We have friends that are light years ahead of my husband and me when it comes to financial know-how. And in sync with the previous quote, my hubby and I went to them for fiscal advice. When they recommended The Total Money Makeover, we listened. And we are glad we did.Dave Ramsey, the writer of said book, has been mentioned on this blog before. I know he will be mentioned again later. That's the type of impact his work has had on our family.
My children don't know much about money yet, but they are learning. As a matter of fact, I still have tons to learn about finances. But, in our limited knowledge,we are teaching our kids what we can. We lead them through the simple steps of handling resources responsibly.
In teaching our children, we follow the give, save, spend method. When our child's piggy bank gets fairly full, we dump it on the kitchen table. We count their change together. Then we calculate ten percent for giving, ten percent for saving, and eighty percent for spending. We place the "give" money in an envelope labeled accordingly for charitable donations. Then we seal it. Likewise, we seal up the save envelope for a trip to the bank. The remaining goes into their little wallets for our trips to the Toys-r-everywhere-store or garage sales. I know, it's not rocket science. But these are skills to be expanded on as they mature.
Take it from me: this book is worth the read. Even though you may not become a money guru because you read this book, you may feel a tad more on the savvy side.
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2 comments:
You are doing a great service for young families with your blog. I don't comment on blogs very often because of time limits but I have enjoyed reading yours. If more people would look seriously at their finances our nation wouldn't be in the shape it's in today. We haven't always been as serious about ours as we should. It's difficult not to buy for others as I would like to. Our family committed a couple of months ago to stop using credit cards. I have to say, it has been a freeing experience. If you are someone who thinks you can't do that, try it for one month. You might be surprised when it expands into two!
Credit cards are more crutch and habit than need most of the time. And they can get us into trouble very quickly.
I hope young and older readers will follow your (and Dave's)advice.
(I sure wish some of those eggs could find their way to my house at Thanksgiving!)
I have read that book as well and it has helped my husband and I even before we started a family. Now with little ones it's a life saver. We are still trying to get it right. But I can't imagine what our finances would have been had we not started on Dave's plan,when we did because we had no clue. And that book really helped us a lot.
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