Personal Finance? ? ?

Sprat is taking personal finance this semester in school.  He brought home a list of questions for his dad and I on our experience with money.  I honestly believe I could teach a young adult personal finance class.   I think I have made all the mistakes out there with money.  I am very proud to say I learned from my mistakes and did not make the same one twice.  
One of the questions asked, if I could share one important lesson about money what would it be?   With out a doubt it would be, never sign up for a credit card.  I signed up for my first card as a freshman in college.   I was working partime and had a $2, 500 credit limit with a 29% interest rate.  What was I thinking?  That is the point, I was not thinking.   I was too young to know better and my parents had never warned me of the evils of credit cards.  I do not think they ever imagined a company would give me credit.
I think I have shared this before, when talking about credit cards,  about all of the offers the hubbs and I received in a month.   I had over $352, 000 and my hubby had over $450, 000 in credit card offers.  This would have been in 1998 when the credit card companies sent out these types of offers every day.  We did not have that kind of money nor did we need that kind of credit for anything. 
You can live without credit cards but it takes patience, planning, and delayed gratification.  These are three things the kids of today are not being taught.  They are the now generation.  They want it now and do not care how they get it.  My kids are guilty of this too, so please do not think I am pointing fingers.   This has been an ongoing lesson for both of my boys.  We talk daily about saving for that all important pair of shoes they absolutely must have or the game that they cannot live without.  If it is over and above what they NEED for school then they pay for it themselves.  Both the boys have bought their own shoes with their own money (birthday or commission) if it was something that was a want and not a need.  Yes, I am that mom.

First Speech Next Week. . .

A getting to know you speech, my first assignment.  Not sure I want anyone to know me.  Do we really want people to know us?   Yes, I post a lot of things here but I see this as more of an online journal.  Sometimes I vent, sometimes I want to share something new that I have learned, and sometimes I just write whatever is on my mind.
Back to the speech; I have to talk about an item from my past, present and future.  This is a hard one.  It is 2-3 minutes in length, if you go over or under you get points deducted.  I can get long winded so I am worried about the over 3 minutes issue.  I have had a real time trying to decide what items I will use to represent my past, present and future.  I think my kids represent my present and my husband represents my future but I am not sure about my past.  I think I am more complicated than a 3 minute speech.

Making Wagers. . .

My husband and I  have always made bets with each other on various topics.  Before we had our kids and when we were both working we would make sizable (several hundred $) wagers with each other.  
One day we were out of town and I thought I saw one of my students from my Sunday school class.  I pointed him out and of course the hubbs immediately dismissed  that it was him.  I was pretty sure it was him, so I bet my hubby a new designer pocketbook if I was right and he could get a new rod and reel of equal value to my pocketbook  if he was right. 
We happened to be at a basketball tournament when all of this happened so I had to wait till the game was over to go and see my student.  Long story short, it was my student and the hubbs was not happy. 
I usually won these bets with my hubby and yes they were silly bets but we have so much fun picking  with and teasing each other.   Sometimes we bet on who knows what.  We got into an argument about where the mini Coopers were built and who made them.  You can imagine the salesman's surprise when we pulled into the dealership to get the facts to resolve our bet.  You guessed it, I won and this time I got a mani/pedi. 
I am sharing all of these crazy stories so that I can share the latest between Sprat and I.   He was being hard headed, as teenagers do and refused to take any notebooks or pens or pencils to school on his first day.  I insisted that he would need to write things down and he needed to take a notebook and a pencil.  Naturally, being the loving mom I am, I packed a notebook, pens, and pencils in his bookbag without him knowing.  He was still insistent that he would not be writing anything down on the first day.  I do not know where they get this attitude?  Heeheehee.   He proceeded to bet me he would not be writing anything down.  He has the know it all attitude but he forgets that I DO KNOW IT ALL.  You moms know what I am talking about.  He bet me $100 that he would not write anything down.  Well, you know I could not resist this one.  I took his bet and when he came home from school last night he pulled out all of his papers that would need signing and low and behold he had written several things in his agenda and on his papers.  I did not take my child's money,  this little mishap will be worth way more than $100 later on down the road.  This little gem will stay in my mom arsenal of "do you remember when?" 
Here is to all the moms and dads fighting the good fight day and night, hang in there and know that your kids will thank you later on down the road.  It took me twenty-two years to learn and realize my parents were always right.   Love and hugs to you all.

First Day of School

Yippeee!!!!  First day of school.  I am so excited!  The hubbs and I have a tradition, that on the first day of school he takes the day off.  This way there are no distractions and we double team the kids to get them ready on time and out the door.   After the kids are gone we go out for a nice quiet breakfast, just the two of us.   There are always errands to run too, and we tackle those together.  Today we made trips to Goodwill and Sunnyside Ministries.  We also dropped by the shooting range for a little target practice.  Nothing like a little couples therapy at the range. 
The hubby and I have been doing this for several years now and we look forward to it every year.  I have been trying to take the kids pictures each year too on their first day.  Sprat hates having his picture taken so this took some effort.  I told him that some day he will have kids and they are going to ask; dad, why are you not in any of these pictures?   Or, they might ask; dad why are your eyes closed to tightly?  Here is our picture today.  Sophomore and 7 th grader, my goofy boys.

Public Speaking

Public speaking may be the death of me.   That is my on campus class this semester.  Yes, I get to give several speaches on varying subjects.  There is one other lady that may be my age, the rest are first year students and you can see their fear.  I did not take a public speaking  course when I was in college the first go around.  I think they should require a course like this in high school.  I know my Sprat would definitely benefit from it as well as most high schoolers these days.  
The one thing I have noticed about high schoolers,  is that they do not make eye contact when talking to adults.  If you have ever conducted an interview or have been interviewed you know the importance of eye contact.   I hope to pass along some of what we discuss in this class to my boys to help them along their way. 
My semester has already begun and the boys will start next week.  We are getting ready to hit full speed at our house.   My posting may be somewhat sporadic these next few weeks till we get into a routine again so please have patience.  Best of luck to all starting back to school and to the moms and dads behind those little buggers.

Kids and Collections. . .

All kids collect things; some collect baseball cards, certain toys, stuffed animals, barbies, and coins.  Big T collects knives and since the Gun and Knife show was in town this past weekend I thought we might go and see what they had.   This is a small show but there were a ton of people there.  I wanted to get there early so we could get in and get out, nice thought.  We got there a little before it was supposed to start and the line was already in the parking lot waiting to get in.  It did move fairly quickly once they opened the doors.  Big T was amazed at how many people just had guns thrown over their shoulders.   In the news last week was a story of a man shooting himself in the parking lot of a local gun show, by accident.  They were taking precautions, making sure the guns that were brought into the building were not loaded.  Once we got in the building everyone spread out and it did not seem as crowded.  There were lots of interesting items at the show.  There were the hard core preppers there with survival gear and there were a lot of guns and plenty of knives to dazzle Big T.  We went around and looked at everything before he narrowed down what he really wanted.  He found some unique knives and I even found one I liked.
My dad always carried a small pocket knife and so did my brother and sister.  I remember one Christmas they both got knives.  Dad believed everyone should carry a pocket knife, you never know when you might need one.  Big T does not carry one everywhere, he knows he cannot carry one to school.  When Big T gets older he will have quite the collection to share with his kids.  My dad enjoyed showing his collection to Big T and I.  

Commission Vs. Allowance for Kids. . .

Do you pay your kids an allowance or a commission?  Do you know the difference?  Do your kids know the difference?   This is a brief rundown of how I understand these words.  Allowance to me means; money given for just being around.  Commission, on the other hand, is money paid for doing work.  How do you want your kids to understand the money they are given each week?  Do you want them to take pride in their chores and do the work and get paid or do you just want to dole out your money to the couch potatoes that occasionally grunt hello when you come into the room?  I opt for the first one, I wanted my kids to have responsibility and chores in our house.  There are some things that they are required to do just because they are a part of our family and there are other things they get paid for.  Each chore has a dollar amount attached to it and if it is not done they do not get that money.  My hope is, this is teaching them to have a good work ethic.  My boys are 15 and 12 and this is what they are paid to do:  bring laundry down to be washed, put clean laundry away, take out the trash and recycle, stomp soda cans, and keep their rooms semi-neat.  These are the things they do just because they are a part of this family:  yard work with dad, get the mail, help with the dishes, unload groceries and anything else their dad and I can come up with that needs to be done.
I follow the Dave Ramsey plan with the boys too.  They have a give, save and spend envelope that they divide their money into each week.  I hope this is teaching them to spend responsibly and save and give to others in need.
I never had an allowance growing up, I had friends that did and maybe if I had I would have been better with money as a young adult.  My mom and dad gave me money when I needed it for clothes, movies or going out to eat but it was never attached to a specific chore.  I had things that I had to do around the house and at the barn.  I did not have money that I would call my own until I started working when I was a junior in high school.  I did not have a bank account until I started that job either.  My kids had savings accounts as soon as they were born.  I am sure I have mentioned this before but I will tell it again.  I had a big empty plastic water cooler bottle that we would put spare change in when Sprat was little.  I kept this in his room, when grandparents came to visit they had to pay to see the baby.  Ha ha ha ha ha!!!  just kidding.  Anytime they got money as a gift it went in the bottle and that in turn went to their savings accounts.  I only recently told the boys that they even had bank accounts.  The later they find out the better.  I ended up having to tell Sprat because he went to his daddy and told him I had stolen his money.  He told his dad he had X amount of money and now he had a lot less and of course I was the only suspect in this crime.   I did take his money to put in his bank account so it would not end up going to the grocery store for candy and junk.  Thank goodness my hubby was able to explain to him what I had done and I told him we had a savings account for him at our bank.