Kids and Money solutions including age appropriate tools for parents

By Michael T Kastler| Budgeting Money Tips

Now is the time to start training up your child in the area of finances.? It doesn?t matter how old or young they are or how little or how much money you have.? If you instill good financial habits now, they will last your child a lifetime.

This article on Kids and Money is built on the President?s Advisory Council on Financial Capability?s recommendations. ?According to the PACFC, kids should start learning about money as early as 3 years old.? Check out moneyasyougrow.org.

In general, most K-12 schools do not offer education in money, saving, personal finance, budgeting, balancing checkbooks, or any other aspect of how to become a good financial steward.? It is up to us as parents to instill good habits, so that when our adult kids come home to visit, we can enjoy their company and not feel like the ?Bank of Dad.?

Look for a good program that will teach kids the value of money, how to set goals, and track their goals and spending.? There are tools available to help parents teach kids about money at age-appropriate levels. Start early and keep expanding the program as they grow older and start to earn their own paycheck. ?Learn how to create your budget as well to set a good example.

According to PACFC, there are 4 age group appropriate tools available to help you get started training up our kids.? Earnings (for jobs well done), Saving, Tithing/Charity, Spending, and Investing are basic to instilling good financial habits for kids of any age. ?The rest of this article discusses our Kids and Money solutions for these age groups that parents can use with their kids.

Kids and Money:? Ages 3-7

Earnings vs. Allowance, Value of Money

Most kids get a weekly allowance without any accountability and are free to spend as they wish.? Or some parents simply buy anything their child wants at any time.? There is an alternative even at these early ages.

Kids can learn the value of money by earning it for doing some simple chores around the house.? A written chore program with a small reward attached can be just the incentive to help teach your child how to be structured and learn the value of money at the same time.

In my budgeting worksheets for kids, I have 2 chore sections.? One section is for the chores that are mandatory with no financial reward and the other section is for chores that are rewarded with a small financial earnings (reward).? Check out an example of our budgeting worksheets for children here.

For very early part of this age group, you can substitute ?Mommy Cash? instead of real cash.? This allows the parent to decide to reward the child with tokens that can be traded in for an extra privilege such as play time, instead of cash.? Post a new colorful chart on your refrigerator every week.? Each week is a new beginning.

Kids and Money:? Ages 8-Teens

Savings, Goal-Setting, Needs vs. Wants, Tithing/Charity

This is a great period of time to begin instilling the value of saving, goal setting, priorities, and tithing.? Your child will begin to distinguish between needs and wants when they have only a limited amount of earned money to spend.? I recommend a similar type of earnings reward program for kids as above, instead of traditional allowance.? Bump up the chore levels to be age-appropriate work around the house and possibly even in the neighborhood to help out single moms or the elderly.

A good budgeting program should include a goal-setting feature, such as this budgeting worksheet for kids.? Work with them to set realistic goals, set portions of their earned money toward those goals, and watch their excitement grow as they meet those goals.? A good goal-setting budgeting program will have a Progress Chart so that your child can see their weekly progress.? Post it on the refrigerator and make it a part of your daily conversation.? 80% of their earnings can go towards their short and medium term goals.

Encourage your youngsters to put aside at least 10% (a good benchmark through adulthood) of every dime they receive for long-term goals.? The money can be put in a local bank or credit union for saving for special items such as a car, or some other long-term goal the child sets.

Designate the remaining 10% percentage for charity or tithing to a church. ?Teaching them to ?give back? is a reward in disguise as they learn how to help other people, causes and organizations will make them feel good about themselves and part of a bigger cause.? Show them videos of some really poor parts of the world.? They?ll be glad to give!? Ten percent is a typical amount and recommended by most church organizations.

There are plenty of churches and organizations in any local community that would be glad to receive the blessing.? Also check out Kiva.org, a website for providing microfinance loans to low-income individuals around the globe that don?t have access to banking services.? Your son or daughter will glow talking about this with friends and family.

Once kids in this age group see their earnings adding up, goals being met, and community improvements, you?ll be surprised how eager they will be to earn even more money ? a good start before they even earned their first paycheck!

Kids and Money:? Working Teenagers

Taxes, Credit vs. Cash, Compound Interest, Time Value of Money

The first paycheck is always a shocker ? taxes!? Take some time to explain the individual tax categories, withholding allowances, and the impact on net pay.? Gross pay minus taxes equals disposable income.

This is a good time to upgrade their budgeting skills with a worksheet they can manage on their own.? Our simple budgeting worksheet for teens can be seen here.? It still contains the goal setting and progress tracking sheets, as those techniques should be carried out throughout their lifetime.

With a regular and higher income stream coming in, your son or daughter will be tempted to spend, spend, and spend more.? On top of that, your working teen will be bombarded with credit card offers almost daily, sucking them into their credit card ?have it now? schemes.? The temptation is to buy items you can?t afford by using credit cards.? This is a critical stage and if all went well in the early years, it shouldn?t be too hard to convince them not to fall into these marketing traps.

Above all, now with more disposable income, the key at this age group is to learn the power of saving, compound interest and time value of money ? very powerful principles for long term savings and investing.? Consider retirement, your son or daughter will have 50 years until they retire.? That?s a lot of time for their money to work in an IRA.? Companies are not providing for retirement like they did in the past.? It?s upon us to plan accordingly.? Encourage working teens to put small amount put aside each month in an IRA that will grow significantly over such a large time span.

Kids and Money:? College Students

Financial Stewardship

Now for the really fun part ? not!? Helping your son or daughter to navigate through all the career options and financial institutions, comparing costs and reality vs. what they want can be a daunting task.? This is where all the previous learning and tools can be brought together to a head.? We?re now talking about being a good financial steward ? using our financial resources prudently and wisely.

The easy way out is student loans.? But do you really want your adult kids to be saddled with tens of thousands of dollars in debt before they even get their first paycheck?? I can think of several kids coming out of college with $80,000 in debt with only a hope of getting a $60,000 per year job.? That just doesn?t make sense.

Another popular solution is for the parent to raid their retirement funds to pay for college ? but you would never do that if you knew the real cost!? Carefully consider not just the amount you are withdrawing but also the amount of growth you are missing out on.? It can be 2-3 times what you think it is considering compound interest and time value of money.

There are a lot of financially prudent options.? Consider the first 2 years at a community college.? Consider working through school, even if it takes longer to get through.? Consider working 2 years first before starting college.? You and your son or daughter can come up with a plan that works out well given your financial situation, without taking student loans.

To help sort through the expenses including living away, food, rent, books, fees, car insurance, etc. these kids need to think and act like adults with special financing needs.? Get organized by putting all this down on paper or a budgeting spreadsheet designed specifically for college students.? Of course, we have one here for your evaluation.

Working Adults

Educating, Mentoring, Financial Stewardship

I?d be remiss if I didn?t express how important it is to set the example for our kids.? What we do is far more important than what we say.? Consider your own personal finance plan.? Do you have a good budget in place?? Are you avoiding credit cards?? Do you have your short term and long-term goals clearly stated in writing?? If not, it?s never too late.? Putting a plan in place takes a little bit of work up front, but can be fairly easy to manage and modify over time.? Check out our budgeting worksheets for working adults. ?Being a good financial steward as head of your household will yield offspring with similar qualities.

Next Step for Kids and Money Basics

Any time of the year is a great time to take inventory of your family?s current financial position. ?As Chris Gardner says in the title of his book, ?Start Where You Are.? Check out the Personal Finance programs on the market that are geared towards family.? Be sure to consider our Family Series Budgeting Programs and these Special Offers found on our website.? Back-to-School time is a good time to get started teaching Kids and Money basics! If you need additional one-on-one coaching, we can help you with that too with our Budgeting Coach Services.

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Michael T Kastler is a Budgeting Coach, author of a personal finance book, ?Get a GRASP on Your Budget and Your Cash? and multiple Family Series budgeting worksheets. His budgeting money tips blog that helps individuals become debt free and meet their financial goals can be found at http://www.budgetingmoneytips.com

Source: http://www.budgetingmoneytips.com/archives/2602

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Annals of Fail (talking-points-memo)

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S. Africa drops murder charges against miners

JOHANNESBURG?? South Africa's top prosecutor announced Sunday that she is withdrawing controversial murder charges against 270 miners for the killings of 34 striking co-workers shot dead by police.

The National Union of Metal Workers, meanwhile, demanded the suspension of the officers responsible for the shootings.

Sunday's announcement follows a barrage of criticism from political parties, trade unions, civil society and legal experts.

Even the justice minister had challenged the prosecutor's decision to charge the arrested miners under an apartheid-era law that opened President Jacob Zuma's government to accusations that it was acting like the former brutal white rulers.

Nomqcobo Jiba, the acting director of public prosecutions, did not say why she had reversed her decision to shift the blame from the police to the miners.

"The murder charge against the current 270 suspects ... will be formally withdrawn," she told a news conference.

She said the miners would be released from jail with a warning, providing police could verify their home addresses.

She said other charges, ranging from public violence and illegal gathering to illegal possession of firearms, would remain, but the cases were being postponed pending final investigations and the findings of a judicial commission of inquiry, which is to report to the president by January.

Most of the 270 miners were arrested Aug. 16 after police opened fire on striking miners, killing 34 and wounding 78. The shootings, the worst display of state violence since apartheid ended in 1994, shocked the nation.

Police said they acted in self-defense after the miners shot at them. Most miners were armed with homemade clubs and machetes but police said they recovered several handguns from the scene.

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Ten people had been killed in a week of violence over union rivalries that preceded the shootings. Some of those killed were officials of the National Union of Mineworkers, two police officers were hacked to death and two mine security guards were burned alive in their vehicle.

Another union, the National Union of Metal Workers, which includes some miners, called for the suspension of the police task force "that executed the Marikana massacre."

The union's central committee "calls on the commission to find out and make public who, between the minister of police and the national police commissioner, gave orders to shoot workers with live bullets when they peacefully assembled on that fateful mountain," the union's secretary general Irvin Jim told a news conference Sunday.

He said the police shootings confirm that South Africa has not transformed "the apartheid state and its violent machinery." Apartheid ended 18 years ago.

Since then, South Africa has become the richest country on the continent, but the wealth has remained in the hands of minority whites joined by a small and often corrupt black elite.

The killings, and the plight of miners who were demanding higher wages, has highlighted the failures of Zuma's government just as he prepares to run for re-election in December as president of the governing African National Congress, a position that would virtually guarantee him another term as president.

Zuma's government is criticized for failing to address the concerns of South Africans suffering high unemployment, housing shortages and growing inequality between rich and poor.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48878611/ns/world_news-africa/

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Obama says Republican ideas from "last century' (reuters)

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Getting The Hang Of Article Marketing With These Tactics | Make ...

A lot of individuals do not realize they are working on the Internet, but article marketing remains a integral part of SEO and will get you a big rank. You should never overlook the power of article marketing. Read the text below for some great tips you can use.

As you submit content to diverse websites and directories, you should be more concerned with quality and less concerned with quantity. Instead of flooding directories with spun articles, try to get a higher ranking for individual pieces by writing them well and keyword enriching them cleverly. Only post your articles to sites that have a good reputation and are relevant to your target audience.

Your articles should be between 500 and 700 words in length, and ensure that your paragraphs are only three to five sentences long. Most article directories want you to meet these minimum requirements, so following them will make it easier to market your articles. The criteria requirements for blogs is a little different, at around 300-400 words.

Think about who is going to read your words. If you have casual readers, don?t make your articles overly technical. If writing for a specific niche and you have already posted about the basics, delve deeper into the subject to keep your readers engaged.

Writing Takes

While it?s certainly possible to create your own marketing articles to promote your business, you?ll enjoy better results if you use the services of an expert. Keep in mind that writing takes talent and a certain level of expertise. You need a good grasp of grammar and you need to learn to perfect punctuation. You might find out that what you have been doing is alliteration. You need to be good with words in order to make good articles. Both creative and technical writing takes finesse.

New articles should be posted regularly. Search engine crawlers scour your site and make a note of how often you make changes to the index with new content. New articles continuously improve your site?s search engine rankings and also encourage return readers.

Make sure to load your articles with relevant keywords. This is crucial when creating the meta descriptions and headings. Highlight your keywords by bolding them. If you want to see what keywords your competition is using, you can right click on their pages, and choose ?View Source.? .?

Before accepting content share agreements, research what rights you retain and the intentions of the other party. Many companies will claim authorship for what you wrote, so you must decide if you are okay with this.

Don?t be wordy and do your best shorten your articles and get to the point. Try to aim for around 500 words and use a witty intro to draw readers in. Web readers tend to have shorter attention spans, so its best to catch their attention quickly in your article. Explanations and details can be added in the body of the article, but the sale is made in the first few lines.

Articles that are written well and provide good information instill confidence and trust in potential customers, and make them more likely to purchase something. If your customer sees you as an expert, he or she will be more likely to not only purchase your product, but also to share your website with his or her family and friends.

These directories will still bring you traffic, and you can make those visitors into repeat readers. The top four directories for No Follow are Buzzle, ArticlesFactory, ArticlesBase and ArticleAlley. Try all four if you want to get the most for your money.

Open with strong statements that will grab your readers attention in all of your articles, and make your visitors interested about what you are offering. Create a solid closing statement too. You are hoping the reader will be curious about your business, encouraging them to spend their hard-earned money on what you are selling.

If you?re not sure what to write about, think about what your readers are looking for. Take time to read what others are commenting on your posts and the emails that they are sending.

If you are generating content yourself, don?t worry about making it sound like it was written professionally. Work with language that is most familiar to you; if you find yourself trying to use words that you are not knowledgeable about, you may have difficulty coming across as authoritative. The people who are reading your site feel as though you are not writing the content they will think you are less credible.

You should stay away from trying to sound too competent whenever you are promoting articles online. Your goal should be to provide articulate, informative articles that illuminate issues and encourage thoughtful discussion. Doing this, is the best way that you can prove your competence to your readers.

Keep the word count of your articles between 400 and 600 words. If you consistently hit this sweet spot, your readers will stay interested in your content. Lengthy articles will make readers lose interest. You don?t want your audience to become bored with your content. Stick with writing articles that are not ambiguous and offer valid information.

To be effective in marketing articles, you should understand your audience in depth. Make sure you keep your article content directed at them. The more closely your articles mesh with your website target, the more visitors your website will receive. Your visitors are more likely to bookmark your articles with social networking, too.

Articles will always stay out there bringing in new traffic, unless websites remove them for some reason. You can even use articles to promote your other articles in order to greatly expand your network and readership.

Resist the temptation to use the same article across different indexes. Take advantage of several different indexes. There are countless ones available. Posting the same article to hundreds of directories just makes you look like a spammer. Search engines are also aware of this technique and will penalize your ranking for it.

Strive to publish content that isn?t available on other sites and is useful. Focus on creating articles that are unique and easily distinguished from other writers?. By posting an article already on many websites, you are just competing for traffic with all of them. Do your best to be unique and provide content that?s never been seen before. Most likely if it?s new and interesting to you, it probably also will be to a majority of other people on the web.

Potential customers often make the decision to purchase your product if others recommend it. Include a section in your website where your customers can go to read real testimonials of people satisfied with your products.

Article Marketing

It is important for writer?s to understand the market that they are trying to sell their pieces in. Knowing what kind of articles are published will give writer?s an idea on what works and what does not. You will be able to find the best audience and media possible for your article by learning from the mistakes committed by other writers.

All types of various marketing approaches tie in together via the internet, and article marketing is undoubtedly one of the ?mother sauces,?? so to speak, from which a wide variety of other techniques are born. If you can get better at article marketing, you can really be a successful entrepreneur, so make sure to apply the tips you?ve read here

Source: http://make-money-blog.com/getting-the-hang-of-article-marketing-with-these-tactics/

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How Can I Lose Weight Quick Just At Home | Organic Health Care

August 31st, 2012 /
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There are plenty of questions which come into our mind when we decide?to lose fat. And the first thought which comes into our mind is how?can i lose weight?quick.

There are plenty of questions which come into our mind when we decide?to lose fat. And the first thought which comes into our mind is how?can i lose weight?quick. With this thought lot of people pay their visit to many gyms and fitness centers and spend their money and time as well. But the result is zero there is no improvement in terms of losing the weight because many fitness trainer don?t provide you the right procedures that how?to lose weight quickly. And the interesting news is that you can also?lose weight?without going to any gym or fitness center. Yes, you heard it right now you don?t have to spend long hours in the gym for losing your pounds. Now just by sitting at home you can have that perfect body shape with in short interval of time. There are few important tips which you need to follow:

1. Try to eat 5-6 smaller meals instead of eating 2-3 large/heavy meals. This action will increase the metabolism of your body as a result you will burn more calories quickly.

2. In order to control the calorie intake of your body drink 1 glass of water before every meal. This would help you to eat less at one sitting and provide your stomach a feeling of satisfaction.

3. If you have?to lose weight quickly, then drink at least 6-8 glasses of water per day. Because water flushes out all the toxic material of our body and increase the metabolism rate?of the body.

4. Add raw fruits and vegetables in your diet and eat dark green vegetables as much as you can.

5. Remember to increase the fiber intake. Prefer to eat foods that are rich in fiber content as fibers are good for body and as well as in?losing weight.

6. Try to add protein rich diet to your food menu because proteins are the essential part for building muscles which result in burning more calories and losing more weight quickly.

And now, with many leading healthcare?websites?it is very much convenient for all of us to lose our weight quickly. Because these online?websites?provides the complete information to their users. I am sure after visiting these beneficial sites no one gets worries about their health and says how?can i lose weight?quick because all the tensions and worries get sorted out with these kinds of sites. Hence, we can say that with these?health & wellness?sites it is not required to go any gym or health center because you can effectively lose your body weight just by doing simple things at home.

North Carolina Health Insurance?|?The Significance of Adult Health Insurance?|?Save Money When Buying North Carolina Car Insurance?|?How Can I Obtain New York Health Insurance?

Source: http://www.allorganic360.com/how-can-i-lose-weight-quick-just-at-home.php

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Israel under international pressure not to attack Iran alone

By Crispian Balmer

JERUSALEM | Fri Aug 31, 2012 3:41pm IST

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel is facing growing international pressure not to attack Iran unilaterally, with the United States in particular making clear its firm opposition to any such strike.

Recent rhetoric by Israeli leaders that time is running out to halt Iran's contested nuclear programme has raised concern that military action might be imminent, despite repeated calls from abroad to give sanctions and diplomacy more time to work.

The U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, has always cautioned against a go-it-alone approach, but he appeared to up the ante this week by saying Washington did not want to be blamed for any Israeli initiative.

"I don't want to be complicit if they (Israel) choose to do it," Dempsey was quoted as saying by Britain's Guardian newspaper on Friday, suggesting that he would view an Israeli attack as reprehensible or illegal.

He went on to repeat that although Israel could delay Iran's nuclear project, it would not destroy it. He said that unilateral action might unravel a strong international coalition that has applied progressively stiff sanctions on Iran.

"(This) could be undone if (Iran) was attacked prematurely," he was quoted as saying.

While Tehran says its nuclear programme is peaceful, Western powers believe it is trying to produce an atomic bomb. Israel, believed to have the only nuclear arsenal in the Middle East, views a nuclear-armed Iran as a threat to its existence.

Adding to the sense of urgency, the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency said on Thursday Iran had doubled the number of uranium enrichment centrifuges in an underground bunker, showing its desire to expand its nuclear work.

CRACKS IN THE ALLIANCE

Israel's vice prime minister Moshe Yaalon said on Friday he feared Iran did not believe it faced a real military threat from the outside world because of mixed messages from foreign powers.

"We have an exchange of views, including with our friends in the United States, who in our opinion, are in part responsible for this feeling in Iran," he told Israel's 100FM radio station.

"There are many cracks in the ring closing tighter on Iran. We criticise this," he said, also singling out U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for travelling to Tehran this week.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will speak out about the dangers of Iran in an address next month to the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

He is also expected to hold talks with U.S. President Barack Obama during his visit. A senior Israeli official told Reuters this month that Netanyahu would be looking for a firm pledge of U.S. military action if Iran does not back down.

However, the meeting might well be icy.

Israel's top-selling daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Friday that there had been an "unprecedented" and "angry" exchange between Netanyahu and the U.S. ambassador in Tel Aviv earlier this month over Iran.

Quoting a source who was present at the meeting, Netanyahu had criticised Obama for not doing enough to tackle Iran. The U.S. ambassador Daniel Shapiro took exception and accused the prime minister of distorting Obama's position.

The prime minister's office declined to comment on the report and there was no initial response from the U.S. embassy.

Adding to the growing chorus of concern facing Netanyahu, Haaretz newspaper reported on Friday that German Chancellor Angela Merkel had delivered a "harsh message" to Netanyahu 10 days ago, telling him to hold off on any attack plans.

The German embassy in Tel Aviv declined comment.

Israeli officials have repeatedly said that a growing array of sanctions against Iran are not having any impact on the Tehran leadership and believe they will only back down in the face of a credible threat of military action.

However, Netanyahu faces an uphill task persuading his own military and inner circle of the wisdom of a unilateral strike. Political sources told Reuters on Tuesday an ultra-orthodox party in his coalition was opposed to war.

(Additional reporting by Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Louise Ireland)

Source: http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/INworldNews/~3/dvD5G-O6TYU/israel-iran-pressure-idINDEE87U07K20120831

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