While I give gifts all year long, this time of year I buy a lot of gifts! The fact that my sons’ birthdays are in November and January just add to the gift buying.
It only makes sense with all this gift-buying on our minds that our latest Family Financial Feuds podcast is about gift giving, Gifting Ain’t Easy. In this episode, Sasha Grabenstetter and I investigate the...
What are some of the smart mobile devices (SMDs) you have in your household? In a new podcast episode on Family Financial Feuds, Too Smart for Our Own Good? Kathy Sweedler and Camaya Wallace Bechard (Illinois Extension Educators) discuss the popularity of smart devices such as iPad and tablets, smartphones, watches, and others in families and households. They focus on the decisions households make about different...
As the seasons shift, now is an excellent time to pause and reflect. This past week I’ve been reflecting on how my values affect my choices, including my financial decisions. I find taking time to reflect before the holiday season (defined by me as Halloween through my sons’ birthdays in January) helps me manage my holiday spending.
Day-to-day life and purchases don’t allow much time for reflection. However, let’s explore a couple of quick activities that can be helpful.
First, list...
I love when a blog post weeks intersects with a podcast release. This month, Camaya and I tackled the topic of subscription boxes called “You Check All My Subscription Boxes”. This particular topic is what we describe as “me-search” because I have invested a lot of time into reviewing and subscribing to different subscription boxes. Let’s start with the basics.
What is a subscription box? How much...
While it’s only September, as a financial educator I’m thinking about my holiday budgeting and spending. Why am I thinking about this now? Because lots of other people are too! According to the National Retail Federation 18% of people start their holiday shopping in September or earlier. Here are some tips for 2019 to make your holiday spending a little easier.
MAKE A BUDGET within a BUDGET
Yes, you read that right, make a holiday spending budget within your bigger...
On the financial to-do list, saving for retirement is one of easiest to say, I’ll do that another day! The good news is that two-thirds of Americans are saving for retirement, according to 2019 EBRI/Greenwald Retirement Confidence Survey. If you are one of these people, congratulations!
Researchers and policy makers are interested in encouraging people to save money for long-term goals such as retirement as well as for...
Do you think the student should pay for their own college expenses? Or is it the parents’ responsibilities? This is a tough question!
Sasha Grabenstetter and I discuss this in the latest Family Financial Feuds podcast, Who Should Pay for College?. Take a listen and see if you agree or disagree with us.
We talk about aspects of this question including:
Does skin in the game matter?
Does the major the...
We can't be an expert in all topics. That's why we seek help from people who have expertise in areas we don't. Financial professionals can help you explore alternatives and strategies to best manage your finances. People seek help from financial professionals for a variety of reasons, and you likely will have different reasons over your lifetime. You might not have the expertise you need to do the task; many people use tax accountants to help file their taxes. A change in a person's...
In April - we released a new podcast track about pets! Camaya and I discuss the lifetime costs of owning a pet, some research surrounding pets, pet insurance, service animals vs support animals, plus some estate planning for pets. There are also tons of personal stories (mostly about cats, but a few dogs as well!) I hope you'll either give us a listen on SoundCloud or...
When I was in graduate school, I remember having conversations with my peers about the length of time it would take us to repay our student loans. For some of us, that meant closer to our proposed retirement years. For some older adults (60 and over), the realities of carrying student loan debt continue to increase. A report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau...
Financial worries are often on people's minds. Finances can cause conflicts between family members and friends. Research studies even show being worried about finances decreases employees' productivity. One of the things Illinois Extension does is to help people manage their finances and relieve money-related stress. A nod to this...
This summer, my husband and I are starting a kitchen remodel project -- yikes! Our house is over 60 years old and the kitchen is desperate for an update. In the next few months, I will blog about our journey – hopefully, this will be helpful to others facing remodeling projects. Home remodeling projects can be scary to start! Since we bought our home, my husband and I have done several significant home remodeling projects and one of the hardest parts is deciding whom to do the work. After a...
I worked as a member of a wait/service staff (i.e., a tipped worker) for five different types of food service establishments during my undergraduate years. The tips I received helped pay for my student loan, maintaining my car, housing, and some of my other personal care needs. Even though I wasn't bringing in a lump sum, it all added up. I've also been in the role of the customer in situations where I am wondering whether I should tip a service person. In what situations do you tip or decide...
If you can believe it, I've been blogging for almost six years now. As a financial educator, writing these words on the internet might mean that I could be banned from the "financial educators club", but the fact of the matter is that for almost a year now I've struggled with tracking ALL my expenses, all the time. Maybe you're like me, tired of tracking every penny on an excel spreadsheet, ever changing phone app or maybe you have never tracked expenses at all, but let's discuss the two things...
Graduation season is coming up soon! Whether it's a high school graduation or college, gift giving season is in full swing come May. According to the National Retail Federation total gift spending last graduation season was expected to reach $5.2 billion. The average person buying graduation gifts will spend $102.51. That's a lot of money being transferred to the new...
My Summit Experience I recently attended an employer summit that focused on how school districts, school counselors, and employers can collaborate in preparing students for life after high school. Some important highlights of that meeting was providing hands-on, accessible, relevant, and timely education and practical experiences for students. Experiences that are innovative and collaborative and prepare them for adult life. Access to technology and leadership opportunities...
Talking about money can be tough. We tend to have all kinds of values, mixed messages, emotions and more tied to our money conversations. For some people, the last kind of talk they want to have with family is "the money talk." We tend to avoid the topic. Unfortunately, this means our children may not be as prepared to handle their finances when they're adults.
Youth manage money better as adults if the following happens while they are young:
Conversations about money happen regularly
A...
Many people face tough economic times periodically, and some of the challenges they experience are due to unforeseen or unanticipated circumstances. As an educator who teaches personal finance, it is easy to discuss the merits or advantages of saving for the unexpected. In other words, it gives me such pleasure to write about the steps to developing an emergency savings account, as someone who thinks about money and financial management on a day-to-day basis. However, for individuals trying to...
In February's Podcast, Kathy, Camaya and Sasha discuss goals and goal setting. You can listen to the podcast on SoundCloud! Laugh and learn with us as the consumer economics team discusses goals together and how to make them less scary!
