theories on what our future would be like.

Future shock is what happens when we're overwhelmed by change. That can be scary, but there is something you can do about it...plan ahead!

Future shock is about what happens to those who are overwhelmed by change. Change affects our products, communities, organizations, and even our patterns of friendship and love. Fifty plus years later, we are still experiencing future shock and we are no better off at dealing with it today, so long after Tolliver first coined that phrase. That’s because our future is very scary. It always has been, and it always will be. But why is that?

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Debt, Family & Relationships

Will Relationship Debt Destroy You as a Couple?

I was just discussing with my wife how these days we have planning resources for just about everything in life. We have health plans, retirement plans, wedding planners, and estate planning. You can plan a vacation with experts and plan where to go to college with sage advice when you need it. But despite the fact that we have marriage counseling and credit counseling available, they always come after the problems arise. And for unmarried couples, well, it may not even exist. “Couple planning” is left to the couples themselves and it can be a huge task to get it right. If there’s relationship debt, it gets even more complicated.

Relationship debt puts a serious strain on married and cohabiting couples. Here's how couples can plan to avoid big debt.

Debt can quickly and easily become a source of contention between a couple. That’s why it’s important to deal with relationship debt proactively, before it becomes a destructive force.

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Credit, Family & Relationships, Food, Home, More, Personal Finance

How 10 Productive Minutes Can Change Your World

Please note this post contains affiliate links which help to fund this blog at no cost to you. Thanks for your support!

Sometimes you need to just stop your work and take a deep breath. Like when you have a problem that’s pretty serious. It could be a job problem or it could be a family problem. It could be a money problem or a health problem, or any combination of these that are causing you to just stress out and feel like nothing is going right. That’s why taking a deep breath and taking even just a few minutes out can really help boost your productivity. How about taking ten minutes?

Ten minutes isn't much time, but by spending them wisely, you can leverage them into a more productive day. Try some of these ideas to jumpstart your life.

Ten minutes isn’t really a very long time. It’s less time than it takes to play a quarter in a pro football game. You can listen to 2½ songs on the radio in 10 minutes. It’s even less time than it takes you to read your daily e-mails. In other words, it’s just a few minutes, but oh how great it is to have such an opportunity to increase your productivity, save money, build relationships, and move forward in that brief time period. And most importantly, feel better!

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Family & Relationships, Personal Finance

Estate Planning: Planning Now Can Go a Long Way

Please note this post contains affiliate links which help to fund this blog at no cost to you. Thanks for your support!

2020 might go down in history as the year of canceled and changed plans, but it is over and 2021 is here. We are all hoping that the new year will resemble normalcy soon. Kicking off 2021 with a few simple money management plans is a great way to start that and turn over a new leaf. Now is the time to get organized, so first up, let’s focus on a few easy estate planning strategies.

While many of us put it off, estate planning is a critical component of your personal finances. Here's how to get started.

What Is an Estate?

In the simplest terms, an estate is everything you own—money and assets, including your home and your car—at the time of your death. When you decide—in advance and in writing—who will get your assets and money, that’s estate planning.

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Family & Relationships, Income & Career

Parenting Dilemma: Work and Childcare or Stay at Home

One of the biggest issues facing families right now (and we have a laundry list of issues, don’t we?) is the question they face about work and childcare. Even under normal conditions not involving a pandemic and whether or not your kids have a school they can actually get up and go to each day, the decision to be a stay-at-home parent or to find work and supplement your family income isn’t an easy one to make. But right now, the stay at home or daycare decision is a real dilemma!

Making the parenting decision between work and childcare or staying at home isn't easy. Here's a look at the financial side.

Who Watches Your Child If They Can’t Go to a School?

If you have a choice, what choice will you make? For the moment, your choices may be very limited. Do you have a job to return to or you can find? Is your child’s school offering on-site instruction or virtual classrooms? For how long will your life decisions remain in effect because of the pandemic?

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