April is Youth Financial Literacy Month

A whole month dedicated just to you!  Learning how to save, invest, donate and spend money.  It's Youth Financial Literacy Month.  Start by watching the video's right here on this site.  Scroll down a bit and to the right.

What's on your wish list?

Creating a wish list is a great way to define Needs and Wants.  Use this holiday time as an opportunity for you and your children to define what you need and what you want for yourselves and for others.  Create columns on a piece of paper and post it right on the refrigerator.  Revisit the list and allow changes.  Sometimes just thinking about an item overnight may have you change it from one column to another.  Involve the whole family.  It's fun and provides great insight into how everyone is thinking about themselves and others.  May all of your wishes come true!

'Tis the Season

The spooky holiday is behind us (hope you all had a great Halloween) and there is much to look forward to as we participate in community, family and friend gatherings through the New Year.  The relationships we have with one another and the relationship we have with money are both important.  It's a good time to start thinking about money - saving, investing, donating and spending it.  Watch the video's on this blog http://www.kidsfinancecoach.com/ and visit www.afn-net.com/learning_center.cfm for great insights!

How Do You Decide How to Spend Your Money?

As we move through the holiday season, your parents may be telling you to think about what you want versus what you really need. It can be very confusing to understand how your family spends its money. To determine how to spend money, your parents may have set up a family budget.

Ask them to tell you about the budget, and show you how they allocate their income. They may talk about paying for utilities and other necessities and then how they determine what they have to spend on things that the family wants.

Then think about how you can use that information to set up your own budget with sections for what you earn and what you want to spend and what you might save, invest or donate. If you don’t have enough money to pay for all the things that you want or want to do, think about how you can earn the money.

Parents: A good way to answer children’s questions about how the family budget is determined is to explain where the money goes. Read How Can I Keep My Money from Slipping Away? to learn more.