What do you see when you open your refrigerator? How many containers of your favorite foods have been sitting in there for the past week or so? Those leftovers you keep meaning to eat - until you must eventually throw them away.

Estimates from the U.S. Department of Agriculture suggest that over one-third (30-40 percent) of food goes uneaten through loss or waste. This adds up to approximately 133 billion pounds and $161 billion worth of food in 2010.

In this Family Financial Feuds episode, I had a mind-opening conversation with Karla Belzer about the role mindfulness plays in reducing stress about money. Karla is a Family Life Educator with University of Illinois Extension. She is also now the acting County Director for one of the IL Extension units. Karla has worked for 20 plus years in the health and services field. She has been studying, researching, and writing about mindfulness for many years, and she brings some new perspectives to the discussion on incorporating mindfulness in financial literacy education.

I had a few conversations with a friend who decided to add a loved one to his credit card as an authorized user. Over the years, we had many discussions about some of the challenges he faced building his credit history as an immigrant with a thin credit file. He had been a joint account holder in previous situations, and now he was in a position to help someone else. Like my friend, I have been a primary account holder, joint account holder, and an authorized user, which lead me down this path to talk more to colleagues, do research, and write about piggybacking credit.

According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2019), food costs represent about 13% of the average household’s annual expenditures. Food spending continues to increase during the pandemic, and the data shows some distinct patterns among different generations during this period.

Sasha Grabenstetter led the team into a lively and relevant discussion on whether it was possible to save for your children’s education and simultaneously save for retirement. We discussed our past college experiences, covered research on 529 plans, and explored savings goals. Find us on Sound Cloud to hear the full conversation.

There is growing interest in the personal finance community on mindfulness's effects on our money attitudes and behaviors. The research on mindfulness is continuously evolving. The focus on the relationship between money behaviors and mindfulness is intriguing to many financial professionals who work with different clientele or community members to help support their economic well-being.