Boy Scout Merit Badge – Personal Management
May 12, 2012
Both of my sons are Boy Scouts. One is working hard to become an Eagle Scout in the very near future. In order to become an Eagle Scout, every Boy Scout is required to complete a minimum number of merit badges. The Scout is also required to complete some specific merit badges, including the Personal Management Merit Badge.
You can find the Personal Management Merit Badge here: http://meritbadge.org/wiki/index.php/Personal_Management
Since my son, Jonathan, has been working through this badge, I also have become familiar with it. I think it is a great tool for any parent to teach more about money to her kid. The badge teaches about and reviews a number of topics, including:
- Making a major family purchase
- Budgeting
- General sentiments about money
- Saving and investing
- The stock market
- Credit and debt
- Future career
If you need some ideas regarding money lessons to work on with your kids, take a stab at this merit badge. We will talk about some of these things here in the next few weeks.
Justine
Read this link – be forewarned and then act on it.
December 22, 2008
Read this link:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/09/12/earlyshow/contributors/raymartin/main3253611.shtml
Be forewarned by it. In fact, be scared by it. But then go act on it. You are learning a lot in this blog that you can act in a smart fashion.
The CBS News article discusses the perils of credit cards for your kids when they get to college. But it is also it fairly sensationalist article, meant to freak you out.
I’ve lead you to this article only to share with you the merits of having your child obtain a credit card now, while he is still in your household, and of teaching him about credit cards for four-t0-six years before he goes off to college or to work. Then, when your kid does head off to college or wherever he is going to go, with all of that practice and knowledge, he will not be tempted by the credit card offers discussed in the article.
Your son will know them when he sees them. He will know how crazy all of these credit card offers are because you will have taught him and he won’t be tempted by them. Besides, he will also already have a credit card. Therefore, he will be able to throw away all of those credit card offers with great confidence. And you will not need to worry about him ratcheting up debt on his credit card because he will have learned not to do that for several years while he was living with you.
There is some valuable advice in this article, and some with which I wholeheartedly agree. Some of it I disagree with. You can make your own decisions regarding all of that.
But you can avoid a lot of problems if you teach your daughter or son how to use a credit card now, rather than avoiding the topic and hoping for the best when she or he gets to college.
Justine
Good Book – On My Own Two Feet
December 9, 2008
My friend, Mr. Nault, the retired businessman who teaches, gave me a cute little book to read. And I need to share it with you. It is called On My Own Two Feet: a modern girl’s guide to personal finance.
It was written by Minisha Thakor and Sharon Kedar, both MBAs from Harvard and both Chartered Financial Analysts.
My friend Pete thought he needed to write a book but then someone handed him this little guide. He loves this book and you will, too.
A great holiday gift-giving idea.
The ISBN number is 978-1-59869-124-5. It’s cover price is $12.95. Give it to your daughter. And your son.
It will help continue the conversations.
Justine
National Endowment for Financial Management
December 8, 2008
The National Endowment for Financial Management (“NEFE”) was brought to my attention by Pete Nault, a local retired businessman who is using the curriculum to teach a personal finance course to local high school students. I want to make sure that you all know about NEFE, as well.
NEFE is a terrific resource for parents who want more guidance for teaching kids about money. It is also a great resource for schools who would like to adopt a curriculum on personal finance. You can order the materials and take them to your local school board. Or offer to volunteer at the school and teach the course. You could become a substitute teacher and on those days that the local school district calls you at 6:30 am saying that they could use your services at the George Washington High School, you can go and teach a little personal finance to some high school kids.
(No high school kids like subs who continue the core teacher’s curriculum for the day, do they? And if the sub is trying to teach the regular teacher’s curriculum, they do it all wrong, right? Kids love substitute teachers because of the variety they bring to the classroom. So as a substitute teacher you could bring GOOD variety and teach some personal finance to these sponge-brains.)
You can order a sample kit of high school learning materials at:
http://hsfpp.nefe.org/home/channels.cfm?chid=100&tid=1&deptid=14
This link is also over on the right-hand side under Helpful Websites.
Enjoy!
Justine
The Idea for Credit Cards for Kids
November 13, 2008
OK, time for confession. I want to tell you that I’ve been teaching Hannah how to use a credit card for three years now. Jon just started using a credit card in the past year. But I did not develop this idea on my own.
I actually learned of the idea to teach children how to use credit cards from a gentleman by the name of Dr. Bob Barnes. Dr. Barnes came and spoke at my church years ago. Our church developed some programming around parenting and brought Dr. Barnes in for a weekend.
Dr. Barnes lectures and writes books. He is also known as Robert G. Barnes and according to a biography I found online he is a public speaker, the executive director of Sheridan House Family Ministries, the author of several books, a radio and a newspaper columnist.
On the evening that my husband and I went to hear him speak, Bob discussed how to get your kid started on a credit card. I found what he said to be fascinating. So when the time came, I started deploying the strategy myself. Granted, I’ve had to augment and tweak the strategy to my own temperament and to my family’s needs, but I got the original idea from him.
Dr. Barnes touches on this topic briefly in his book “Ready for Responsibility” which I own. You can find the link to the book here: http://www.zondervan.com/Cultures/en-US/Product/ProductDetail.htm?ProdID=com.zondervan.9780310201359&QuerySiteString=Zondervan&QueryStringSite=Zondervan
This link is also at the top of the blogroll at the right, for your convenience.
The title of the chapter where he discusses teaching kids about money is titled, “Prepare Them to Handle Money or Money Will Handle Them.” Don’t you just love that title? I think it says it all.
Justine
