Thank you to Equifax for underwriting this conversation about talking to teens about personal finance.

One night when I was in college, I went to a basketball game with my friends. We noticed a crowd of people gathered around a table outside the stadium. They were giving away free t-shirts for the game, and all we had to do was fill out an application for a credit card.

I didn’t want a new credit card, but an application seemed harmless, and I didn’t know that I would even get approved. Besides, getting free stuff was something that my friends and I were really good at. Along with all the other college students around me, I got my free t-shirt.

It’s compelling to join that group mentality, but I’ve learned that when it comes to credit cards, you don’t want to go along with the crowd.

As an adult, I’ve volunteered to teach personal finance classes to teens in local schools. This is what I want teens to know about how credit cards work before they go off to college:

1. It’s not extra money so you can spend more than you earn. A line of credit is not income, it’s debt. It can be used to help manage cash flow, but it can also be a heavy burden to carry. When you see other students use credit cards to buy things they can’t afford, know that they will have to pay it back later, and it won’t be easy for them.

2. Borrowing money is expensive. An interest rate can look small, but it adds up in a way that makes a restaurant meal, or music, or a new shirt cost much more than expected. If you make small payments instead of paying off the balance in full, you’ll be making those payments for years. Many adults have learned this the hard way.

3. Pay your bill on time, always. Companies keep track of your payment history on a credit report. It can affect your ability to get a certain job or buy a house. Even though I cancelled the card I received when I applied for a free t-shirt, that still went on my credit report.

4. When you don’t pay on time, there are big late fees. Pay attention to the fine print on the back of your statement, and if you don’t understand it, ask someone. You need to know what you’re getting into ahead of time.

What do you wish you had better understood about credit cards and borrowing money when you were younger? What would you tell teens now?

Photo source: iStockPhotos/ Thinkstock

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Thank you to Equifax for sponsoring this conversation on speaking to your teen about personal finance.

Use Sculpey clay to craft hearts and letters to use for a Mother’s Day garland, small gifts, or gift tags.

If you haven’t used Sculpey clay before, it’s a soft polymer clay that you can roll and craft into thin, delicate shapes, and then you bake it in the oven.

Premo Sculpey clay holds it’s shape after you bake it, but it remains pliable, not brittle, so it’s great for little kids. It’s also gluten-free. You can buy it in many colors at craft stores such as Joann’s.

Be sure to roll out your clay on a clean work surface, otherwise it might pick up dust and lint. You want to protect your wood table from the clay using a tablecloth or liner since the color pigment can transfer.

Roll the clay into thin snakes and then make the shapes you want on a baking sheet. Bake in the oven according to the directions on the package. In this case it’s 30 minutes per ¼ inch of thickness at 275 degrees (F).

Let the clay cool completely before touching or moving it, as it will still be soft.

Once it’s cooled, you can string them on ribbon for garlands and decorations.

What have you made with oven-baked clays?

Some days my lists of plans and projects is a mile long. It reminds me of all the activities and clubs that Max Fischer leads at Rushmore Academy during the first minute of the movie Rushmore (watch the movie clip by Wes Anderson).

Flashback nearly six years ago: I was a brand new mom who started staying at home with a baby who slept five hours each day. I left a corporate job, and I was enjoying free time the likes of which I hadn’t experienced in years.

I could read. I could daydream.

While my baby took naps I had time to cook meals, clean the house, and I still had lots of time to read. I like to learn how to make and do things, and not only did I have time to read about it, I could do it! I had free time and plans to fill it.

The internet gives me more ideas to try. Baby pants! Knitting! I made soap. I sewed. The only thing stopping me from starting an urban farm with chickens and bees was the fact that we had no backyard at our apartment.

My first child had been a champion sleeper, but my second child never wanted to sleep.

I changed from being a stay-at-home mom of one baby with loads of peaceful quiet time to a mom of two little kids who would not nap nor sleep at night.

I’m an introvert, so I become recharged by having quiet time to reflect. I was starved for peaceful quiet time. My brain was tired. My body was tired. My list was long, and time was short.

When once in a while someone would help me with the kids, I was surprised by the result. I finally had some coveted free time, but I wasn’t sure what to do with myself.

The babysitting time never seemed quite long enough to really get into something, so I often found myself doing what I normally do: I looked at the mess and started cleaning up. For a few amazing minutes the house was clean! It was a relief, briefly. And then the kids came home, we lived life, and the house went back to its usual state.

I finally started learning not to clean during the small amount of time that I have to myself. I don’t get very much of it, so I use it to concentrate on quiet work such as writing. Sometimes I just lay face-down on the floor and absorb the silence. Last week I paid my thirteen-year-old neighbor to come over and babysit for an hour so I could be in a room by myself and paint my nails. It was the most frivolous use of time, and I mean that in a good way.

I don’t try as many hobbies as I did a few years ago. Now I’m more inclined to focus on few selected projects for work, though my list is still long. Sometimes I trade childcare help with a friend, or once in a while I have some babysitting help during the daytime, and I’m getting better at using that time in a restorative, purposeful way that will recharge me.

I save the cleaning for when my kids are with me, and I make them help. They can talk away while helping me fold laundry, and we’re better for it.

Do you wonder about how to best take advantage of limited free time too?

Do you remember having your photo taken for school picture day? It was always a big deal at my school. We would stand in a line to wait our turn, and we were each given a blue plastic comb to smooth our hair.

Perching us up on the stool, the photographer would call out, “You look like Miss America!” to get some of us to crack a smile. Flash! Click.

I never liked my school pictures when we received that large white folder, but what else could I do? That was the photo that would be framed and hung on the walls at my parents’ and grandparents’ house until next year.

When my child had her first school picture day, I knew I wasn’t really interested in the photos. Her life is well documented already from all the photos I take. I bought the smallest package of prints anyway for tradition’s sake. I don’t know why, I guess it seemed like I was supposed to, and you only get one first school picture day.

The school photos my child brought home a few weeks later were not nearly as good as the ones I take at home. Not because I’m a good photographer, but because the posed school photo did not look like her at all. Her wild-and-free hair was smoothed down with a blue plastic comb, and her face was looking at the camera with a half smile, not the big joyous grin that bursts out with a fit of giggles.

I decided I probably won’t buy the school photos anymore. Thank goodness digital photography has come such a long way that I don’t have to subject my child to the posed school photos with a nature-print background!

I would much rather have candid shots that capture my children’s personalities, antics, and memories. Those are much more real.

You can do a better job of capturing your child in a photo than the school photographer, I promise, even if you don’t have training or a fancy camera.

Need some help? Try these helpful posts for photographing children. (Be sure to print some of your photos to hang on your wall, and make sure you’re in some of the photos too!)

• Cut the Cheese: 5 Tips for Photographing Kids
• How To Take Creative Photos of Your Kids
• Tips for the Lazy Photographer (Faces)
• Best Photography Blogs for Moms

Thank you to Equifax for underwriting this conversation about family finances.

Every now and then I think about if something were to happen to me or my husband, how the other would take care of our children. It’s a huge responsibility, and though I don’t like to think about worst-case scenarios, I feel better having a plan.

My husband and I fully share the responsibility for our finances, but we divide the day-to-day tasks. My husband earns most of the income and manages our investments. I manage the spending, saving, taxes, and keeping track of everything.

I want to keep our financial information open and organized so we can both access it anytime. I don’t want either of us to be in the dark when it comes to our finances.

These are the ways I’ve organized our finances so my husband can stay informed and step in for me if needed:

1. I made a budget based on the amounts we expect to spend so that we know how much we need for an average month. We use realistic amounts, not ideal or limited amounts. Then we can look back and see if our spending matched our expectations. We discuss and plan bigger purchases so that we’re both on the same page.

2. We consolidated our spending money into a joint checking account instead of maintaining separate personal accounts. It’s easier to keep track of just one account balance on a daily basis. (It works for us because we have similar spending habits and common goals, though I recognize it’s not the best solution for everyone.)

3. Not only did I minimize the number of accounts, I reduced the number of banks where those accounts are held. Sometimes I get an offer in the mail with an incentive to open a checking account at a new bank, and it’s tempting, but it’s extra work in the long run. We chose one bank with good online options and service so that we won’t need to keep up with multiple banks, phone numbers, and access codes.

4. I save statements and records in multiple places, mostly digital, so they can be accessed quickly. I have one file box for the important papers, and I also keep digital documents on my computer, a backup hard drive, and Dropbox. (Dropbox lets you sync your documents to the cloud, and you can access them securely through the internet. It’s great for sharing documents and for when we travel.) I wouldn’t want my husband to have to go through a pile of papers if he can do a quick search on the computer instead.

5. I planned for the majority of our bills to be paid online or automatically at the beginning of every month. I just made a couple of phone calls and requested the due dates that I wanted. Since I pay the bills, my husband doesn’t keep track of individual billing dates, but he can remember that we need money in our account ready to pay the bills at the beginning of the month. That helps us stay in a routine and avoid surprises when the account balance drops.

6. I check the credit reports annually for both of us, and let him know what, if anything, he needs to do. Sometimes it’s just reminding him to make a phone call to close an old store card that we might have otherwise forgotten.

7. At the end of the year I compile a financial snapshot to look at how we’re doing overall compared to last year. We think it’s important to review our progress together and see what else we can do.

Simplifying our finances so that we can access everything also made it easier for me to manage them on my own.

How do you and your spouse work on your finances together so that you both stay informed?

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Thank you to Equifax for sponsoring this conversation on family finances. It’s not always a comfortable subject to discuss, but an important one.

My kids love to hide brightly-colored eggs all over the house and go on an Easter egg hunt, and we’ve discovered another fun game to play with those plastic eggs.

Make a match-up game: can you find the matching pairs of small objects hidden behind the eggs?

My kids went on a hunt to find small things around the house. We need six pairs, so twelve small things total.

We’ll need six plastic eggs. (Each object is covered with half of one egg.)

To make the game look better, I spray painted the gray cardboard carton a vivid color. This step is completely optional, though. I’ve been using spray paint so often lately to update old light fixtures and lamps that I’m obsessed with it.

Players take turns finding a match. My daughter has played this game a dozen times before going to bed the past few nights. I like crafts that give kids something to do after they make it. Here are more ideas for crafts kids can make and play with:

• Build a Felt Cupcake
• Make a Paint Chip Board Game
• Tiny Town Made from Felt and Scissors
• Sail into Summer with Ice Cube Boats
• Butterfly Costume Wings

As I’m wanting to foster independence in my daughter, mornings and bedtimes run smoother if I can give fewer reminders.

We’ve used a routine chart since my daughter turned four, and a year later, she still LOVES it. As she said, “It helps me keep track of everything in my day so you don’t need to tell me.”

I love it for that very reason, too.

There are several on the market that you can buy, but we’ve found success with a printable chart that is as simple as possible and gives the satisfaction of checking things off the list.

We don’t put everything on the list because I don’t want to make it complicated, but she can see what she needs to do next.

I’m sharing the chart that we use and a blank version so you can create your own.

Printable:
Routine Chart Printable
Blank Routine Chart Printable

Do you use a routine chart for your kids too?

I think I started a new tradition for our family.

Last night we had a huge thunderstorm with storm clouds looming, lightning and thunder crashing, and welcome rain that pours all night and floods the ground. I love when it rains. My two little kids hate the thunder and lightning.

We had been watching the weather all afternoon, and it started just after my kids’ bedtime. We tucked the kids into bed, kisses, lights out, and just five minutes later the lightning began.

I knew it was coming—the cries from the kids’ rooms that lightning was scary. I knew it would be impossible to get the kids to go to sleep. I resolve to put blackout curtains in their windows before next time.

My daughter ran into the living room and hid under the blanket on the couch. It’s the first storm of spring. I imagined spending the next hour reassuring our kids and trying to get them to go to sleep, but then I had a better idea.

Popcorn?

She’s completely confused why I would recommend doing this. “But I already brushed my teeth!” says my rule follower.

We head into the kitchen. She runs and gets the bowl. I heat up the stove. Making popcorn on the stove only takes two minutes. Heat a few tablespoons of grapeseed or coconut oil, pour in a layer of kernels, cover it with the lid, and shake the pot over the burner. My favorite part is when the kernels all explode within the same few seconds and the lid almost comes off.

My littlest one runs into the kitchen too. He’s wearing striped pajamas, and he’s so scared that he’s clutching three of his stuffed animal friends for protection. He gets his own small bowl.

Buttery fingers, giggling, tummies full of popcorn, they forgot about the storm. An hour later the lightning gave forth to steady rain, and the kids went to bed happy.

Thunderstorms just became something positive for our family, and now I’m looking for other new traditions to start.

Photo credit: Thinkstock

This post on teaching children about fiscal responsibility is underwritten by BMO Harris Bank

“I didn’t know people buy houses,” remarked my five-year-old daughter.

“How did you think they get them?” I asked. My family bought a house a few months ago, but my daughter wasn’t there for all the paperwork of the buying process.

“I thought they just build them.” She has seen my husband do quite a few renovation projects that involve building walls, and she’s no stranger to the idea of crafting or making something yourself after seeing it in a store.

“No, we paid money for our house. We also pay money for the things that we use in our house.” This was another opportunity in a long series of talks we have about our family’s finances and how we manage the budget.

I don’t plan to wait until she’s eighteen and ready to move out on her own before I draw back the curtain and show her how we pay the bills and do all of those other grown-up things. I involve her a little at a time so that she will have a firm foundation and confidence to make responsible financial choices.

Here are a few practical ways to teach kids at each age level about taking care of bills and the household budget.

For young children ages 4 to 7

My kids act as my office assistants when it’s time to pay the bills. I let them open the billing envelopes (my kids love mail) and hand me the statements. I can talk to them about how the bills tell me how much things cost, and how I send money for the water and the heat that we use.

One of the goals we have as parents is to teach our kids the difference between wants and needs. Most kids have a great concept of what they want. But needs? Those they tend to take for granted. I teach them how the water comes out of the faucet when they turn it on because we paid for it, that it’s not automatic. Show them clear, concrete examples of how you spend money to purchase things they need.

Let your kids be in on the action of saving money. For those bills that cost less when you use less, demonstrate the value of conserving. Make them run around the house and turn off the light switches in rooms they aren’t using. Let them know that electricity costs money, and if they can use less electricity, then you will have more money to buy ice cream.

For children ages 8 to 12

I volunteered with a program to teach a course about money to kids in local schools. I noticed there that kids don’t know how much things cost, and honestly, I don’t expect them to know how much their parents pay for bills.

What they were aware of, though, was products promoted on television. They knew, for example, that a fast-food meal costs $3.99 because they had all seen the commercials. Don’t let the television be your kids’ primary source of financial information. Teach them that there is more to buying a car than the advertised 0% interest rate, and there is insurance, gas, and maintenance to budget, too. Then they won’t be surprised when they want to buy a car a few years later.

Give your kids a little math practice by having them divide your monthly bills by 30 to find an average daily cost. Smaller numbers can help make household bills easier for kids to understand when you can say, “It costs $2.50 for the water we use each day.” (If that seems like a small amount to them, have them multiply by 365 to see how it adds up.)

Start a savings account for your child so they get firsthand experience in setting money aside for the things they’ll need and want later.

For teenagers ages 13 to 18

Teens need practice to manage money. When I was a teenager my parents gave me a set amount of money each month to buy clothes, and I had to budget it. It gave me good experience in thinking about my expenditures ahead of time and trying to figure out how I could save money one month to have more the next month.

My parents also gave me a budgeted amount of money to spend on school lunches. If I wanted to spend more, I had to supplement it with my own money, which helped me be careful about discretionary spending and what I could afford.

You could even go a step further and let your teen practice modeling a household budget. Start with a realistic salary figure and have them brainstorm what they’ll need to pay for when they’re in their own apartment. They’ll quickly realize how much of the budget goes first to the things they’ll need compared to what they want.

How do you help your kids to better understand bills and budgeting?

Photo credit: Thinkstock

I had been working in Chicago for the past month, and I was about to take a flight back to Houston on a Friday afternoon. Fridays are the worst for traffic and standing in line at the crowded airport.

My flight was delayed, as usual, and there was nothing to do except stand next to the bar at an airport restaurant and wait out the bad weather and storms.

Finally, it was time to board. Strapped into my reclining seat and looking forward to arriving home, the flight was going to be just two and a half hours. I was going to get to be back in my apartment, hug my cat, and sleep in my own bed.

The flight attendants were nice, helpful even. They gave us drinks. They checked on us to see how we were doing.

The weather was awful, however, and the pilot couldn’t land the plane. We kept circling over Houston International for hours, and then we went north to Dallas to refuel.

The flight attendants were not as helpful anymore. They ushered us off the plane, but the airport gate was closed because it was the middle of the night, and we didn’t know how we were going to get home. I considered renting a car and driving the last two hundred miles.

After much confusion, we passed through security again, boarded the plane (now refueled), and tried the trip again. I have never been through such terrible turbulence from storms in my life. By this time it was three in the morning, everyone was exhausted, and we had been in those reclining chairs for hours.

The flight attendants were mad now. Their shift should have ended, and they were not pleased with these passengers who hadn’t eaten dinner or seen the beverage cart for hours. We were more than an annoyance. We were a problem, and they were finished with us. No more smiles, just scowls.

We did make it back to Houston eventually, after twelve hours at six in the morning. The luggage didn’t make it, of course.

Yesterday I felt like those flight attendants.

The afternoon had been busy, and dinner got off to a late start. The diorama was finished for a school project for the next day, but I still had a lot of work to do for myself. I stood at the sink washing the dishes, and I was tired. I saw the kids’ bedtime get delayed, and I got frustrated. I just wanted to clock out.

I needed the kids to go to bed so that my mommy shift would be over. Those evening hours are the ones that we sometimes push through. My husband and I show up for the dinner and bedtime shift even when we’re sick and we have other work to do.

I remembered just in time that my kids are the passengers, not the problem. I stopped frowning at them. I got them into bed. My shift hadn’t ended, but I didn’t quit. Sometimes we just need to push through it.

Have you felt like that too?

Photo credit: Thinkstock