Archive for July 2008

SERIES Teaching My Daughter About Money: Give, Save, Spend

Ever since Jenn and I had our I Have Had Enough Moment with living paycheck-to-paycheck and B-R-O-K-E and living the three-time-loser-with-credit-cards life, we have made it a huge priority to teach our daughter about money management.  It became a HUGE priority when we realized that she has inherited my "spender" genes!

In this series, I will be sharing some practical ways that we are teaching her about sound money management.

Part Two – Give, Save, Spend

Jenn and I purchased Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace Jr. kit back in 2004, and it has been a mainstay on our refrigerator ever since.  I really like the three main categories that he focuses on in the kit – GIVE, SAVE, SPEND.

Every time that Melea receives money, we have taught her to divide the money into the three categories.  She has to put twenty-percent into the GIVE envelope, at least twenty-percent into the SAVE envelope, and the rest goes into the SPEND envelope.

Since this has been the standard procedure since she was very young, it is part of her DNA to think this way now every time that she receives money.  She KNOWS that it must be divided between the three categories.  You want to feel proud?  Watch your child automatically take birthday money and separate it into the three categories and see that the GIVE and SAVE categories exceed the SPEND category.

Thanks, Dave Ramsey, for offering such a simple, yet fantastic product! 

Here are the lessons I think are being learned or reinforced:

  • GIVE and SAVE take priority over SPEND.  So basic.  So subtle.  But this is HUGE when it comes to ensuring that our plans/hopes/dreams are fulfilled.
  • Giving fills the heart.  Saving fills the bank account.  We talk through the giving decisions. She knows exactly what she is saving for.

Read the entire series 

Part One – Twenty Dollars

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SERIES Teaching My Daughter About Money: Twenty Dollars

Ever since Jenn and I had our I Have Had Enough Moment with living paycheck-to-paycheck and B-R-O-K-E and living the three-time-loser-with-credit-cards life, we have made it a huge priority to teach our daughter about money management.  It became a HUGE priority when we realized that she has inherited my "spender" genes!

In this series, I will be sharing some practical ways that we are teaching her about sound money management.

Part One – Twenty Dollars

We recently embarked on the largest and longest vacation of our lives.  We traveled from South Carolina all of the way to far western South Dakota via car.  The trip consisted of a week at a fishing cabin in northern Minnesota and a week hitting all of the tourist destinations of South Dakota.

As with any type of vacation, we knew that we would be encountering the tourist traps just waiting to take money from our pockets and put it into their pockets.  This has been a source of frustration in the past because our daughter would see something she just had to have and begin a full-tilt marketing campaign to obtain it.  It starts with asking mom.  When referred by her mother to speak to dad, she spins the statement by saying, "Mom said I can get it if you say it is OK."  This spin is done to make me clearly understand that I am the bad guy if I say NO and that I am the only barrier to achieving the acquisition of said trinket/junk/trash/souvenir. 

Well, I came up with the PERFECT solution for the problem.  Jenn and I gave our daughter twenty dollars at the start of the vacation with the following rules.

  1. When it is gone, there will be no more.
  2. You can spend it however you want.
  3. We will not question your purchase, but we will answer any questions you have.
  4. You can save the money if you want.

The result?  Stress-free walks through the tourist traps.  On several occasions, I even saw her pick up an item to purchase it and then put it back down.  One time she had picked up the bag to fill up with painted rocks (painted rocks! what an idea!) and she put it down, announcing, "They are really pretty, but they would just sit around at home."

Did she save any money to bring home?  Nope.  She is a spender through and through, BUT she followed the rules and it prevented a lot of frustration. 

Here are the lessons I think are being learned or reinforced:

  • Money is limited.  If you spend it all now, there will be nothing left in the future.
  • Cash limits impulsive spending.  For spending categories that are susceptible to impulsive purchases, it is very helpful to plan ahead and take cash.  You can not overspend cash.
  • Opportunity cost.  If you buy a particular item, what was the next best thing that money could have purchased.
  • She is a spender.  It is very helpful to recognize your own spending behavior.  My wife is a super-duper-saver.  She saves money.  She hates to spend money.  I am a HUGE spender.  Check that.  I am a reformed-spender.

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Supplementing My Budget With A Garden

I have written before about how I am crazy about gardening.

I just love the fact that I can plant a little seed and then see it sprout, grow, and produce tremendous fruits, vegetables, flowers, and foliage.

It is AWESOME!

Over the past month, the garden has produced the following vegetables:

  • Dozens of zucchini
  • DOZENS of cucumbers
  • Strawberries
  • Several yellow squash
  • A hundred ears of sweet corn
  • DOZENS of yellow pear cherry tomatoes
  • Several Better Boy tomatoes
  • Dozens of bell peppers
  • Dozens of jalapeno peppers
  • Onions
  • Snow peas

And shortly it will produce about a dozen watermelons and at least four canteloupes!  In the fall, I will get to harvest sweet potatoes, peanuts, pumpkins, and butternut squash.

The herb garden has cilantro, basil, chives, and bee balm.

The flower garden has day lillies, surprise lillies, sunflowers, zinnias, gladiolas, purple coneflowers, cleome, aster, marigolds, shasta daisies, sweet william, snapdragons, celosia, coleus, alyssum, coral bells, liatris, and chinese lanterns.

I tried this year to grow luffa sponges again.  I tried them two years in a row in northern Indiana and all they did was vine all over the place.  This year, in the hot south, I decided to try them again.  And they have been vining all over the place AND blooming.  Today I discovered that it has actually set a large luffa sponge gourd!  I am so thankful because now I know that I will be able to have soft and smooth skin all winter long.  Smile

I have attached a few pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Sunflower (over 10 feet tall!)

Watermelon (just under twenty pounds at the moment!)

Luffa Gourd!

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Marching To Debt Freedom – Couple #3 – Month 07

Introduction

This couple has been married for many years and have one child.   They have HAD IT with their debt and have been marching toward debt freedom since November 2007.  They are THROUGH with credit cards.

What went well this month?

The 401(k) loan payment won't be taken out of the paycheck until July 1, so we were able to increase our payment to $200 on National City this month! YEAH!! We are hoping once the loan payment comes out we can continue doing this…….  It is nice to see some balances coming down…..

What were the challenges/struggles this month?

We are just trying to stay on track and see the big picture at the end…BECOMING DEBT FREE!!! The cost of gas and groceries going up is impacting our budget some…but we are shifting things around so that INCOME – OUTGO = EXACTLY ZERO……we couldn't live without the budget sheet!!! It helps us out TREMENDOUSLY!!!!!

Updated Debt Freedom Date …

Month By Month Progress …

Have you taught any of your friends/family this stuff?  If you have, how did it go?

My husband has shared this with several co-workers who were excited about it….he gave them the website JoeSangl.com so that they could learn more about it.

Sangl Says …

Couple #3 is in position to make dramatic debt reduction.  Will it happen?  Let us watch and see!

Readers …

If you have debt, what steps do you need to take to position yourself to make dramatic improvements to your debt situation?  What will it take to make you take those steps?

Read previous Debt Freedom March updates HERE.

HOME GROUP STUDY: I Was Broke. Now I’m Not.

I am FIRED UP to say that the home group study based on my book, I Was Broke. Now I'm Not., is in its final stages.  It will be released by the first week of August!

This study has been written specifically for Church Home Groups, Small Groups, and Sunday school classes.

To help launch this study, I have come up with some special deals that can help you get your materials cheaper.

You can learn more and purchase your copies HERE.  All items will ship no later than August 7, 2008.

It is my passion to see people accomplish far more than they ever thought possible with their personal finances.

When people are financially free, they are much more likely to go do EXACTLY what they have been put on this earth to do!  THAT, my friends, is what this is all about. 

I AM FIRED UP!