How Can We Love Our Children More?
By Brad Chaffee | October 1, 2008
That’s How!
Our Children Really Are The Future
If you have children I can not think of anything as important as teaching them how to manage money at a very early age. Think about it for a second. If you would have learned about money at a young age you could have avoided so many of the financial pitfalls that most of us deal with. I know I would have loved to learn this stuff early on. It would have kept me from paying extensive amounts of “Stupid Tax”, as Dave Ramsey calls it. Stupid Tax is money that we pay because we do something stupid with our money. For example, when you buy a car right off the showroom floor, the stupid tax is the money that you lose because of the car depreciating quickly. One way to avoid Stupid Tax in this situation is to NOT buy a brand new car. Instead by a used car and let the person before you pay the Stupid Tax.
With all of the myths that are spread in our ever growing “spend more than you make” society, it is important to debunk these myths before they become engraved in your child’s mind. As always, Dave Ramsey has developed a very good system to help you do just this. This system is called Financial Peace Jr., and is intended for children ages 3-12.
We Should Set Them Up For Success, Not Failure.
By simply investing a little bit of time preparing our kids for financial responsibility we can save them years of struggle. We all know that living paycheck to paycheck is NO FUN! For just $20 we can change the way our family tree branches out, and ensure that even our children’s children have the tools needed to win and prosper. By now we know that the schools do not even come close to teaching our children about how to manage money, so do not leave it up to them. The effort will be well worth it in the end. We have already purchased Financial Peace Jr. for our son and he is only 2 years old. We have even started to incorporate giving him money to put in his piggy bank when he cleans up his toys. He has even used a little bit of his savings to buy his Grandma a birthday present. He bought her a $3 picture cube, with HIS money. Does he fully understand how all of this works? Of course not, but he will. You should consider buying Financial Peace Jr. today and spreading the love early on.
Financial Peace Jr. includes:
- Commission Worksheet (Dry-Erase Board) – Keep a record of all of the jobs your child has done and how much money he or she earned each week.
- Saving to Buy with Cash (Dry-Erase Board) –Your child can choose one item to buy with cash, and when he or she has saved enough to reach the goal they can purchase the item.
- Envelope System (Save, Spend, Give) – Placed the money earned each week in the envelopes so your child knows exactly where his or her money is.
- Clip and Carry Coin Case – Helps your child keep track of his or her spending money and helps you to monitor your child’s spending.
- Instruction Manual – A guide for effectively using the kit to teach your children.
- Instructional Audio Cassette – Provides additional instructions for you and your child.
If you know who Dave Ramsey is, then you know that he is pretty comprehensive in his approach. For adults he has developed a 13 week video based series to tackle everything from saving, budgeting, and buying to insurance, career choices, and giving. Additionally, he has also created a website for kids that has interactive books, fun games and puzzles for kids to use. Junior’s Clubhouse is an awesome way for you to let your kids learn and have fun at the same time. Learning about how to manage money doesn’t have to be boring, and Dave Ramsey proves it.
Some facts from daveramsey.com:
“According to Opinion Research Corp. 95 percent of pre-teens and 91 percent of teens get money from their parents or relatives to spend as they please but only 20 percent of these teens say they save the money as they receive it. With more than 47 percent of children having a television in their room (The Annenberg Public Policy Center), children are being targeted by advertising more than in the past.”
“The sooner kids start learning how to save and manage their money the better off they will be in life. Financial Peace Jr. does a great job of teaching kids the basic principles of saving money. It is so important that children learn the basics especially in today’s world where emphasis is on spending not saving,” said Matt Woodburn, vice-president of Dave Ramsey’s company. “This kit also allows parents to spend quality time with their children while teaching them about money.”
Love your children by preparing them with great financial management skills. Good luck!
**If anyone has actually used Financial Peace Jr. with their children and would like to share their experience, please do. Got tips and advice? Share your knowledge in the comments section.**
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Topics: Kids & Money | No Comments »
Going Green For The Green Stuff
By Chuck | September 30, 2008
Going green can save you money.
Saving money will help you reach your goal of debt freedom. Yes, you can have the best of both worlds. Going green does not mean spending thousands on a electric car, or solar panels on your roof. There are many low cost or no cost ways to save money and make your life more Earth friendly.
We all know how the price of gas has shot up and is directly effecting our budgets. You have a budget right? If not, Brad has worked hard on making a quick and easy budget for you to download right here at EOD. You do not have to go out and stand in line for a Prius to save some money. You can take some small steps with whatever car your driving now to eek out a little more mileage from your gas money.
- Start by choosing the right octane gas. Regular octane is fine for the majority of today’s cars. Buying higher octane gas is just a waste of money.
- Keep your tires properly inflated. Yes, it will increase gas mileage. You all have heard it before but how many of us do it? You can find a inexpensive tire gauge at almost any store.
- Stay within the speed limit. Lower speeds save gas. On the interstate drive with your windows up, and in the city roll down the windows and cut off the AC.
- Keep up to date with oil changes. Regular oil changes will reduce your engines friction making it more efficient and use less gas.
- Do not let your car idle when you do not have to. Turn the engine off when you run back into the house or where ever.
- Keep your engine tuned. Tuning up your engine can increase your gas mileage by 4%. At today’s gas prices and the amount you drive, that could add up to quite a savings.
- Recycle. Recycling reduces monthly cost of trash pick up, as well as saves space at the landfill. Your home has lots of areas where you can easily go green, recycle, and save money.
Some scary facts for you:
- 8-10% of your home’s electricity consumption is due to appliances left in standby mode.
- A mobile phone charger uses 2 watts while charging a phone, 2 watts even when the phone is fully charged, and STILL 1.5 watts when the charger is plugged in without the phone.
- Home entertainment systems (TV, DVD, audio systems) are the worst culprits, sucking over 28 watts even when all the components are turned off or are in standby mode.
- Your stereo will use 23 watts while playing music, and 20 watts while left on but not playing music.
- On a grander scale, the Energy Saving Trust claims that appliances on standby produce 50 million tons of CO2 annually.
- Energy Saving Trust (a UK based organization) also claims that if one mobile charger per household is left plugged in, enough energy is generated (wasted really) to provide power to 66,000 households for one year.
Yikes!
So the easiest way to save is to unplug all those unused appliances. Walk around your house and do your own quick energy hog checklist of how many of those red led lights you see. How many of them can you do without being on all the time?
A setback thermostat will save you the cost of it within the first year. Why pay for heating when your not there or do not need it? Install a programmable thermostat to control energy output when not needed.
Save money by line drying your clothes. Yes the old fashioned clothes line. Turn off that energy wasting dryer. Your clothes will last longer if you do, thus saving you even more in your clothes budget.
By now you would have to be living in a cave not to have heard about changing your light bulbs to the newer energy savings CFL bulbs. They have come a long way in design from those big ugly things to more what we are all accustomed to seeing. They also have even newer type of energy saving LED bulbs that are said to last even longer and use less energy.
These are just a few of the many ways to go green and save your self some dough in the process. We all talk about doing the green thing but how many of these cost savings tools have you actually gone out and done? At the same time how many of you out there are complaining you just don’t know where you can find the money to start a savings account or find money to pay a little extra towards your debt load? You have choices which will lead to a better future. Choose wisely and enjoy the benefits of saving.
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Topics: Conservation, Recycle | 3 Comments »
Enemy Of Debt Is Back!
By Brad Chaffee | September 30, 2008
I am happy to inform everyone that Enemy of Debt is back up and running. The great news is that everything is almost exactly the way it was when I lost it. I still have a few things to do to polish it off, but all in all things are great. Please enjoy and I apologize for the inconvenience and the delay.
I will be posting some new articles later this week. I just had surgery today and will need a little time to heal. I have some big plans for upgrading EOD to make your experience much easier. It is my goal to place everything you need to know, one click away. If you are a new reader and want to know what all these weird and highly controversial ideas are, we’ll explain. If you want to know how you can make some extra cash selling on Ebay, you will be one click away. As I said, I plan to guide you to the light!!
In the next month you will start to see these changes, so please come back and check out my new vision in the works. Thanks for visiting EOD!
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Topics: Updates | No Comments »
What Do You Think Of The New Look?
By Brad Chaffee | September 19, 2008
Just wanted to see what you thought of the new look. I am very interested in your opinion. I wanted to get away from the dark black and grays. I hope that the brighter look will make it more appealing to read. I have to admit, I am LOVING the NEW Banner at the top!! What do you think?
**IE7 no longer a problem**
If you are still reading ENEMY OF DEBT, let your voice be heard. Where are you at?
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Topics: Updates | 4 Comments »
Gone Solar For Savings
By Chuck | September 18, 2008
Warning this is only for those of you out there dedicated to being weird.
I am making a commitment to myself to cook 1/3 of my meals by solar cooking. That means no microwave, no stove. That means 1/3 savings on my energy bill. This will take some planning and inspiration to pull off. I do not live in sunny California, even out west. I’m in upstate New York were winters can be hard and cold. Yet I do believe this is do-able. Solar ovens have proven to work in sub zero temperatures. I plan on building and using a variety of solar ovens for my cooking needs. I plan on keeping you updated on my progress as I go along with this project.
Why solar?
It’s free and environmentally friendly. Start up costs for building cookers are minimal to none. I think it is a viable way to cook in this country and doesn’t have to be regulated to only used in the third world. I challenge you to try it with me. If you have a family you can make it a fun thing to do together. You can use it to teach children many scientific principles. Even if you only use solar for just a few meals that is money saved on non-renewable energy. It’s also a valuable skill to learn in case of an emergency. If stranded without power for any length of time you will have the ability to make yourself a hot cooked meal. As we all know emergencies do happen, will happen, it’s just a fact of life. I guess its the old boy scout in me that makes it appealing.
If you would like to learn about solar cooking and how to make simple solar cookers yourself, here are a few links to get you started.
http://solarcooking.wikia.com
http://solarcooking.org
http://www.energywhiz.com
Give me your opinions and be sure to check back on my progress.
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Topics: Solar Cooking, save money | No Comments »