Growing up in a house where one or both parents suffer from a substance abuse disorder can be incredibly challenging. I know this because both of my parents were alcoholics for as long as I can remember. There was uncertainty, shame, embarrassing moments, and isolation my entire childhood. At the time, I did not realize…
Learning how to use money responsibly teaches kids to be responsible in all aspects of life. If they know and understand the value of money, they’ll become responsible adults. If you teach your kids about money early, you develop their confidence and they learn to analyze situations, particularly those that deal with money. Early financial…
One of the most often overlooked parenting challenges is dealing with adult children still living at home with you. It may be that they went out into the world and came back (yo-yo kids) – sometimes with kids or spouses along for the ride. Or maybe they are the “failure to launch” kids who are…
If you have kids, one of the main worries you have is how you’re going to be paying for college for them. College costs have been increasing wildly. So many kids are starting out their lives with huge student loans dragging them down. Or worse, many parents are putting their home or retirement savings at…
I witnessed an intriguing conversation that popped up in my Facebook feed on the topic of abusive adult children living at home. Since I have a newly adult child (my youngest just turned 18), I thought it was time to talk about it. What are we Tolerating from These Adult Children? This woman was…
Pretty typical picture isn’t it? Not just for teen boys, but for everyone. Seems like all of us are spending major amounts of time staring at electronics of all types these days – not just phones, but iPads, computers, video games, and TV’s. It’s to the point where it is getting a little scary. I…
Adrian contacted me this past week and asked if I would be interested in “Guest Blogging” on her wonderful, informative Blog about my college-bound daughter. Yes, yes I would, and I am so honored to be here. After much thought, and just seeing my oldest daughter graduate and walk the stage I thought it would…
I’ll just say it – sometimes trying to teach a teen to clean is like teaching a pig to sing. It wastes your time and annoys the pig! One of the toughest parenting tasks is how to get teens to clean up their messes. Let’s face it; teens are so busy these days –…
College IS the golden key, but there’s also a silver key, a brass key, and an aluminum key.
So, my middle son Matt got married about a month ago. I haven’t posted the pictures from it because it’s taken a while to get the pictures back from the photographer. But it was a lovely day and we were all excited to see them married. Great weather – perfect since it was a rooftop…
These 90 days* same as cash deals can be really good or really bad. Here are some tricks to keep them on the good side of things and save you money. These deferred payment deals can be very effective when used correctly. (*I say 90 days, but many of them are like 6 months or…
Passive aggressive behavior is massively frustrating! I see a lot of it with the people in my life at home and at work. My kids have learned something called Intentional Incompetence, which is basically doing a lousy job on their chores – on purpose. They figure if they do a lousy enough job at their…
I’m a big fan of Dave Ramsey. I bought one of his books on his debt free strategies years ago and it really impressed me. I’ve read lots of similar plans, but this one really got my attention and it seemed like something I could really do, especially the debt snowball plan because at that…