“Working to help parents raise money-smart kids.”
Hello, friends!
I’m coming to you with some timely resources this week.
So let’s get right to this installment of “3 Ideas to Share & Save”!
— 1 —
The Price You Pay for College: My wife and I are in the midst of our second and final college search. We’re working with our younger daughter to find the best academic, social and financial fit.
And though we’ve been through the process once before, the eye-popping annual investment numbers don’t get any more attractive. In fact, despite our saving a good chunk of change in the 529 plan my wife set up when our daughter was born, that account balance doesn’t come close to covering the sticker prices of some of the most costly colleges out there.
One terrific resource I’ve used in both college searches is The Price You Pay for College, a book by New York Times columnist Ron Lieber. Ron even joined me on the podcast for a very valuable conversation when the book came out. We covered a lot of ground, including:
- Understanding why college costs are so high even though many students are paying nowhere near full price 🤑
- Strategies to help parents of preschool kids begin saving for college 💰
- Finding the right fit from transactional to transformational when looking for a college 🏫
You can tune in to our discussion by clicking on Ron’s smiling face below.
For those of you with younger kids, I can offer one key piece of advice: Start your money conversations early. Not necessarily to discuss college, of course, but to set the stage for the eventual college conversation. Because while college offers many wonderful opportunities, like academic discovery, semi-independent living and lasting friendships, it is first and foremost an investment.
As a matter of fact, you may soon discover that the value kids place on schools has less to do with fit and much more to do with peer perception. Colleges are highly sought-after brands, and just like with makes of computers or models of cars, we want to do our best to understand the value we’re getting for the additional money a brand is demanding.
Ultimately, whatever schools our kids select will likely provide them with wonderful opportunities. But college debt can be crushing, so we need to help them help their future selves. We’re obviously never going to know what the “best” choice is, but we’ll be better equipped to make better decisions by establishing that money is a topic we can discuss openly in our homes.
— 2 —
“Clear” Goals: Now that 2023 is here, you’re likely setting goals for yourself or with your kids. And even though my own goal-setting is less calendar-dependent now, I still like to select or reevaluate some goals around this time.
To that end, my favorite goal-setting resource is James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits. In it, Clear suggests focusing on the smallest (atomic) possible habits to become the person you want to be. For example, if you want to exercise regularly, then start by lacing up your running shoes on a daily basis.
And if you want to save more consistently, then start by saving $50 of each paycheck. Or $25. Or $10. Or heck, even $1! Clear’s motto is, “Standardization before optimization.”
Clear’s approach even jives with that of The Art of Allowance. For in the starter allowance, our kids put small amounts of money into their Save, Share and Spend Smart jars from a young age. So we’re teaching them to build habits we hope will last a lifetime.
What’s more, Clear is running a free 30-day course that I believe you could complete in tandem with your kids. You can model goal-setting for them by identifying and discussing your goals all while helping them with theirs.
And incidentally, James Clear is on my “dream podcast guest” list. So if you have any connection to him and can help get him on the podcast to talk about setting money goals with kids, then please let me know. 🙏
— 3 —
Enjoy the Journey: One of my new habits is producing daily meditations on money or money-related subjects. To do so, I start with a relevant quote and then offer a hopefully useful perspective.
I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do with these meditations. And truthfully, I’m not even sure they should be called “meditations.” At any rate, I wanted to share one with you to get your feedback.
January 9th
Enjoy the Journey
“There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart’s desire. The other is to gain it.”
– George Bernard Shaw
We spend so much time thinking about the future. Where we want to go. What we want to have. But what happens when we get where we’re going? When the present becomes the future we imagined. Our new reality is almost always not what we envisioned. Once we have something, it becomes our new baseline.
So what do we do? We begin imagining our future again. This ceaseless circle often keeps us from enjoying what we have now.
To be sure, not achieving one’s goals can be crushing, but getting what we want can be problematic as well. We’re very poor at knowing what will make our future selves fulfilled, and we can be easily disappointed or not as fulfilled as we’d hoped when we achieve what we felt our heart desired.
The tragedy isn’t so much in the getting or the not getting, but in not enjoying the process that got us there.
Enjoy the journey.
Please let me know what you think of this meditation. Would you like to read more of these? Would you like to experience them in another media format? Would you like me to stop bombarding you with questions? 😉
I’m looking forward to your thoughts.
And until next week, thanks for reading!
John, Chief Mammal
P.S. Please consult with a financial or investment professional before engaging in any decisions that might affect your own financial well-being.
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