Tag Archive - money

Kids and Money

August 20, 2010 in Family with 1 Comment

What’s the Right Age to Start an Allowance?

What does that look like?

When I was a kid, we had a list of chores to do, and if we got them done we would get an allowence.  When I turned 10 I got my first job — a paperboy.  My brother also had a route and between my brother, my father and I we would deliver almost 300 papers every day.  We would get up early, fold them deliver them and then find time during the weekend to collect money.  I delivered papers until I was about 17 years old  then I got a “real” job.  It was nice, I felt in general I worked less and made more money, but I was not my own “boss” anymore.  I learned a lot as a paperboy and I am glad that I did it.  I got a lot out of it, not only in material possessions but confidence when it comes to money.

My son CheeseWiz turned six earlier this year, and he finished his first year of kindergarten.  He learned so much during his year in kindergarten, and one of the things he learned about was about money.  The older he gets the more interested he is in money.  He wants it, he knows the difference between a nickle, dime, quarter and dollar.   He has a basic understanding that things cost different amounts of money and he wants to do whatever it takes to have more money.

The downside to this is that (like his father) when he gets certain things in his head he obsesses over them.

We have decided that we are not going to give him a weekly allowance but we are going to give him “extra” chores around the house to earn money.  There is always something to do around the house and after he gets his “regular” chores done then he will have an opportunity to do the “extra” ones.

This works to a point, but he always wants to do extra chores and as soon as he earns a dollar he wants to spend it.  So what is one to do?

We are teaching him the difference between giving, spending and saving which I think is important.  He gets it…..to a certain point.  I think the one thing that has changed since we have started this whole process.  He is thinking about his money, he is deciding what he wants to do with his money.

Our hope in doing this is not only to teach him about spending, saving, and giving, but to start good money habits early.  As we progress in this process we will share our successes and failures.

Fatherhood Friday at Dad Blogs

2009 is really fine

January 17, 2009 in Uncategorized with 0 Comments

I never imagined that life in ministry would ever be so busy, especially this time of the year.  I thought that after Christmas there would be a lull until Lent starts.  Boy was I wrong.

Amidst he business of ministry, family obligations, and whatever else comes up I am really excited about the prospects of the year.

First the prospects of ministry:

We have some new blood on the church council – and by new blood I mean people who have never served on the church council before.  Also there is new leadership — people who have never been in leadership on the council.  This is an exciting thing for me.  I love the ideas, I love the passion and I love the direction that we as a  church are headed.  One of my goals for the year is to establish a strong foundation.  Not only in the infrastructure of the church (getting committees to meet again, establishing strong communication between the council and the lay people, ect) but I would also like for our council to establish a strong foundation in the word of God.   It is through God that we are getting our strength and passion for ministry.

I am also about getting out into the community more and getting involved with different organizations within the community.  I recently joined the chamber of commerce and I want to be involved with that organization.

At St. Mark’s we have a Community room where we once had a nursery school program.    That stopped meeting in 2007 and now we are in conversation as to what to do with that space.  I want to see what the community need and I am excited about those possibilities.

Family:

This is going to be an exciting year for our family.  Our kids are going to be at an amazing age (5 and 2) this year.  They are the joy of my joys.  Also my wife and I are dedicated to get healthy and get fit and we are off to a good start.

We also are living in a great area where we can be active outside.  It is a little hard now because of the snow but we are excited overall.  We hope that we will find a place to live by the end of the year where we can stay in one place for a long time.

Finances are always a challenge but we are better off in that area than we ever have been and we are paying down debt and starting to get some savings.  I know by the end of the year we will have at least our credit cards paid off and we will be on the road to only really have student loan debt.  This is happening even faster with YNAB (for more information visit the link on in the sidebar).

I know there will be bumps in the road, there always are but I think this is the first time in my life when I have really looked forward to the upcoming year and I am confident that this will be a great year.

YNAB (You Need a Budget)

November 22, 2008 in Uncategorized with 0 Comments

I do not like to advertise — I do not like to tell people that they should try something unless I REALLY believe in it.  There are some things that I am very open about — for example my faith.  I love telling people about my faith, about how it has made a positive impact in my life.  I don’t mind telling people about Shaklee – the nutritional company that I have been a part of my whole life!  I know that I would be in a different place; health wise – if it was not for Shaklee.

There is something new that I have been a part of recently that I want to share.  I have included a link in my sidebar that you can click on to find out more information.  The program is called You Need a Budget.  It is a budgeting software program for Windows (the Mac version is coming – but there is an excel document for Mac users).  But it is more than just a program……there is a Methodology behind the whole system.  It has changed the way that I view money and budgeting and I know it has worked for many, many people.

The mythology is quite simple – there are “four rules” that you keep in mind when thinking about your money.  If you abide by these four rules then you will be doing well when it comes to finances.  Some of you reading this might already be doing this, but for those of us who have not been doing this it is a real eye opener.

Rule number One: Live on last months income - this is the hardest one to start with but the most important.  If you live on last month’s income then you do not have to worry about what your current month’s income will be!  For those of us who live on a variable income you never know what to budget for because you do not know what your current month’s income will be!  That is a hard way to live.  But if you live off of your lasts month’s income then you know exactly what you have to spend.  The challenging part is to get to a place where you can live like that — this is called the Buffer — and you have to save your buffer until you have that money in the bank.  There is no more timing bills – there is no more worries about having enough money in the bank, because the money is there!!  We are currently saving for our buffer and I will share in later blog posts things we are doing to get to the full buffer point.

Rule number two: Give every dollar a job — For those of you who already live on a budget you might do this — but the difference is that we now only budget the money we have in the bank.  We give those dollars a job.  In the past we have budgeted for the whole month – not knowing what is going to come up and how that is going to change.  When things did change our budget and spirits were out of whack — but now we are taking things one day at a time…..one week at a time. Sure there are things that still come up but we have a better handle on those things and it is easier to adjust when you know what your plan is.

Rule number three: Prepare for a Rainy Day -  On top of the buffer, one needs to think about the future.  With the YNAB program this is easy.  If you know that you can get a discount on your car insurance if you pay the full 6 months at once — you can stick that into your budget and YNAB will calculate that for you!  Recently we had the engine go on our car.  In YNAB we have a car replacement category and a car repair category.  If we had more than $40.00 in either category we would be okay but we are just starting…..so we were not prepared for a rainy day — but soon hope to be!

Rule number Four: Roll with the punches –  Recently we have had some problems that can only be cured by money.  Our car died, my cell phone died and the holiday’s are coming up.  Some stuff we can expect and others we can’t.  Things are not perfect — they may never be perfect– that’s why this rule is so important.  It is easy to give up and just go into things blindly.  But that will help no one and that will make things worse.

That’s YNAB in a nutshell.  I know it has helped us out and I know it will help you out.  Feel free to leave comments if you have questions.  I have to admit I am a newbie at this program but I feel like I have a good handle on the rules and what to do and how to get started.  I make frequent use of the forum for help with questions that I have.  I know that Jesse is always working on improving the program and I am excited to see how things progress.

So please click here and give it a try– you can try it for 60 days for free!!!

Things to do

November 18, 2008 in Uncategorized with 1 Comment

One of the most popular “hits” on my blog is my list of 100 things to do before I die. I am not sure if people get past that list and read other parts of my blog but it is popular.  

I thought it was a cool thing to have and my intention was to really work on it.  I wanted to really work on the things in that list and if not do them, have plans on doing them in the future.  But for the most part that list has sat idle since I posted it. 

I now have a new list…..since there are so many parts of my life – personally and professional that I would like to improve I have created a list of 13 aspects of my life that I would like to focus on.  Each item I will focus on for a month and my hope is to get it to a place where I can feel like I am maintaining that part of my life instead of trying to make a change (if change is necessary).  

I will post the list in this post and then I will create a new page and I hope that you check in from time to time to see how things are going.  I am also going to look at my list of 100 things I want to do before I die and I will update it and see if there are connections that I can make to other parts of my life. 

The List:

13 Personal things to work on

1.        Weight loss

2.       Exercise

3.       Personal Organization

4.       Family Contact

5.       Friend Contact

6.       Budget

7.       Savings

8.       Spiritual Life

9.       Work on my Novel

10.   Work on my Devotional book

11.   Play my guitar

12.   Learn more about cheese

13.   Dog Training

 

13 Professional Things to work on

1.        Youth group

2.       Sunday School

3.       Senior Ministry

4.       Inactive Members

5.       Evangelism

6.       Community out reach

7.       Worship

8.       Read Two theology books

9.       Plan Grilled Cheese event

10.   Committee Organization

11.   Visioning

12.   Visitation

13.   Future planning

What if Starbucks Marketed like a Church?

November 8, 2008 in Uncategorized with 0 Comments

I recently came across a video from Beyond Relevance.

It is an eye opening video on some levels.  It really shows the church in a different light.  It basically takes all the things that people view the church as and puts it in a different context.  At the same time I think it is hard to compare Starbucks and the church.  They are not one in the same, and they operate completely different from one another.  If we want our churches to have a consumer mindset then perhaps we can start putting in the principles of a Starbucks or a Wal-Mart. But the church is more about relationships and building up the body of Christ.  People do not come to the church in order and put money in the offering basket to “pay” for their faith, or what they received from the message (one would hope) but people are responding and giving back to God in thanks for all that God has done for them in their lives.

It is a hard thing to grasp because we are trained since birth that we are to get what we pay for.  It is hard to turn our mind around and instead of thinking in a consumer mentality — we start to think with a Christ mentality.

Regardless I really enjoyed this video- I learned from it and I encourage you to take a few minutes to watch it as well.

Relevance.