Monday, June 11, 2007

Somebody's Got A Case Of The "Mondays" - Great Monday Posts, That Is

Finance Psychology has a great post about parental responsibility (which we talked about here). You can check out their post, Parents Gone Wild - Stop and Set Some Limits, here.

And The Simple Dollar has a post titled What Aspects of Personal Finance Bring You Happiness?. Just reading about his happiness about taking control of his fiances brought my mood up considerably. You can read it here.

Wise Bread has a nice collection of horror stories in their post Our Worst Financial Mistakes and What You Could Learn From Them. Turn off the lights and lean in close to your screen - this is better than Stephen King. Click here if you dare.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Dear Basil,
Thank you for the comments (and link) over to my post. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

While I can always find people who make bigger mistakes than I...I have to admit that I definitely fall victim to the first three mistakes mentioned in that article. I don't think of myself as leading an outrageously luxurious life. We aren't sending our kids to private school or paying for elaborate parties. Still, I think about the day when we can build an extra bedroom or how it would be nice if our kid could take horseback riding lessons with one of her friends. I think ignoring my retirement hasn't been quite so bad since I have a good 401K but I haven't been actively managing this the way I should. Making baby steps. Regarding talking about money. This can be done in very simple illustrative ways that teach and empower kids about money. For instance we hardly ever eat out but when we do I always make a point to tell our kids how I'm paying and where the money comes from. I then tell them that everyone in the restaurant is paying and that everyone there has made a choice to spend some of their money being there. One thing I think is good to avoid is the phrase "We don't have the money to do x, y or z." That idea can make kids feel anxious. Instead I prefer to talk about our choices and how our family chooses to use money. I think it's more honest and empowering.