Finance Gets Personal

Thanks, Money Saving Mom, for passing on this great Father’s Day deal:

If you buy $100 worth of Dockers men’s clothing or accessories (before taxes/discounts) from Sears between now and Sunday, you can mail it in for a $75 Shell gas card. This would be a perfect way to get your Father’s Day shopping done, get some needed dress clothes for the men in your life and save on gas! Click here for details.

Why, a Mustang rental, of course!

I was looking through a friend’s scrapbook last night and there was a picture of a very old man sitting in the seat of a car.  It was her husband’s grandfather, who was turning 100. 

Apparently he’d always wanted a Mustang (he still jokes that someday he’s going to get one), so they rented one and picked him up for his 100th birthday party in it.

“After all, a 100-year-old man doesn’t need more stuff,” my friend said.

I couldn’t agree more!

Photo Credit: 20070106-mustang_gt_cardomain 1.jpg by ZHEPER Studios, used under Creative Commons licensing

Every year at the beginning of May, websites and newspaper ads offer Mother’s Day gift ideas.

These oh-so-helpful lists always include a version of the following list:

• Flowers (or alternately, the hanging basket of flowers - my mom’s Mother’s Day present for 15 consecutive years)
• A spa gift certificate / massage
• An iPod (yes, this is the ideal gift for all occasions - just adjust the color accordingly: pink=Mother’s Day)
• Heart-shaped necklaces, jewelry with the word “MOM” in it and anything with the kids’ birthstones (peridot, turquoise and ruby are going to look great together)
• Perfume (free purse included!)
• Candles
• Chocolate
• Something the kids made (thanks for the…?)

While some of these are tacky lovely ideas, why not consider an “experience” gift?

Here are some ideas that won’t clutter up your mom’s house, and could lead to lasting memories:

• Concert tickets
• A museum membership
• Tickets to a baseball game
• A night at a hotel (whoa, not those kind of memories)
• A cooking or wine-tasting class
• A hot air balloon ride
• Horseback riding
• Theme park admission

Whatever the “experience,” just make sure it is one your mom would enjoy, not just something you’ve been wanting to do. 

Bonus points: An experience that you can do with you mom (mom loves spending time with you!).

(This post was included in the Carnival of Personal Finance, hosted by Money Under 30.)

Tell me if this sounds familiar:

You’re planning on giving your sister a $20 birthday present - probably a DVD that she’s been wanting. You get to the store, and the DVD is on sale for $9.99. “Great,” you think, “Now I can buy her the DVD and a CD.”

Stop right there.

If you want to get out of debt, you need to gift at retail price. This means that if you can find something that’s worth $20, but on sale for $10, you stop shopping and snowflake the newly found $10 to your debt.

The recipient will never know, and you won’t have to feel guilty about cutting your gift budget.

(This post was included in the Festival of Frugality, hosted by Rather be Shopping)

Photo Credit: Closeup of a gift tag by ashleyg, used under Creative Commons licensing

I have a nine-year-old stepson who receives an allowance of $9 every two weeks. Out of his $9, $2 goes to savings and $1 goes to the charity of his choice, leaving him $6. So, from his allowance, he is able to save $52 per year - not bad, but at that rate, he’ll be lucky to cover the cost of textbooks for one semester of college.

If you really want your children to get ahead financially and make saving automatic, you’ve got to set savings rules for their largest source of income: cash they receive from relatives. I would estimate that my stepson probably pulls in an amount equal to his allowance in cash gifts from relatives each year.

A few years ago, we started making him save half of this money. And by “save,” I don’t mean “I’m saving for a Game Boy.” It has to be for a long-term goal, such as buying a car or paying for college. Today, he has $583 in the bank.

It was a difficult transition for him at first, but it’s working better than I had hoped. He now voluntarily saves half of all non-allowance money he receives. When I asked him this morning what he plans to buy with his proceeds from our upcoming garage sale, he replied, “Well, I’m going to save half of it, and buy something with the rest.” I was fully expecting him to say “video games.”

We plan to continue this requirement through high school, and also make him save half of any money he earns from part-time jobs.

What are your thoughts on this? Do you think it will make it easier for him to save a large portion of his income as an adult? Or do you think this will backfire and he’ll turn into a spendthrift once we’re not there to “make” him save?

All I know is that I wish my parents had made me do it.