Beating Broke

Personal Finance from the Broke Perspective

Teach Your Child About Finances With This Book

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As a mom and personal finance blogger, I get the opportunity to review many books.  One that I just reviewed that I can’t recommend highly enough is Sunny Lee’s book, Is Your Child a Money Master or a Money Monster?

Money Master or Money Monster?

Sunny Lee is a financial advisor, and she has taken the time to teach her twin sons about money.  In fact, her strategy has worked so well that she’s sharing all her techniques in this book.

Lee has a variety of strategies for teaching kids about money in a fun, incentive-filled way.

Offer rewards.  Lee’s strategy of offering her children rewards helps shape their behavior in a positive direction.  For instance, when her sons were in 1st grade, Lee developed the Morning Stuff Allowance Project.  Each morning, her kids had to get up when their alarms went off, tidy their rooms, get dressed, pack their backpacks, and make and eat their own breakfast and get to school on time.  If they did this every day, they earned $3 a week.

While the kids were motivated by the money, they were also unknowingly developing skills that would help them through the rest of their lives.  Even better, Lee didn’t have to fight with her boys in the morning to get up and get their chores done.  Everyone in her household could enjoy a more peaceful morning.

Play games.  As the boys got older, part of Lee’s strategy to teach them about money was to give them a safe place to experiment.  She did this by finding a variety of free, money based games online.  Her boys experimented online with running a coffee shop.  They had to decide when to discount their coffee based on the season, how much inventory to buy, etc.

Try out your skills in the real world.  Finally, Lee let her sons experiment and try their money skills in the real world.  An important component of this was to let them fail in small ways.  One son spent a large sum of money on a hat, which he loved, but then he didn’t have money available for a while after that.  Her other son learned from his brother and bought a hat at a discounted market so he wouldn’t use all of his money on one item.

Lee’s book contains seven strategies to teach your kids about money (and as a byproduct, teach them personal responsibility).  One thing I loved about the book and her strategy is that she keeps adding layers to her plan.  For instance, after her kids mastered the Morning Stuff Allowance Project, that remained in place, but Lee added on the Special Incentive Project.  If her boys chose to, they could earn additional money throughout the week by completing a book report, doing an art project, etc.  Again, she helped her children grow academically and artistically through an incentive.

I highly recommend this book to anyone looking to not only give their children a strong financial footing, but also a strong work ethic.

Have you read this book?  What is your favorite book to teach kids about money?

Help Your Teen’s Business Grow with Facebook

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Often, teens want to make money without the commitment of a part-time job that may require them to work more hours than they can handle while also attending school and keeping up with homework.  Or, they may want to work for themselves, doing what they love or participating in sports, doing schoolwork, and searching for scholarships.  There are many reasons why a teen may not want a traditional part-time job as a cashier or a fast food employee.

Historically, these types of kids would rely on babysitting or lawn mowing jobs.  If they were particularly resourceful, they may try to start their own Etsy store.  However, the time to start an Etsy store, market it, create products, maintain customer relations, and ship out items can be intense.  Many teens don’t have time for that.

Luckily, teens can now use the power of social media to grow their own business and make money quickly on the timeline they set.

Selling What People Want on Facebook

Grow on Facebook
Grow Your Teen’s Business on Facebook

For instance, a young woman in our homeschool group needed to raise $2,000 for an upcoming mission trip she wanted to attend.  She offered to make cinnamon rolls ($20 for a 9×13 pan) and fudge ($8/lb.) for Valentine’s Day.  She shared on her own Facebook page, and her mom shared on her Facebook page.  Their family and friends quickly responded by placing orders over the next week.  Within two weeks, she had made the money that she needed, and she had happy customers who had homemade sweet treats for Valentine’s Day.

Another teen in our group makes balloon animals.  She offered to make balloon flamingos attached to a container of chocolate for Valentine’s Day for $8.  She got over 25 orders and made a nice profit.

Recently, her mom set up a Facebook business page for her daughter to promote her business.  This young lady, who is still not even in high school, routinely is hired to make balloons at children’s birthday parties.  Now she has a page to promote her work by showing the balloon styles she can make and showing examples of what she does at parties.  This job can grow into a nice part-time income, especially when she is in high school and college.

Business Can Jump From Facebook to Friends’ Friends

While Facebook may be a great way for teens to start their business, it also gives them much needed exposure.  For instance, when the young lady above is working at a birthday party for a friend her mom has on Facebook, other moms at the party will ask about her services.  These women have no connection to her or her mom, but the magic of word-of-mouth referrals has begun.  Between Facebook and word-of-mouth referrals, she will likely keep very busy.

We’ve all heard the stories of teens who become YouTube celebrities and make thousands of dollars.  That likely won’t happen with the majority of kids.

However, thanks to social media, your child can grow a nice part-time business, especially if they advertise a product or skill that people want to their and their parents’ Facebook page, where people already know and trust them.

Do you have an entrepreneurial teenager?  If so, how do you help support their endeavors?  How do they usually find their clients?

Haggling or No Haggling When Buying a Car?

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Recently, for the first time in 12 years, my husband and I found ourselves in the market for a car.  My husband hates negotiating, so the chore of haggling for a car fell on me.  I had the misguided notion that the Internet would make price negotiation easier, but that assumption was wrong.  Instead, I found that negotiating the price of a car is harder now than it was 12 years ago.

There is definitely something to be said for car dealerships like CarMax that tote a no haggle price.  But which is better?  Haggling with traditional dealerships or going with a dealership that doesn’t play games?

For us, the answer was the latter.

We started our car search ready to haggle and get a good deal.  Instead, all we got was frustration!

The Frustration of Haggling

Haggle or no Haggle when buying a car?
Should You Haggle for a Car?

We religiously searched the Internet to find cars in our price range.  We found one, called to confirm it was still there, and then made the 45 minute drive only to find out it had been sold.  I doubt if it was even there when we called, honestly.

Next, we went to another dealership, this time two hours away, to snag a good deal that we found online.  However, unbeknownst to us, the dealer had an advertised Internet price, but below it, he had a disclaimer—plus dealer fees and extras.  Well, the dealer fees and extras ended up being $2,700 more than the advertised price.

Still, we wanted the car, so we tried to negotiate, but they would not budge much.  After a few rounds of haggling, they were only willing to knock $1,500 off the dealer fees and extras, which would have had us paying $1,200 extra beyond the Internet advertised price plus the fees for the plates, taxes, etc.  No thanks.  Of course, once we drove home, they called us and were willing to negotiate some more.  They still wouldn’t agree to the price we wanted, and we didn’t want to drive two hours again to get the car.

By this time, we were fed up with our car search and the sales people’s tactics.

No Haggle Dealerships

Back we went to the Internet.  A week later we found a car that was a good deal.  We called that dealership and asked the important questions:

Is the car still available?

Do you take any extra fees on to the advertised Internet price?

Yes, the car was available, and no, there were no additional fees.

We loved the car, and after our weeks of searching, we knew it was a good deal.  The salesman almost immediately offered us an additional $600 off the advertised price, but he wouldn’t negotiate after that.  That put the car right in our price range, and we happily took it.

If you like to haggle, that might be the right technique for you.  However, I found the process this time to be very frustrating.

I’d much rather give my business to a dealership that prices the car appropriately (we checked this before we actually saw the car by checking the Blue Book price) and that doesn’t play number games.

Have you bought a car recently?  Did you haggle, or do you prefer to use a dealership that doesn’t play games?