Wednesday’s Wisdom: Children and Money Managment

In aspiring to teach my son about money, to show him the value, and to respect his belongings, I am going to be giving him an allowance, at age four. Instead of rewards for good behavior and for doing his chores, he now gets a stipend that I choose based on whatever my budget allows. We are going to be getting an ATM Bank that will allow him to keep track of his savings. I will keep the ATM card and PIN, until he is old enough to have the information himself, as this toy is recommended for older children. By having your children save money this way, they can keep track of how much money they have at all times, and this will help them learn about spending, saving, as well as how much money it takes to buy things they want, and things they need.

What are your thoughts on ways to teach your children money management skills? How early is too early? Share them below.

Picture is credited to Amazon.com and depicts the ATM Bank toy mentioned.

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Today, we are taking a look at some tips that will help you save gas in light of the rising prices!

Skip the prolonged engine warm-ups in the winter time, and getting the car cooled down for your passengers in the summer. 30-45 seconds is good enough to warm up the engine and get going. It will avoid wasting fuel. In the summer time, get in and go. As long as you roll the windows down you are good. Using the A/C kills gas mileage!

Avoid starting and stopping the engine more than you have to. Starting your engine uses gasoline that idling the engine for one minute uses. If you’ll be waiting awhile, go ahead and shut it off, otherwise, leave her running.

Keep your car tuned up and eyes on the oil. The better your car is tuned up, the better mileage you’ll get. Several things impact your gas mileage, so you need to be sure your car is in optimum condition.

Fill up at the coolest time of the day. You are charged for volume of purchase, so it is during the coolest time of day that gasoline is densest. This means you’ll get the most for your money.

Drive the speed limit! Gas efficiency decreases the faster you drive!

For more, check out this website: http://www.howtoadvice.com/savinggas

This week, we are going to take a look at saving money, and some ways that you can go about it. We know how important it is to save money, so we’re going to skip that and go straight to some methods you can use to save money.

Keep the change. Each day, you should empty your pockets full of change into a jar. A bank account will sometimes allow you to round the purchase amount up to the nearest dollar, and transfer the rest into your savings account. You will be surprised how quickly this adds up. Occasionally, throw all your single bills in there, too.

Open a Savings account. Each month, deposit your change savings into your bank account, and/or have a set amount transfer over from checking. Never touch the savings, unless it qualifies as an expense that you need the savings for, such as a vacation, or an emergency.

Re-Evaluate your budget. Take a look at your expenses. See where you can cut them. For instance, if you spend $20 a month on movie rentals at the store, switch to an online store, spend $15. You’ll get more movies each month, and some money to save! Keep the budget the same even though you cut it. Throw the difference in savings.

Check out online programs. Programs like MyPoints, Upromise, and others will have you earning money or points on to use on gift cards or college savings. It will help your budget, and will not take much time each day. There are also coupon websites you can join to get coupons to use at the grocery store.

How do you save money? Share your thoughts below! I’m sure we can learn a lot from each other!

Today, we are going to take a look at investing in the stock market, and how you can invest one share at a time!

Take a look at this article I wrote for Demand Studios/eHow for step-by-step guidelines for buying stock one step at a time!

Before writing that, I had no idea that you could buy just one stock at a time. If you find the right firm that will not charge an arm and a leg for trades, you can definitely ease your way into the stock market.

There are specialty services that allow you to purchase one share of stock as a commemorative for birthdays, and other special occasions. This is a nice service for that purpose, but if you really want to get into the stock market, you want to look at online brokerage firms.

Are you in the stock market? What tips can you share with us?