Smart401k Blog

We follow lots of really good blogs – mostly related to personal finance and economics. The Blog Round-Up allows us to point you in the direction of some great content from the blogging world. Posts* included in today’s round-up speak to the theme Children and Money.  (more…)

Most articles about retirement planning focus on you – the future retiree. Oftentimes authors also discuss how spouses’ retirement savings will interact in a retirement strategy. Have you ever thought about how your retirement savings decisions will affect everyone else in your life?

Think about all your family, and even your friends. Your financial situation during retirement could be part of their lives too.  (more…)

Many parents around the country will soon be sending recent high school graduates off on their own … to college.

If you’re one of those parents, you might have been working up to this for years. Now you have one summer to reinforce good financial behaviors, before your student ventures off and away.

Imagine you’re the coach, and this is your time to deliver the pre-game plan: (more…)

Creating a strategy to educate kids about finance is important because there are so many mistakes young people can make – even in high school or college – that could have implications for decades to come. (Think credit cards, excessive student loans, not contributing to a 401(k), budgeting without thinking about future needs, not budgeting at all.)

I have two-and-a-half-year-old twin boys. (more…)

I’ve already discussed my plan for teaching my son about money through age 10. This post contains my thoughts about how to approach the most challenging group of children – teenagers.

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I believe that a major cause for the financial problems that many Americans face is directly tied to a lack of money-related education earlier in life. If you set a good example and start educating them early, you will give your children a significant advantage when they begin their lives in the real world.

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Since I began writing about “money and kids” (Post 1, Post 2), the recession has continued to work its way through the lives of many families, ultimately shaping the perception that kids may have about money. 

While the impact has been different for each family, I believe now is a great opportunity to show how the recession has affected your household.  Below are a few suggestions for how to use the current state of the economy as an important learning tool.  I’d also like to hear from others about methods they have found helpful – please feel free to post a comment.

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