Comments on: Make Your Child the Resident Financial Guru

By: Ryan

Ryan — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 04:05:53 +0000

Dana: One can definitely save a lot of money at the grocery store just by making a few small changes here and there. The problem is that many people get into habits and don’t think about changing them. Hot vs. cold cereal is just one small example of this.

By: Dana

Dana — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 02:22:09 +0000

About Darwin’s comment: Better yet, don’t buy cold cereal at all. If I were still eating breakfast cereal, and I’m not, I would get old-fashioned oatmeal instead. You get more for your dollar, and a lot less sugar (even if you add sweetener to oatmeal, YOU control how much). Even the “healthy” cereals are too much starch and puffed air for what they want you to pay. It is a racket and a half. I can’t believe WIC pays for that stuff and calls it nutritious. (And I’ve been on WIC.)

By: Manshu

Manshu — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 04:32:03 +0000

I strongly believe that if people become more responsible about their actions (financial or otherwise) because of this recession – then this was well worth it.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 02:01:47 +0000

Darwin’s Finance: Great tips! I haven’t heard anything about fecal matter in cereal before, so I’ll leave that one alone…

Curious Cat: Very good tip. My plan is to try and involve our children about money issues from an early age. And of course start them blogging about money as soon as they can type.

By: Curious Cat Investing Blog

Curious Cat Investing Blog — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 19:49:23 +0000

The biggest thing, in my opinion, is to talk to them and get them to think about money. Things like saving for a big toy is good because it helps them experience how to get what they want, and that it isn’t just asking Mommy or the credit card fairy.

By: Darwin's Finance

Darwin's Finance — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:52:48 +0000

A couple other tidbits for kids –

– Try to pay cash in front of them. Even though you can get cash back on credit cards for purchases, I want my kids to learn to use cash while they’re younger and only start relying on credit cards more heavily once they’re more established in their routines and into their long term spending/lifestyle phase.

– Something my father showed me as a kid was a graph with the power of compounding investing/interest. i.e. if you put 2000 per year into stocks returing 8% per year from 25-35 yrs old, you’d have more at retirement than someone who did so EVERY year starting at 35, etc.

Finally, while store vs. brand name is a good lesson, keep in mind that generic store brand cereal has a lower threshold for the amount of rat fecal matter that is allowed in the cereal. When they’re using the same source of supply, the brand name (flakes or whatever) come from the top of the hopper, whereas the generic comes from the bottom where the fecal pellets have a greater tendancy to settle. This sounds gross, but have heard in multiple venues from relavant industry sources.

By: DDFD at DivorcedDadFrugalDad

DDFD at DivorcedDadFrugalDad — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 12:00:18 +0000

Great post! Nice tips.

We are constantly work at teaching our kids the value of money and to make smart choices!