Category: Family & Relationships

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

Family & Relationships, More, Shopping

Simple Ways to Save Money on a Wedding

Maybe you (or someone close to you) got engaged over the holidays. Maybe you’ve enjoyed your engagement for awhile and are ready to set the date and start planning. Either way, a wedding is a most special day for you, your friend or a family member’s new life together. Almost always however, anyone who has ever attended a beautiful wedding party knows that after the celebrating is done they all wonder, “What the heck did they spend on this shindig?” Weddings can be very, very expensive, and it’s not uncommon to spend $20,000, $30,000, or even $40,000 today on one today, with the average exceeding $30,000! But there are ways to save money on a wedding while still making your day extra special.

Simple Ways to Save Money on a Wedding

So many weddings come later now since people are waiting longer than before to tie the knot. As a result, the wedding costs are falling on the bride and groom more often than ever. The last thing you want to do is make that most exciting, beautiful and happy day the beginning of a huge new ugly debt!Continue reading“Simple Ways to Save Money on a Wedding”

Family & Relationships

How to React When Your Adult Child Asks for Help

When you’re a parent, you don’t want to see your children suffer in any way, whether it’s from a boo-boo when they fall off their tricycle, or because they can’t pay their bills after a job loss. But as parents, we also know that we can’t protect them from everything and sometimes those bumps and bruises are needed to teach us things in life.

How to React When Your Adult Child Asks for Help

I have two adult children, a daughter in her thirties and a son in his twenties, and while I don’t hear from them as often as I’d like, my daughter recently called me. She was looking for money to pay some of her bills, and this wasn’t the first time. When your adult child asks for help, as a parent your first instinct is to protect them, but before your heart hits send on that money transfer, there are some questions your head should ask:Continue reading“How to React When Your Adult Child Asks for Help”

Family & Relationships

Divorce: Minimizing the Financial Impact

We all have the right to be happy, especially when it comes to marriage and family. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t always work out quite that way. Just because it hasn’t happened to you, don’t think that it can’t or that in some ways you may be different or immune. I personally have been through it, getting divorced in 1998 after 25 years of marriage, and I never imagined it would happen to me. I can tell you that from what I know and have experienced, that no matter whether the divorce was your idea or your spouse’s, there really are no winners in a divorce. In fact, the emotional stress as well as the financial stress can be a real wallop to each party, and can damage and impair both sides from the quick and successful recovery that each person truly seeks.

Divorce: Minimizing the Financial Impact

There are some ways to minimize those stresses, but first let me share with you what has changed about divorce recently.Continue reading“Divorce: Minimizing the Financial Impact”

Entertainment, Family & Relationships, Food

A Dozen Cheap Date Ideas

If you’re on a tight budget, or you’re trying to pay down debt or take care of some other financial goals, it can be a challenge to enjoy an active social life, particularly if you are single and looking to find a romantic partner. When most people think of a first date, dinner at a restaurant is probably the most common image that springs to mind. I remember after my divorce when I first got back into the dating game, I would take each new lady out for a nice evening meal and the costs added up quickly while the connections didn’t always last. Ouch!

A Dozen Cheap Date Ideas

There are ways to dine out affordably, but you might not want to pull your coupons out on a first date. Dating is filled with enough etiquette-related and emotional landmines without also having to worry that your date thinks you’re cheap. So how can you show a potential new love interest a good time without spending a fortune? Here are a dozen cheap date ideas that are still enjoyable, fun or romantic.Continue reading“A Dozen Cheap Date Ideas”

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

How 10 Productive Minutes Can Change Your World

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.

How 10 Productive Minutes Can Change Your World

If you try some of these ideas, I think you’ll agree that these 10 minutes could wind up being the most productive 10 minutes of the day, starting today!Continue reading“How 10 Productive Minutes Can Change Your World”

Family & Relationships, More

How to Teach Your Kids About Money

I often wonder if every family realizes the importance of teaching the kids about handling money. Money certainly is a topic that comes up every day, and when your kids reach a certain age, they should be included in the process that can teach them how it’s earned, spent, saved, and donated to help others and worthy causes.

How to Teach Your Kids About Money

Children are most likely to be receptive to this kind of education at an earlier age rather than later. Teenagers, for example, think they already know everything there is to know, have a competitive mindset when it comes to status with their peers, and certainly mom and dad can’t really teach them about much, can they? Young children are constantly absorbing and asking questions and being curious about everything. Money is no exception.Continue reading“How to Teach Your Kids About Money”

Family & Relationships, Health, More, Retirement

Why Saving Money is So Important to Me

Personal finance is about money, but more importantly, it’s personal. We each have our own financial history, motivations, values, goals, and circumstances. Today I’d like to tell you a bit about me personally, about why saving money is so important to me, and how that influences my finances as well as this blog.

Gary WeinerI grew up in Philadelphia many long years ago. While my family didn’t have a lot, I was fortunate that we had enough. Both my parents worked, and with my mother as the shopper of the house, I learned that stretching your money as far as possible was important.Continue reading“Why Saving Money is So Important to Me”

Family & Relationships

Money and Relationships: Who, When, What, Where, How and Why?

In a culture where we learn to keep our finances private, money and relationships can be a difficult subject. While money is one of the topics a couple is most likely to fight about, 42% of couples in a recent survey by Country Financial did not discuss their finances before marriage. When you begin a relationship, you get to know someone and slowly (or perhaps immediately) decide that what you have together will lead to a shared future. Part of getting to know each other should be your goals and dreams, and by extension, how you plan to get there, that is, your financial personality. Here’s more on the who, when, what, where, how and why of discussing money in a relationship:

Money and Relationships
Continue reading“Money and Relationships: Who, When, What, Where, How and Why?”