Search results for children
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Posted
Jan 17 2008, 07:04 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Filed under: college, debt, marriage, The Dough Roller, student loans, children, getting started, stocks, mutual funds, frugal, cars
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner blog The Dough Roller. The best thing about being 40 is having survived your 20s and 30s. And at 40, I'm considered an old-timer in the personal-finance blogging community. Reflecting back on the past 20 years, I realize that I've learned a thing or two that I wish (oh, how I wish) I had known when I was 20. Here they are, in no particular order: School loans are like a bad date -- easy to get, but hard to get rid of. At 40, I still have more than $20,000 in school loans. Education is important, but I spent far more money during school than I needed to spend. Compounding, like the 1970s Big Red Machine, is pure magic. Assuming you retire at 65 and earn a 10% return on your investments, $1 invested when you're 20 will be worth 2.5 times more than $1 invested when you're 30, 6.5 times more than $1 invested when you're 40, and 18 times more than $1 invested when you're 50.
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Posted
Dec 20 2007, 07:02 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Linsey Knerl at partner blog Wise Bread. Kids may think they know what they want to get for the holidays this year, but that doesn't mean they have a clue about what they need. Use this gift-giving opportunity as a chance to invest in them and help change their financial futures. Here is a rundown of some of the best money-management gifts I have used for kids under 12. The Money Savvy Kids @ Home program by Money Savvy Generation. One of the most comprehensive financial-education packages on the market, it's designed to be used as a complete curriculum on money. Home educators will find that it is very similar to a unit study, complete with parent handbook, student workbook, CD-ROM and cool piggy bank. I've tried this program and found it to be one of the most interesting. Covering the basic money principles -- save, spend, donate, invest -- reminded me of my financial goals, and I learned some quirky facts about the history of money in the process. This is a well- thought-out program with much to offer kids ages 6 to 11.
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Posted
Oct 03 2007, 11:00 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
I've got a dirty little secret: sometimes I wear a shirt twice before washing it.
Before you hold your nose and run screaming from the room, hear me out. I'm not talking about a shirt in which I've done a day's worth of hard manual labor in the hot sun. It's usually a shirt I've worn for half a day or less.
The other day, for example, I didn't dress to leave the house until close to lunchtime. Before that I was the stereotypical freelance writer sitting around in sweatpants and a T-shirt my daughter bought to celebrate entering the eighth grade. (My daughter is now 29. Freelancers really don't care what they look like.)
At 11:30 a.m. I put on a green silk shirt ($3.99, Value Village) and slacks and left for the university. My classes ended at 3:20 p.m. I was home by 3:45 p.m. The shirt went back on a hanger.
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Posted
Oct 31 2007, 10:51 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Frugal people sleep better.
That’s a recurring theme in a Smart Spending message board thread called "Why are you frugal?" Readers say it’s hard to beat the contentment of a good night’s slumber, untroubled by debt.
Some readers say they're frugal because they love finding great deals, but most have more complex reasons. They're thrifty now to meet future goals: a car, a house, a family. They've chosen to reject hyperconsumerism. They're called to careers (e.g. the arts) that are fulfilling but require careful money management. Or they simply enjoy the peace of mind that comes with having an emergency fund.
Frugality begets options. “I try to save money on things that don’t matter, so I can have choices on things that do,” wrote a reader posting as “SC CDF.”
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Posted
Aug 27 2009, 09:10 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
We've expressed alarm here about how often baby products like cribs and bassinets are recalled because they pose a deadly hazard to tiny kids. Now Toys "R" Us is offering a financial incentive to parents to trade in used cribs, bassinets, play yards, car seats and other baby items and get dangerous products out of circulation for good.
Why not call it "cash for cribs"? And it's important. Consumer advocate Kids In Danger estimates that fewer than 30% of recalled baby items are actually turned in. Combine that with the fact that people are buying secondhand items to stretch every buck, and you can imagine how many unsafe baby items are still being used.
Here's how to participate in what's officially dubbed the "Great Trade-In" -- which starts Friday, Aug. 28 -- and get a 20% discount when you buy new baby items:
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Posted
Oct 17 2008, 08:09 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Trent Hamm at partner blog The Simple Dollar.
I received a heart-wrenching e-mail from a reader I'm going to call "Peggy." Here are a few excerpts from that e-mail:
In short, we are going to have to be out of our house by Oct. 24. We're going to move in with (her brother) and his family for a while and then later try to find a place to rent.
We made bad money mistakes and we know what we did wrong. We should have never bought our house. We should have never got that mortgage. We just tried to make the best life possible for (their 8-year-old son).
So here's my problem: We haven't told (the son) about this yet. We don't know what to tell him or where to even start. This is the only home he remembers living in
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Posted
Oct 17 2007, 07:22 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from partner blog Five Cent Nickel . On the heels of my confession that we take our own treats to the movie theater instead of buying them at the snack bar, I thought I’d throw out another one: I cut my own hair. I’ve been doing it for at least 10 years. I don't have special skills in this area. I simply give myself periodic "buzz cuts" with inexpensive clippers. My current weapon of choice is a Remington Precision haircut kit I picked up at Wal-Mart for less than $20 a couple years ago. I buy new clippers every three or four years, so it costs me a grand total of about $7 a year. In return for this minor investment, I save myself the expense of 12 to 15 haircuts per year. Splitting the difference, and assuming $12 a haircut, including tax and tip, that works out to $162 per year, or $155 after factoring in the cost of the clippers. Extrapolating over a decade, this turns into a nice little chunk of change. On top of this, we buzz our kids’ hair in the summer. With four
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Posted
Apr 03 2008, 12:53 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
We have to admire anyone who can come up with a list of 90 tips about anything, let alone ways to keep kids occupied in productive ways. Debbie Dragon's list at Destroy Debt is incredibly creative and amazingly simple. In fact, we want to try some of these because they sound like so much fun. There's "target squirting." Put plastic cups on a fence post or a person's head and squirt them off with a water gun or simple plastic water bottle. She also suggests a fun game to play with water balloons. (We're in!) A lot of these ideas are great for summer when kids are out of school. There's "dirt restaurant." Send them outside with some plastic dishes. "They can make salads from leaves and flower petals, mud pies, and tree-bark chicken," Debbie writes. (Just make sure they don't eat it.)
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Posted
Jan 06 2009, 06:18 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
In what sounds like overkill, a new law may cause thrift stores to throw away huge amounts of donated children's clothing and other kids' products and stop selling them as well.
The law, passed by Congress because of so many recalls of lead-tainted toys and other kids' things, requires that children's products be tested for lead and phthalates before they can be sold. The new rules go into effect Feb. 10. The cost of testing is high, estimated in the tens of thousands of dollars.
That's not the type of money readily available to thrift stores and consignment shops -- despite their new popularity among discount-minded shoppers -- or responsible small businesses that make and sell children's products.
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Posted
Feb 12 2009, 03:18 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Nadya Suleman, already the single mother of six children, had six embryos implanted and gave birth to octuplets last month. Now the unemployed mother of 14 is using the Internet to ask people for money.
What's your opinion about this? We know you have one. (But we also expect to hear from "quotequeen," who posted at a Your Money message board at MSN Money, "Ugh, why are they giving her publicity for this?")
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