How different is your children’s upbringing from your own? I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately as I have two boys, ages 18 and 15, that are experiencing a much different financial-oriented childhood than I did. Most notably, they are growing up with much more affluence around them, both within...
Affluent children have tremendous advantages, but often lack basic, life skills that many of their non-affluent peers acquire early in life. That’s because when resources are scarce, you’re forced to make tough choices, work harder, manage uncertainty, juggle, and deal with consequences. When life is more comfortable, there isn’t as...
For teenagers, being the queen (or king) bee at school sounds like the path to success, but there is a downside risk that needs to be managed with conscientious parenting. While we might think that being well-liked and followed by peers can be only a good thing for our kids,...
It is our nature to read into the passing of famous people, to look for lessons and parallels to our own lives, however small, because we feel like we know them on some level even if we don’t. If there is one universal sentiment we can all legitimately relate to, it’s...
Before Warren Buffett became the Oracle of Omaha, he delivered newspapers. Oprah Winfrey worked at a grocery store; Colin Powell, a furniture store. The author Stephen King worked as a janitor. George Clooney sold shoes. The lowly summer job is part of the biography of many successful people: proof they started...
Guest blog post by Sarah Hopper of Sound Philanthropy. You may have heard reference to the recently released study “More is More or More is Less” that shows that kids whose parents give them money to pay for college get worse grades. Personally, I just couldn’t wrap my head around this...
Guest Blog provided by Richard Beaton & Linda Wagener of Marigold Associates. Over the past several weeks, we discussed the value of using deliberate training strategies such as allowances and budget management to teach children financial skills. In this segment we’re going to tackle the problem of how to form our...
This is the second post in the series on Kids & Money from our friends at Marigold Associates. Enjoy! Kids typically don’t pick up basic life skills through osmosis. They have to be taught how to clean a bathroom, check the oil in their car, and manage their money. Often what...
I am excited to have Richard Beaton and Linda Wagener, founders of Marigold Associates, provide a series of guest posts related to the topic of kids and money. Will your children be positively or negatively affected by the financial wealth you share with them? In thirty years of working with families...
Many life changes create great stress--the birth of a baby, adoption, career change, buying a house, relocation, retirement, bankruptcy, illness, financial windfall, last child leaving home. Some are positive and welcomed; some we all prefer to avoid. But of all the changes that can come in our lives, only the death...