Pocketmint

Tag: kids

1. Two things I wish my teenaged self had known about college

   23 November 2012

   In my last post, I talked about my early misconceptions about choosing a career and a major. My next big life decision was selecting a college, and I was pretty woefully misguided there, too. I approached college selection in my usual methodical manner: first I sat down with two huge catalogs — each two inches […]

2. Movie helps kids relate to economic woes

   24 June 2009

   If tough economic times are causing you stress, you can bet your kids are picking up on the tension as well. Knowing how much to tell them about financial matters can be tricky; you don’t want to overburden and worry them, but neither do you want to leave them surprised and unprepared. I thought the […]

3. Parental generosity versus financial limits

   28 August 2008

   A recent conversation on the Get Rich Slowly forum about finances and children caught my eye — specifically, how do you balance the desire to give your children everything they want (or everything you did or didn’t have) with the practical need to limit expenses? This is an issue that Jak and I negotiate regularly, […]

4. Text message insanity, part two

   31 July 2008

   In part one, I discussed the rampant texting habits of teenagers today and the rapidly rising cost of same. The deceptive part of the text messaging phenomenon is that the cost is discussed in terms of a nickel here, a dime there, which makes it seem trivial. It’s not. Wireless providers are collecting forty cents […]

5. Text message insanity, part one

   18 July 2008

   If you have a teen in your house, you’re likely already aware of what I’m about to tell you: this texting thing is way out of control. We have a fifteen-year-old. Nearly every conversation Jak and I have with her involves a variation of the phrase, “Michaela, put your phone away and listen to me.” […]

6. Cheaper student loans … for some

   1 July 2008

   With a teenager set to graduate in three years, I’m paying a lot more attention to news about student loans these days. Kids from low-income families who start college this fall got some good news today, as four years of interest-rate cuts kicked in. It’s questionable whether that last year of lower interest rates, which […]

7. Orthodontic sticker shock

   29 June 2008

   No posts for the last couple of days — instead I’ve been spending a lot of time in orthodontist’s offices with the kids. Up until this year, both girls had dental coverage through their mother’s insurance, but it was an HMO situation and the care was pretty poor. Fortunately, the job that Jak got earlier […]