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Posted
Sep 28 2009, 04:42 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
The first car owned by Paul Van Lierop, the FiscalGeek, was a 1977 AMC Gremlin, presented to him for his 16th birthday. The year was 1989. If cars are a personal statement, it was a disaster.
"'Wayne's World' had not come out," Paul wrote. "AMC Gremlins, Pacers or Hornets were definitely not cool. I was actually laughed at by scores of kids the day I drove it into the parking lot of our high school."
Why would he now insist that his own kids' first cars will be equally used and unhip? He listed seven good reasons in a post called "Why my kids will drive a piece of crap." It's a fun read and also prompted many readers to reminisce about their first vehicles.
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Posted
Sep 11 2009, 07:13 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner blog The Dough Roller.
I can still remember my first ATM card. I was a teenager in high school when ATM and debit cards first arrived on the scene. I had a passbook savings account with our local bank, and they issued a debit card that I could use to make deposits and withdrawals to and from my account.
Taking money out of my account when the bank was closed was nothing short of amazing. But my ATM card of the 1980s was a lot different from debit and prepaid cards for teens today.
The most important difference was that it was not part of the Visa or MasterCard debit network. When ATM cards first came out, they could be used only at a bank automatic teller machine. I couldn't use the card at a store. And of course there was no Internet, so we couldn't check our account online, either. On top of that, the debit card didn't work with all ATM machines. You had to make sure that the ATM was on the same network as your bank, or the card wouldn't work.
With the advent of the Internet and the Visa and MasterCard debit networks, a whole new generation of financial products was born. And recently, companies have begun using those tools to market debit and prepaid cards and other financial products to teens.
Let's look at a few of those new financial products (some recently reviewed by Smart Money), and then I'd like to hear your view on these products.
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Posted
Apr 13 2009, 11:07 AM
by
Joan Melcher
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Wow. Free bowling for kids. All summer long. Two games a day. Could this be one of those too-good-to-be-true deals?
We checked into Kids Bowl Free and found the offer to be almost as good as it sounds, although there likely is money involved.
Many parents will either need to accompany their young children or want to bowl with their kids. But even then, if you have a penchant for rolling a heavy orb down a wood surface at 10 objects shaped like old milk bottles, you can get a family pass for $23.95 that allows two free games per person a day for up to four adult family members.
So, the whole family can bowl throughout the summer for a total of $23.95.
The real catch: You have to live in a town or area with one of the roughly 300 participating bowling centers. But there’s even wiggle room there.
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Posted
Mar 26 2009, 01:44 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Hey, kids: Did you know that cash is no longer cool?
That's what Discover would have them believe as it markets the new Discover Current card to teenagers. In our way of thinking, this is almost like those cigarette ads the tobacco companies said weren't aimed at creating the next generation of smokers.
Jason at Frugal Dad is not amused either. In a recent post, he said: "Thanks to years of Visa and MasterCard (and Discover) pushing their products down to our youth, and our youth watching their parents use and abuse the same products, kids know exactly what to do with plastic these days -- swipe it!"
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Posted
Feb 05 2009, 08:11 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Tisha Tolar at partner blog Wise Bread.
The economy is hurting all of us -- especially families trying to raise and educate their kids. Unfortunately, things have become so tight that there is often little left to do but complain. Even worse, a lot of struggling parents still cater to offspring who are now of an age that they should no longer expect their parents to buy everything for them and instead take an interest in earning their own money.
Who doesn't have a grandpa who can regale you with tales of his early earnings of a few pennies an hour that went to support his entire family? Well, these days, most kids who are working are doing it only to feed their shoe, clothing, video game or dating habits. How many actually contribute to the welfare of the family?
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Posted
Jan 16 2009, 05:35 AM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Trent Hamm at partner blog The Simple Dollar.
The routine is familiar to many parents: You have an out-of-town school or extracurricular function, whether it be a sporting event or a club meeting, and after the event your child is hungry, so you solve the problem by stopping at the nearest restaurant and buying some quick (and fairly pricey) convenience food. Quite often, you'll indulge too.
Over the course of a season, this pattern can become very expensive. Looking back at my own school days, I can remember when I would have an out-of-town match every week for three months, and some weekend tournaments as well. This really added up.
Luckily, my parents found several good ways to cope with this, and listening to the wisdom of some of my frugal friends has taught me a few more tactics to use for these situations. Here are 10 tactics that can help you get through these costs without creating a crisis.
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Posted
Dec 26 2008, 09:45 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
The No. 1 topic of conversation between affluent mothers and their daughters isn't sex, alcohol, drugs or marriage. They're talking about personal finance. These mothers believe they'd be much better off today if they'd learned about handling money when they were young. The findings are part of a study done for Women & Co., a part of Citigroup, reports Crystal at Brunette on a Budget. "According to the study, 94% of women today are talking to their daughters about money, compared with 52% who discussed money with their own mothers," Crystal said in a post called "Achieve your financial goals."
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Posted
Oct 31 2008, 08:42 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Like blogger Neimanmarxist, we were amazed at a recent statistic in The New York Times: Annual discretionary spending by teens has fallen to $2,600, a recent survey shows. That's 27% below the all-time high of $3,560 reported in the spring of 2006. "Really?" the 20-something blogger wrote in a post at The Reductionist. "Teenagers get that much money? I didn't."
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Posted
Oct 21 2008, 10:14 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
With so many people struggling to pay off credit card debt, perhaps a stay at the Bad Credit Hotel is in order.  It's not a lovely place. The virtual hotel is the site of an online game created by the U.S. Treasury and the Advertising Council to teach college-age people about responsible credit card use and the potential consequences of misuse -- including bankruptcy and debt collection. That age group is deemed in dire need of financial education, and apparently it's not alone. Actually, "game" may be too strong a word, according to reviewers who commented at CreditCards.com. While the site got high marks for content and graphics, the subhead of the post clues us to their overall impression: "Game falls short on 'wow' factor, reviewers say." We enjoyed it. We think the dour front-desk clerk/narrator alone was worth the visit. Here's how you play.
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Posted
Oct 21 2008, 04:35 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner blog Blueprint for Financial Prosperity. When I first started driving, I was amazed at how much car insurance costs. I, like many other newly minted drivers, was put on my parents' car insurance policy -- which I'm sure made my parents nervous -- and didn't really feel the full brunt of new-driver rates. However, when I left the nest and had to insure myself, I started hoping that 25 would come sooner because everyone said car insurance rates drop significantly after you turn 25. (I spent all my under-21 years waiting to be 21, then my under-25 years waiting to be 25. Now I'm waiting for retirement. The waiting never ends.) I've had the opportunity to test the rates-drop-at-25 myth and other car insurance myths, and here's what I've found:
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