How to Help Your Kids Understand the Family Financial Budget

Between You, Me and the Lamp Post

How to Help Your Kids Understand the Family Financial Budget

Very few children know the value of money.  They see that their friends have the latest electronic gadgets, designer clothing or fashionable jewelry and they want it too.  They have no idea how much those items cost or whether or not Mom and Dad can afford them.  If you’ve ever wondered how to help your kids understand the family financial budget, the following tips might help.

As soon as children are old enough, tell them how much you earn and show them what kind of bills have to be paid on a monthly basis.  Talk to them about the mortgage/rent, the hydro bill, phone bill, credit card and anything else that needs paying.  Write all payments down, add them up and deduct them off your income.  Seeing how much is left will make them understand what a family budget is.

Let children accompany you on grocery shopping trips and let them see the bill.  While shopping, individually priced items may not make much of an impression on them, but seeing it added up might open their eyes just how expensive groceries are.  If you are paying with a credit card, show them the statement at the end of the month.  For a lot of children a credit card is a magical card that pays bills, but they don’t take into account that that card has to be paid too.

Teach your children about shopping around and practice what you preach.  The next time you need shoes, a sweater or washing liquid, take the kids along and show them that shopping around might help them save a significant amount of dollars. When they see how much you save by visiting more than one store, chances are they will do the same.

Introduce your children to earning their own money.  Don’t just give them an allowance, but give them tasks to do and pay them accordingly.  They will soon find out that it takes time and effort to get a particular sum together.  If you want them to learn the value of money, let them get a part-time job when they are old enough.  Nothing teaches kids more effectively about money than having to work for it.

It might also be a good idea to let them have their own savings account.  Not just a piggy bank in which they save a few coins, but a proper bank account that pays them interest and with which they can see their savings grow.  With a growing savings account they might prefer to put money aside instead of spending it.

www.connymanero.weebly.com

Day 54: Did I become a millionaire

Between You, Me and the Lamp Post

Day 54: Did I become a millionaire

Last Friday I made the bold statement ‘I’m gonna be a millionaire’ and I’ll bet some of you are wondering if I indeed won the lottery.

I must say, I had every reason to be hopeful, there had been signs of good fortune to come and when I received an email from the lottery commission saying ‘You are a winner’ I thought ... this is it.

When I checked my account my hopes and dreams were once again smashed to smithereens. No penthouse condo, no Lamborghini in the garage, no giant diamond on my finger, not able to help those in desperate need.

I had indeed won, but not nearly as much as I had hoped for. I had won $40 and a free ticket. Okay, not enough for Dieter and me to quit our jobs, but enough for four weeks of free play. Better than nothing, right?

Maybe it’s for the best that I didn’t win. Would I survive winning millions of dollars?

Many years ago I bought a family magazine every week. At one time the magazine ran a competition. Inside the magazine was a number followed by two letters, for instance, 277 AB. Week after week I checked the provided sticker but I was never the lucky one.

And then one week it happened. I checked my sticker, 934 TN and the winning number was 934 TM. Holy shit, I screamed like I had seen a monster and started jumping up and down.

Alerted by the noise, my then-husband came running into the living room to see what was doing on. “We won! We won!” I kept repeating. He grabbed the magazine, checked the sticker and ... “Hold on a second,” he said. “You didn’t win. The winning number is 934 TM and your sticker number is 934 TN.” 

Oh, the disappointment of it. 

The thing is though, in that competition the winning amount was 1,000 Rand ($87,25). If I had such a reaction to $87,25 can you imagine what I would be like if I found out I had won millions? I'm liable to give myself a heart attack and drop dead on the spot. 

Still, I'll take the chance and play again next Friday. One day (hopefully soon) I will get it right, right?

Day 166: Think before you pull out your wallet parents

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 166: Think before you pull out your wallet parents

My friends and I got together the other day. Alice was not in a good mood, in fact, she was fuming mad.

“Get this,” she came straight to the point, “Margaret’s maternity leave is almost finished, and she doesn’t want to go back to work. She wants to be a stay at home mom. She’s a qualified chartered accountant and now she wants to quit her job!”

“Do what I did,” Victoria said, placing a calming hand on Alice’s arm. “The very same thing happened with my eldest daughter Cindy. She studied law, passed the bar exam and got hired by one of the big law firms of Toronto. A month later she and Eric got married and three months after that she got pregnant. When it was almost time to go back to work, she announced that she wasn’t going to, that she was going to be a stay at home mom.”

I said “That’s fine honey, but I invested in your future by paying your tuition, amounting to close to $200,000. Now you have a choice, you either go back to work or you are going to pay me back. I won’t charge you interest, but if you’re gonna throw your future away, I want that $200,000 to be paid back to me. And not with $20 a month, we’ll set up a payment plan. We make the amount payable over 10 years, which will amount to $1,666 per month.”

She started laughing and wondered where in the world she was going to get $1,666 a month. I said, “Well honey, that’s your problem. But that’s how it is.”

When she saw I wasn’t joking, that I was in fact deadly serious she wasn’t laughing anymore. When her maternity leave finished, she returned to work. Problem solved.”

I don’t have that problem with my daughter, Angela,” Maggie piped up. “I wouldn’t mind a grandchild, but when I talked to Ruby about it she was having none of it. “Do you think I put myself through university, studied my ass off and worked two jobs just to chuck it all away in a kid?” she said. “Forget it, mom.”

It seems to me that the problem lies with the parents. If mommy and daddy pay for tuition the son or daughter is more likely to chuck their career at the first opportunity than if the student pays out of his or her own pocket. They know what it took to get where they are and are more likely to appreciate it. 

Think before you pull out your wallet parents!

Day 165: Elizabeth Ray – scam artist

My project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 165: Elizabeth Ray – scam artist

You probably pride yourself on being smart, but how smart are you really? Can you spot a scam?

Yesterday, I was approached by Gloria Allendorfer-Anderson on Facebook who told me that she was awarded a grant of $50,000 and that I might be eligible too. All I had to do was get in touch with Elizabeth Ray (email elizabethray938@gmail.com)

Just for fun I sent Elizabeth an email and of course she let me know that I was eligible for a $50,000 grant too. I knew right away that I was dealing with a scam artist, but I decided to have some fun with her.

When she asked for my name, address, phone number and monthly income I gave her bogus information and when she wanted to know whether I wanted the $50,000 in cash or with a cheque, I opted for a cheque.

Then came the kicker … in order for the money to be delivered to me by UPS she wanted $1,000. Yeah, right, like I was going to send a complete stranger that much money.

I played along and said that I would send her the money. She suggested that I go to Walgreens or a CVS store. When I told her that no such store is in my neighborhood, she suggested I transfer the money via Western Union.

I suggested that I pay her directly to her bank account, but she was having none of that. If she gave me that information, it would be very easy for the police to track her down.

Not that tracking her down is much of a problem for those who know how. With her I.P. address they have her in a matter of minutes if not seconds.

This kind of scam, or shall I say all kinds of deceit makes me mad though. Generally, people work hard for their money and then a scam artist like Elizabeth Ray comes along and steals folks' hard earned cash. She herself probably probably never has done a day's work. She spends her time sending people emails and hoping that they fall for her scam. If only five people a day believe her nonsense, that's $5,000 for a few hours of 'work'.   

I might not have a Harvard degree, but I’m smart enough to spot a scam a mile away. Unfortunately, scammers are smart too. 

In the case of Elizabeth Ray, she will change her name and her email address and bamboozle who knows how many more people.

In conclusion … be wary of Elizabeth Ray and her partner in crime Gloria Allendorfer-Anderson, they might even be one and the same person.

If you keep the following in mind, you should be safe:

Never trust that a stranger wants to give you money. Nobody is going to give you money out of the goodness of their heart.

Never give your real name, address or phone number to a stranger.

Never trust a stranger who wants you to use Western Union as a money courier.

And last but not least … if something seems too good to be true … it usually is.

Day 162: Toronto Cat Rescue Bowl-a-thon

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 162: Toronto Cat Rescue Bowl-a-thon

It’s that time of the year again. The Toronto Cat Rescue (TCR) is hosting their annual Bowl-a-thon to raise funds for the cats and kittens of Toronto.

Since Dieter and I love both cats and bowling, we registered for this event and are active fundraisers.

The first year we took part, our group was very small, and the organization barely raised $6,000. Last year, the group counted over 200 people and we raised over $40,000.

How does the Toronto Cat Rescue? It’s not a cat shelter in the traditional sense of the word. Cats are not housed in cages, but rather with foster families, their picture is taken and displayed on the TCR website, after which the cats are up for adoption.

The organization needs money though. Before each cat or kittens goes to their new home, they are spayed/neutered. If a cat or kitten is sick, it’s taken to a veterinarian.

If you can spare a few dollars, I would kindly ask you to make a donation. This can be done in three ways:

Canada Helps:

https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/toronto-cat-rescue/p2p/bowlathon2019/team/paws-claws/captain/conny-manero/

My PayPal account:

conny.manreo@gmail.com

or via a bank transfer.

A donation of $20 or more will get you a tax receipt.

The cats and kittens of Toronto are counting on you and thank you in advance.

Day 135: AWAI Online

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 135: AWAI Online

One of my pet peeves are people trying to take advantage of other people: Nigerian princes who want to share their millions, financially strapped mothers who can’t provide for their children and ask for support, and writing sites making unrealistic promises to aspiring writers. One such writing site is AWAI Online.

It’s understandable why freelance writing has become so popular. Men and women of all ages get to work from home, get to be creative, and some of them manage to earn a decent income.

AWAI Online recognized that freelance writing has taken off faster than a car on nitro and zoomed in to lift unsuspecting people of their hard-earned money. The plan is simple, get people’s attention with the line

““The Accelerated Program for Six-Figure Copywriting salary”

When I see a line like that I immediately know that I’m dealing with a scam. No copywriter, amateur or professional earns a six-figure salary. If they did, everyone and his uncle would choose that profession.

Generally, freelance writers work for pennies, they are among the most underpaid people in the world. Some of them get paid 3, 5 or 10 cents per word and gradually work themselves up to a better payout.

A friend of mine is such a writer. She started out working for pennies, build up a portfolio and a reputation and today she is one of the most successful and respected writers in the business. Save to say, she makes a very nice income but she earns nowhere near $100,000 a year. However, she is one of the few, the rest of us take what we can get where it comes to writing.

But let’s get back to AWAI Online. As always I did some digging and found this article:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/53003768@N06/8494566540

At Writers Beware I found the following:

https://accrispin.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-barefoot-writers-club.html

At the time of publication, there were 127 comments pertaining to AWAI Online. Let’s have a look at some of them:

The head honcho of AWAI, calls herself "Katie Yeakle" That happens to be a fake name, as are the names of many of those who run or write for AWAI. Hmm...

Check Elance or oDesk if you want to find out what freelance writers really earn. Those sites are chock full of very capable writers charging $10-$20 per hour.

If AWA has accomplished anything aside from making "Yeakle" and her insiders fabulously wealthy, it has flooded the market with pipe-dreaming wannabe $500-an-hour writers, which by their sheer volume have eliminated the chance that many will earn a reasonable living off writing.

I just found out they are taking $49 out my credit card account every year, and I have not authorized this repeated charge. Also, I cannot find anything in "My Account" on their website that shows I will be or have been charged or how I can stop the charges. This qualifies as a scam. I've never gotten anything worthwhile from them either. Stay away.

Thanks for this post! I've been wondering about these AWAI people. I signed up for their mailing list at some point but I've never spent money on them. I just get emails from them every few days that always sound about the same and never give me any actual info. Like you said, it's just all fluff that reads like one of those get rich quick scam pages. Sure it sounds glamorous and beautiful and who wouldn't want that... but it's got way too many red flags.

If I call in the next 30 minutes, I will receive two, that's right, TWO subscriptions for the price of ONE! They'll even throw in a free shower head valued at $19.95! But wait--that's not all. As a special introductory offer, they will provide me with a 1,000-page email list that I can use to spam unsuspecting people with the hypnotic power of my newly-acquired copywriting genius! If that's not a deal, I don't know what is.

On second thought, it might be easier to just take a blunt blow to the head.

There is only ONE way to be a profitable writer--have talent, wow a publisher. Get your education in the field of writing from reliable educators, work, work at it until you have a WOW piece. Now go out there and WOW one.

There is no way, as I see it, that some snake oil salesman on the internet can make you a writer.

What I want to know is, "who are all these people writing the testimonials?" 

AWAI is pretty much of a joke.

Unfortunately, the naïve, and the ones who don't do their homework on AWAI get sucked in.

I have lost count the number of business owners I have written for who got burned after hiring "copywriters" through AWAI.

The stories I could tell you about this place. Just the way AWAI advertises themselves should tell anyone with a half a brain that they are not good at copywriting. Their lame articles alone should tell you plenty. Buyers beware. 

I guess this just about sums it up. If you go searching for AWAI Online, you’ll no doubt find favorable reviews, but the question is … who wrote those reviews, even if the writer states that he/she is unbiased.

Take it from me, anyone who believes that earning a six-figure salary (meaning in access of $100,000 a year) with copywriting is possible is dreaming.

The only ones who make money from the six-figure writing course are AWAI Online and you can be sure that they’ll be smirking … we caught another sucker.

You want to learn how to write? There are two ways of doing that: 1) go to school, an actual school where a teacher/professor will explain the process and the finer points; 2) go online and read everything you can get your hands on. Don’t just read through, study the material. Next, you practice, practice, and practice some more. You’ll get the hang of it soon enough and it won’t cost you a dime.