Make a difference for your children, family and friends
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Tailor your children's financial education to their intellectual learning stages to make the maximum impact.
- Sensory Motor Period (0-24 months)
- Other than keeping coins out of their mouths, stay away from any intensive financial education at this point.
- The Preoperational Period (2-7 years)
- When your child understands that a dime is worth more than a nickel, its time to start learning about money. Learning concepts here are savings, as well as spending and giving.
- Period of Concrete Operations (7-11 years)
- This is the time period when children start to think logically—in their heads. Learning concepts here are to build the habit of savings in general but, especially for things they don't know they need or want yet. How this relates to parents is that children in this age group learn to solve problems.
- Period of Formal Operations (11-15 years)
- At this time, your child starts to think abstractly and becomes concerned with the hypothetical as well as the future. Introduce here basics of cash management and getting them involved in family finances for example, putting them in charge of the weekly grocery shopping spending plan.
- Your teenager (16+)
- This is a great time to have them manage their spending money. Start a planned savings account for larger ticket items such as a car, insurance, senior high school year events, and college or trade school. They like to "think several years ahead" so make sure the resources are more sophisticated.
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Protect your family by getting your estate planning documents in order with this Personal Estate Planning Worksheet.
Organize your paperwork so your family is ready in case of serious emergency. Keep important papers or copies of them in a special file in case you need to run out the door quickly.
Talk to your parents and siblings about what their wishes are in case of illness or death and get the documents in order.
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Share tips, articles, and useful calculators with friends by forwarding articles from 'get educated' or other websites.
Idea—start with the actual free credit report instead of the fake free ones.
Make a difference for your children, family and friends
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In this economy, we are saving every penny. Date night is movie and popcorn instead of going out to dinner!
Teaching kids a disciplined approach to spending may make me the “bad guy” now when I say no………but it teaches a critical skill to the kids – the ability to say no. Far too many of us fail to remember that NO is an option.