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Category: Teaching Kids Financial Literacy

Ryan’s First Visit to the ATM Machine

Ryan’s First Visit to the ATM Machine

Ryan just learned how to use the ATM machine at our bank.  It’s Sunday and the bank is closed but Ryan really wanted to deposit several checks that he’d been holding on to. “No problem”, I said.  “Just use the ATM.” It occurred to me that maybe he had no idea how to use an ATM, after all, he’s only had his checking account for several months.  But he didn’t bat an eye when I recommended it, so I passed…

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Nathan’s Hands-On Lesson About Insurance

Nathan’s Hands-On Lesson About Insurance

All three of us ran to the window.  We had never heard a sound like that before.  But that’s because we had never seen hail like that before.  It wasn’t that the hailstones were large, it was that they were coming down in sheets.  Within several minutes the entire backyard looked like it had been snowing for days. It was sort of fun to watch.  Until the phone rang.  It was Nathan.  I had forgotten about him.  He had left…

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Nathan Earns a FREE Tux AND $400 Suit

Nathan Earns a FREE Tux AND $400 Suit

Okay, so it’s just a free tux rental, but the suit…that’s $400 that he gets to hang in his closet forever. And Nathan loves suits. Last year, when he did an internship with my brother in D.C., we went shopping for his very first suit. When the tailor brought out the tape measure and Nathan had to lift arms, he was in awe that people actually got treated this way. $600 later, it made sense why. That’s a lot of…

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Trading Toys

Trading Toys

I was in Walmart the other day, lost. I don’t usually shop at Super-Sized Walmart, but I was on that side of town and, being all about efficiency, it made sense. But I’m so used to my dinky Walmart, that I was getting a little overwhelmed with all my aisle choices. I decided to step out in the “middle” and survey my surroundings. That’s when my ears pricked up as I overheard a mom say to her 6-year old-ish daughter…

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Easy Money

Easy Money

As I sit here writing this, my youngest son is out pounding the pavement. Money motivates him. Not in an unhealthy, consuming kind of way. But in an I-can’t-turn-down-this-opportunity kind of way. And I’m okay with that as long as his ethics and priorities are in the right place. And they are. This is not the first time this opportunity has presented itself. There was a flyer on top of his newspaper stack last week (he has a once-a-week paper…

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