Don’t forget to give yourself a gift this holiday season.  Give yourself the gift of being a life long learner when it comes to money.  Promise to make just one new money-information-gathering move a week – starting now. 

Read the first paragraph of every story on the front page of the Wall Street Journal.  Subscribe to Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine to be sure you get ongoing, incremental and interesting money news in an easy and informative way.  Take a glimpse at online calculators such as Bankrate.com’s to input your personal money numbers to get projections and information you need.

These are doable goals.  Most of what you need to successfully determine what you’re going to do with your money starts with getting yourself in the right frame of mind for the task.

My gift to you this holiday season is the concept of “mind over money matters” – the process of identifying what you want and why, when you want it, and what it takes to achieve it.  I’ve written about this before.  It was my Thanksgiving wish for each of you.  But let me say it again.  These disciplines work in good times and in bad.    

• Before you decide what to do with your money, first know how you feel about your money.  
• Everyone – from cradle to grave – can benefit from ongoing, continuing education regarding basic money knowledge and responsibilities.
• “Mind over money matters” begins as early as the age of 3 by teaching children the difference between wants and needs – a money lesson that many adults never learned and as a consequence have made ongoing, poor money choices and suffered the consequences. 

Spread your new found wealth of knowledge – up and down the generations of your family.  Inspire the sense of accomplishment that comes when one saves money.  Instill the goal of self-reliance which is the gift each person can give him or herself through money management.

Here’s to your health and wealth.  New Year 2010.

TAGS: importance of life long learning about money, Self reliance through money management

I am the very proud grandmother of two. I’ve told you about my grandlittles before.  My granddaughter Savannah will be 3 next week.  My grandson Morgan turns 7 in December.  But more importantly, he started first grade yesterday.  The day before that, he and his Mom and I did back-to-school shopping.

The big event was to purchase the high top basketball shoes he’d had his eye on and had worked to earn money for all summer.  My daughter and her husband had told Morgan if he wanted those particular shoes then he needed to be able to help purchase them.  It was a new lesson about need versus want.  His wallet was bulging with 39 one dollar bills.  The shoes of choice cost $60. 

He led us from the parking lot into the mall and directly to the shoe store.  He knew the way.  It was a ritual of familiarity developed over the summer months whenever the family made a trip to the local mall.

The moment was here.  His foot was measured.  His toes stretched well beyond the kids’ size 12, even beyond the size 12-1/2.  A look of sheer joy and amazement crossed his face when the salesman said:  “You need a big boy’s size 1!”

He laced and relaced the shoes.  He walked in circles.  He cruised by the full length mirror.  He jumped.  He hopped.  He declared them “just right”. 

Now came the math lesson from me – Grandma GoGo. 

I explained that his hard earned $39 meant he was more than half way to being able to buy the shoes.  I went on to say that while he wanted these particular shoes he also needed new shoes for school because his foot had outgrown the ones in his closet.  I reminded him of our many conversations about the difference between needs and wants.  If he just wanted something, he’d have to go to his piggy bank to pay for it.  But if he really needed something, I’d always try to help him get it.

My final question to him as we sat together on the bench in the middle of the shoe store with the coveted high top sneakers still on his feet:  “How much of the money you’ve saved are you going to give the salesman for these shoes? He said:  “All of it, GoGo.”  It was both a statement and a question.

I told him I knew he had also been saving the money he’d earned so he could buy a new skateboard.  I told him that I’d like to help him stretch the money he had saved so that he wasn’t broke.  A short conversation then followed as I explained the new meaning of the word “broke” as it applies to money. 

Then I told him that I thought he should pay for the toe space that came with his new, big boy size 1 shoes.  “One dollar per toe, “I told him, “and I’ll pay for the rest of the shoe.”

He thought for a moment:  “You mean I give 10 of my dollars and you give 50 of your dollars, GoGo?”  I smiled, nodded my head and watched my grandson carefully and deliberately peel off his contribution and give it to the salesman.  He stood and watched me pay the rest, said “thanks, GoGo” – not once but twice, and asked if he could “break them in and wear them out of the store.”

As he led the way to our next stop which was the store that had back-to-school supplies - Morgan hopped, skipped, walked in circles and declared that his new shoes were “pretty cool” and that his toes were really happy. 

Ah yes, the price is definitely right when it brings such a sense of ownership.

Here’s to your health and wealth!

TAGS: Kids and money